This Mortal Flesh , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Brent Waters

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

121 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Although a proper concern for health is compatible with Christian faith, recent and anticipated advances in extending human longevity are often based on philosophical presuppositions and religious values that are adverse to core Christian beliefs and convictions. In this solid text, theologian and ethicist Brent Waters reflects on the formation, practice, and meaning of the Christian moral life in light of selected bioethical issues. Theologically grounding his reflections on the doctrine of the incarnation, Waters considers issues such as biotechnology and physical/cognitive enhancement, reproductive technology, human genetics, embryonic stem cell research, and regenerative medicine. He also examines the "posthuman project," exploring what it means to be human in light of the denial of mortality.

Sujets

Christian theology

Philosophie et théologie

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 septembre 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441210913
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0634€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Cover
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2009 by Brent Waters
Published by Brazos Press
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.brazospress.com
Ebook edition created 2019
Ebook corrections 03.13.2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-1091-3
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
Dedication
To Ronald Cole-Turner
Contents
Cover 1
Half Title Page 2
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Dedication 5
Preface 9
1. How Brave a New World? God, Technology, and Medicine 15
2. A Theological Reflection on Reproductive Medicine 49
3. Are Our Genes Our Fate? Genomics and Christian Theology 61
4. Persons, Neighbors, and Embryos: Some Ethical Reflections on Human Cloning and Stem Cell Research 77
5. Extending Human Life: To What End? 91
6. What Is Christian about Christian Bioethics? 115
7. Revitalizing Medicine: Empowering Natality vs. Fearing Mortality 131
8. The Future of the Human Species 1 49
9. Creation, Creatures, and Creativity: The Word and the Final Word 167
Notes 185
Bibliography 197
Index 203
Back Cover 206
Preface
The purpose of this book is to encourage and assist Christians to reflect on the formation, practice, and meaning of their faith in light of selected bioethical issues. In many respects, medicine or healthcare serves as a surrogate religion within late modern society. Although a concern for health is compatible with Christian belief and practice, recent and anticipated advances, for instance, in extending longevity and enhancing performance are often based on philosophical presuppositions and religious values that are inimical to core Christian convictions. Consequently, the church must have some critical awareness of these presuppositions and values to counter their corrosive influence on the formation and enactment of the Christian moral life. The critical apparatus used throughout the book is to employ and explicate the doctrine of the incarnation in examining a range of selected bioethical issues. Each chapter represents an exploration into what it means to take mortal and finite bodies seriously, since they have been affirmed, vindicated, and redeemed by God in Christ, the Word made flesh, particularly in light of current attempts to overcome the limits of finitude and mortality. In attempting to overcome these limits is medicine unwittingly initiating a new age of Manichean disdain for the body, Gnostic search for immortality, and Pelagian quest for perfection? In addressing this question, the tone of this inquiry is neither prescriptive nor imperative, but interrogative, encouraging the reader to pursue further study and reflection.
The first chapter focuses on the convergence of biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, and medicine in developing various physical and cognitive enhancements. These enhancements are needed to augment individual autonomy and mobility as the premier late modern values. Moreover, the underlying premise for such enhancement is that humans should use technology to make themselves better than human in order to develop and take advantage of their full potential. Although these enhancements purportedly offer longer, healthier, and happier lives, I argue that they represent an implicit loathing of the body, and, more importantly, the finitude and mortality it represents. In response, I contend that such loathing is unwarranted, for it is as mortal and finite creatures that God in Christ affirms, vindicates, and redeems human beings.
The following chapter initiates a series of investigations of specific issues that cumulatively disclose healthcare as the salvific religion of late modernity, and medicine as the principal means of achieving its proffered salvation. Chapter 2 concentrates on reproductive technology. It begins by examining the problems of infertility in the Old Testament, and contending that the problem at issue there is not identical to what is portrayed as its late modern counterpart that can be rectified through recourse to various reproductive technologies. In reaction to the claim that autonomous persons have the right to pursue their respective reproductive interests, utilizing whatever collaborative and technological assistance might be required, I argue that Christians should think about the vocation of parenthood in respect to their witness of offering hospitality to children instead of correcting the “problem” of infertility.
Chapter 3 examines recent developments in human genetics and their promising medical applications. Although these developments are admittedly beneficial, the popular perception of genes determining an individual’s fate should be resisted, to avoid the prospect of genetics becoming the new astrology. In countering genetic fatalism, I examine the relation between Christ and destiny and how it might be applied to the relation between genetics and medicine.
The next chapter visits the highly controversial issue of human embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning. It is argued that the current debates over the personhood of embryos are not productive, since they cannot relieve the current political gridlock over the moral status of the human embryo. As an alternative for public moral debate, I propose that embryos should be regarded as neighbors. Subsequently, I discuss selected ethical implications and suggest public policy guidelines governing research and the role Christians might play in their formulation.
Chapter 5 assesses current and anticipated developments in regenerative medicine. The principal argument is that this revolutionary movement in healthcare is premised on the portrayal of aging as a disease that can and should be treated aggressively. If aging is a disease that can be treated, however, then it can also presumably be cured, a presumption that is tantamount to waging a war against mortality. Winning this war, however, effectively requires humans to aspire to become posthuman. In response, I argue that such an endeavor is futile, since it is based on a corrupt portrayal of Christian eschatology in which immortality is achieved by rendering death mute. In contrast, Christians allow death to speak but do not grant it the final word, since they are resurrected into the eternal life of the Triune God. The following chapter builds upon this inquiry by claiming that regenerative medicine and, more broadly, the posthuman project are based on the misleading assumption that the human condition can best be relieved by using technology to transform mortal flesh into immortal data. In contrast, I contend that genuine hope is grounded in the incarnation in which the Word was made flesh.
Chapter 7 asserts that the posthuman project generally and medical attempts to radically extend longevity in particular stem from the unreasonable presupposition that death is unfair and irrational. Following Hannah Arendt, natality and mortality are the principal brackets that delineate and define the human condition. Late modernity’s fixation on the latter to the detriment of the former distorts social and political ordering by asserting the tyrannical control of the present generation over both past and future counterparts. Such tyranny is in play in posthuman rhetoric in its advocacy of technologies that are designed to extend personal survival for as long as possible (perhaps forever). In contrast, Christians consent to their mortality, which enables them to be self-giving to future generations. This more just intergenerational relationship is suggested by the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The following chapter continues this inquiry by criticizing the posthuman project as a combination of nihilism and Pelagianism, the will to power combined with a desire for perfection, however ill conceived such a notion might prove to be. In this respect, posthumanism is a classic example of St. Augustine’s understanding of sin as disordered desire. In response, I maintain that properly ordered desire rests in aligning the human will with God’s will, however imperfectly it is perceived and practiced, and that perfection lies in eternal fellowship with the Triune God as an eschatological promise that is received as a gift of grace rather than attained through the technological transformation of the human species.
The final chapter examines the ultimate late modern hope of achieving immortality by transforming human identity into data that can be stored and downloaded into robotic or virtual reality hosts. I argue that this hope stems from the prevalent, but mistaken, late modern belief that information is superior to narration, that the image has supplanted the word. This supplanting is problematic for Christian faith, since the gospel is a narration of God’s judgment and grace rather than the conveyance and manipulation of divine information. Consequently, Christians need to recover the centrality of the Word, that their lives, as mortal and finite creatures, may be conformed to Christ.
The book consists of material that has been published previously and lectures delivered over the past few years. Much of the material has been substantially edited to update pertinent information and to avoid redundancies, although some key arguments or de