The Emptiness of Postmodern, Post-Christian Bioethics: An Engelhardtian Reevaluation of the Status of the Field
In this essay, I argue that Western bioethics is after God. There has been a nearly wholesale rejection of traditionally religious, especially Christian, accounts of moral obligations. A rationalism has been embraced that seeks to produce a morality justified through discursive human reason. Faith i...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2014
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| In: |
Christian bioethics
Year: 2014, Volume: 20, Issue: 2, Pages: 168-186 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | In this essay, I argue that Western bioethics is after God. There has been a nearly wholesale rejection of traditionally religious, especially Christian, accounts of moral obligations. A rationalism has been embraced that seeks to produce a morality justified through discursive human reason. Faith in moral philosophy has taken the place of God. Even among many purportedly Christian scholars, philosophical analysis has come to be seen as more important for bioethics than a mystical encounter with the living God. Such scholarship, however, is shortsighted. It fails to take seriously God’s real presence in the world. Christian bioethics, I argue, must challenge the substance and content of secular bioethics. It must underscore core differences between Orthodox and heterodox, between Christian and non-Christian, while providing forthrightly traditional Christian guidance for the practice of medicine. In short, Christian bioethics must be openly framed within the theological commitments of Orthodox Christianity so as to provide proper orientation toward God. |
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| ISSN: | 1744-4195 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Christian bioethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/cb/cbu013 |