"These essays explore the ethical questions surrounding cloning and genetic engineering. The contributors to this volume -- ethicists, theologians and scientists -- discuss and provide in-depth information on impending advances in reproductive technology, including cloning, germ line modifications, stem cell technology, and fetal gene therapy. Arguing from varied and sometimes conflicting viewpoints, each scholar urges careful reflection on the theological and moral convictions concerning the application of these advances". -- back cover.
Contents: The Era of Biological Control / Ronald Cole-Turner -- A Christian Physician at the Crossroads of New Genetic Technologies and the Needs of Patients / Kenneth W. Culver -- Ethics Keeping Pace with Technology / Donald M. Bruce -- Making All Things New ? / Eric B. Beresford -- Religious Perspectives on Human Germ Line Modifications / Audrey R. Chapman -- A Case Against Cloning / Gilbert Meilaender -- Seeking the Significant in the Factual / Nancy J. Duff -- Cloning and Sin : A Niebuhrian Analysis and a Catholic, Liberationist Response / Lisa Sowle Cahill -- Contingency, Tragedy, and the Virtues of Parenting / Sondra Wheeler -- A Parallel to the Care Given the Soul : An Orthodox View of Cloning and Related Technologies / Demetri Demopoulos -- Towards a Theology for the Age of Biotechnology / Ronald Cole-Turner -- Contributors.
OTCH Note: Eric B Beresford, one of the contributors, is a priest and the Consultant for Ethics and Interfaith Relations, Anglican Church of Canada.
"We are approaching the day when advances in biotechnology will allow parents to 'design' a baby with the traits they want. .... [This book] approaches the question in religious terms, discussing human germline modification (the genetic modification of the embryonic cells that become the eggs or sperm of a developing organism) from the viewpoints of traditional Christian and Jewish teaching. .... Many of these scholars argue that religious teaching can support human germline modification implemented for therapeutic reasons, although they offer certain moral conditions that must be met. The essays offer a surprising variety of opinions, including a discussion of Judaism's traditional presumption in favor of medicine, an argument that Catholic doctrine could accept germline modification it is is therapeutic for the embryo, an argument implying that 'traditional' Christian teaching permits germline modification whether for therapy or enhancement, and a 'classical' Protestant view that germline modification should be categorically opposed". -- back cover.
Contents: Series Foreword / Glenn McGee and Arthur Caplan -- Acknowledgements -- Religion and the Question of Human Germline Modification / Ronald Cole-Turner -- Judaism and Germline Modification / Elliot N. Dorff -- The Roman Catholic Magisterium and Genetic Research: An Overview and Evaluation / Thomas A. Shannon -- A Traditional Christian Reflection on Reengineering Human Nature / H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. -- Germline Gene Modification and the Human Condition before God / Nigel M. de S. Cameron and Amy Michelle DeBaets -- Human Germline Therapy: Proper Human Responsibility or Paying God ? / James J. Walter -- Germline Genetics, Human Nature, and Social Ethics / Lisa Sowle Cahill -- Freedom, Conscience, and Virtue: Theological Perspectives on the Ethics of Inherited Genetic Modification / Celia Deane-Drummond -- Religion, Genetics, and the Future / Ronald Cole-Turner -- Suggestions for Further Reading -- Contributors -- Index.
"We are approaching the day when advances in biotechnology will allow parents to 'design' a baby with the traits they want. .... [This book] approaches the question in religious terms, discussing human germline modification (the genetic modification of the embryonic cells that become the eggs or sperm of a developing organism) from the viewpoints of traditional Christian and Jewish teaching. .... Many of these scholars argue that religious teaching can support human germline modification implemented for therapeutic reasons, although they offer certain moral conditions that must be met. The essays offer a surprising variety of opinions, including a discussion of Judaism's traditional presumption in favor of medicine, an argument that Catholic doctrine could accept germline modification it is is therapeutic for the embryo, an argument implying that 'traditional' Christian teaching permits germline modification whether for therapy or enhancement, and a 'classical' Protestant view that germline modification should be categorically opposed". -- back cover.
Contents: Series Foreword / Glenn McGee and Arthur Caplan -- Acknowledgements -- Religion and the Question of Human Germline Modification / Ronald Cole-Turner -- Judaism and Germline Modification / Elliot N. Dorff -- The Roman Catholic Magisterium and Genetic Research: An Overview and Evaluation / Thomas A. Shannon -- A Traditional Christian Reflection on Reengineering Human Nature / H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. -- Germline Gene Modification and the Human Condition before God / Nigel M. de S. Cameron and Amy Michelle DeBaets -- Human Germline Therapy: Proper Human Responsibility or Paying God ? / James J. Walter -- Germline Genetics, Human Nature, and Social Ethics / Lisa Sowle Cahill -- Freedom, Conscience, and Virtue: Theological Perspectives on the Ethics of Inherited Genetic Modification / Celia Deane-Drummond -- Religion, Genetics, and the Future / Ronald Cole-Turner -- Suggestions for Further Reading -- Contributors -- Index.
Includes bibliographical references and bibliography (p. 209-211).
Thirteen chapters by fourteen authors exploring "the place of homosexuals in the community of faith. Each perspective is explored by two writers -- one more traditional, the other challenging tradition" -- back cover.
Contents divided into six main parts: Part 1: Reflecting on Scripture -- Part 2: Reflecting on Tradition -- Part 3: Reflecting on Moral Reasoning -- Part 4: Reflecting on Scientific Reasoning -- Part 5: Reflecting on Experience -- Part 6: Making Decisions.
Contents: Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Contributors -- Introduction: Risking to Listen and to Learn -- Awaiting the Redemption of Our Bodies: The Witness of Scripture Concerning Homosexuality / Richard B. Hays -- The Bible and Homosexuality: Reading the Texts in Context / Victor Paul Furnish -- Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1986) / Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- Homosexuality: A Case Study in Moral Argument / Lisa Sowle Cahill -- Sources for Body Theology: Homosexuality as a Test Case / James B. Nelson -- Homosexuality: The Behavioral Sciences and the Church / Stanton L. Jones and Don E. Workman -- Homosexuality and Biology / Chandler Burr -- Another Option: Christianity and Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality / Joe Dallas -- Overcoming Heterosexism: To Benefit Everyone / Virginia Ramey Mollenkott -- The Love That Dares Not Pray Its Name: The Gay and Lesbian Movement in America's Churches / Chris Glaser -- Sex, Philosophy, and Politics: How and What the Church Must Decide in the Debate over Ordination of Homosexuals / Jack Rogers -- Homosexual Christians. the Bible, and Gentile Inclusion: Confessions of a Repenting Heterosexual / Jeffrey S. Siker -- Appendix: Selected Denominational Statements on Homosexuality: Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Southern Baptist Convention, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church -- Selected Bibliography.
Includes bibliographical references and bibliography (p. 209-211).
Thirteen chapters by fourteen authors exploring "the place of homosexuals in the community of faith. Each perspective is explored by two writers -- one more traditional, the other challenging tradition" -- back cover.
Contents divided into six main parts: Part 1: Reflecting on Scripture -- Part 2: Reflecting on Tradition -- Part 3: Reflecting on Moral Reasoning -- Part 4: Reflecting on Scientific Reasoning -- Part 5: Reflecting on Experience -- Part 6: Making Decisions.
Contents: Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Contributors -- Introduction: Risking to Listen and to Learn -- Awaiting the Redemption of Our Bodies: The Witness of Scripture Concerning Homosexuality / Richard B. Hays -- The Bible and Homosexuality: Reading the Texts in Context / Victor Paul Furnish -- Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1986) / Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- Homosexuality: A Case Study in Moral Argument / Lisa Sowle Cahill -- Sources for Body Theology: Homosexuality as a Test Case / James B. Nelson -- Homosexuality: The Behavioral Sciences and the Church / Stanton L. Jones and Don E. Workman -- Homosexuality and Biology / Chandler Burr -- Another Option: Christianity and Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality / Joe Dallas -- Overcoming Heterosexism: To Benefit Everyone / Virginia Ramey Mollenkott -- The Love That Dares Not Pray Its Name: The Gay and Lesbian Movement in America's Churches / Chris Glaser -- Sex, Philosophy, and Politics: How and What the Church Must Decide in the Debate over Ordination of Homosexuals / Jack Rogers -- Homosexual Christians. the Bible, and Gentile Inclusion: Confessions of a Repenting Heterosexual / Jeffrey S. Siker -- Appendix: Selected Denominational Statements on Homosexuality: Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Southern Baptist Convention, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church -- Selected Bibliography.
Special issue on the subject of Mass media and in particular the Catholic Church and mass media.
"Our readers, advisors and the editors of 'Concilium' have, for years, urged us to devote a special issue of the journal to the topic of mass media. The media are too important culturally and socially to ignore. They shape our perception of reality. The topic of mass media is very large. Our special optic on the theme tries to put together the church and the mass media. We ask ourselves two basic questions: 1. What does the church need to know about the media to negotiate its use and to fulfil its mission of discernment about modern culture ? 2. What contributions can theology or the church make to our understanding and use of the media ? .... In the end, throughout this issue, we try to provide our readers with three important end-products: 1. a better understanding of how the media work technically, how they shape the way we see the world and react to it; 2. attention to a hermeneutics of the media, how we need to 'read' it as a text and learn to negotiate our own meanings by 'talking back to the media'; and 3. the moral and value issues involved in debates about the media. we are interested, in what follows, not just in the content of the media but in the media as a context in which we live". --Editorial.
Contents: Editorial: What the Church Needs to Know about the Mass Media / John A. Coleman and Miklos Tomka -- I: The Media as Cultural and Social Phenomena -- The Sociology of the Media / John A. Coleman -- The Media: Technique and Culture / John M. Staudenmaier -- Democratization and Control of the Media: The Issues and the Debate / Joan Hemels -- Internationalization of the Media / William E. Biernatzki -- Eastern Europe: The Media in Transition -- II: The Church and the Media -- The Electronic Trap: Theological Remarks on Televised Worship / Johann Baptist Metz -- The Church and the Mass Media / Gregory Baum -- Church Documents and the Media / Paul A. Soukap -- How the Churches Deal with the Media / Ottmar Fuchs -- The Bishops and Abortion: A Case Study in Reporting Church News / Michael A. Russo -- Religion Observed: The Impact of the Medium on the Message / Kenneth L. Woodward -- 'Young Man, Come Down from the Pulpit!': The Experiences of a Theologian in Secular Political Journalism / Arnd Henze -- Special Column: Veritatis Splendor / Lisa Sowle Cahill -- Contributors.
Colophon: Typeset at The Spartan Press Ltd, Lymington, Hants. Printed by Mackays of Chatham, Kent.
This book "gathers together recent theological responses to the challenge of the current HIV/AIDS pandemic. It starts from the Theological Workshop organised by UNAIDS in Namibia in December 2003 and uses some of the key participants as primary contacts for locating these responses on an international and ecumenical basis. .... At present some of the most important theological responses to HIV/AIDS are being made in Southern Africa, South America and India -- and are little known or appreciated in the West -- where HIV/AIDS is often considered to be a disease that is now in control. Statistical and epidemiological reports on the HIV/AIDS pandemic are now widely available in the West, but specifically theological responses are not. This book seeks to rectify this situation and position this theological challenge more centrally in Western theological education." -- back cover.
Contents: Acknowledgements dated The Feast of the Transfiguration [i.e. 6 August], 2006 / Robin Gill -- The Contributors -- Introduction -- The Windhoek Report: HIV and AIDS-related stigma: a framework for theological reflection -- The Human and Pastoral Challenges on HIV and AIDS / Robert J. Vitillo -- Theology in a Time of AIDS / Enda McDonagh -- AIDS and Responsibility / Charles Ryan -- The Church, Homosexuality and AIDS / Gareth Moore -- Jesus, Prophecy and AIDS / Musa W. Dube -- AIDS, Leprosy and the Synoptic Jesus / Robin Gill -- AIDS and Theological Education / Denise M. Ackermann -- Evangelicals and AIDS / Stan Nussbaum -- The Yale Divinity School Women's Initiative on AIDS / Margaret A. Farley -- Counselling AIDS Patients: Job as a Paradigm / Gunther H. Wittenberg -- Bioethics, AIDS, Theology and Social Change / Lisa Sowle Cahill -- AIDS Prevention and the Lesser Good / Leonard M. Martin -- AIDS and a Casuistry of Accommodation / James F. Keenan -- Index of Names and Subjects --Index of Bible References.
Chapter 1 is a "Report from UNAIDS International Workshop for Academic Theologians from different Christian traditions, held at Windhoek, Namibia 8-11 December 2003".
Religion and artificial reproduction : an inquiry into the Vatican "Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Human Reproduction"
Contents: Preface -- A Review of Artificial Reproduction -- Sexuality, Marriage, and Parenthood: The Catholic Tradition -- An Overview of the Instruction -- A Comparative Analysis -- The Instruction as Roman Catholic Moral Teaching -- Conclusions -- Appendix: Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation dated 22 February 1987 -- Notes.
"The authors are leading Catholic lay ethicists". -- dust jacket blurb.
"This is the ninth book in the series New Studies in Christian Ethics. It faces some of the most difficult areas within the discipline -- those concerned with sex and gender in modern society". -- General editor's preface, p. xi.
"This book endorses feminist critiques of gender, yet upholds the insight of traditional Christianity that sex, commitment, and parenthood are fulfilling human relations. Their unity is a positive ideal, though not an absolute norm. Women and men should enjoy equal personal respect and social power, which excludes patriarchy". -- p. [i].
"This project is part of the Religion, Culture and Family Project, directed by Don Browning, Alexander Campbell Professor of Ethics and the Social Sciences in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and funded by the Lilly Foundation and the University of Chicago". -- Acknowledgments.
Contents: General editor's preface / Robin Gill -- Acknowledgments -- Sex, gender, and the problem of moral argument -- Feminism and foundations -- Particular experiences, shared goods -- "The body" in context -- An interlude and a proposal -- Sex, gender, and early Christianity -- Sex, marriage, and family in Christian tradition -- The new birth technologies and public moral argument -- Concluding reflections -- Notes -- Index.
"This is the ninth book in the series New Studies in Christian Ethics. It faces some of the most difficult areas within the discipline -- those concerned with sex and gender in modern society". -- General editor's preface, p. xi.
"This book endorses feminist critiques of gender, yet upholds the insight of traditional Christianity that sex, commitment, and parenthood are fulfilling human relations. Their unity is a positive ideal, though not an absolute norm. Women and men should enjoy equal personal respect and social power, which excludes patriarchy". -- p. [i].
"This project is part of the Religion, Culture and Family Project, directed by Don Browning, Alexander Campbell Professor of Ethics and the Social Sciences in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and funded by the Lilly Foundation and the University of Chicago". -- Acknowledgments.
Contents: General editor's preface / Robin Gill -- Acknowledgments -- Sex, gender, and the problem of moral argument -- Feminism and foundations -- Particular experiences, shared goods -- "The body" in context -- An interlude and a proposal -- Sex, gender, and early Christianity -- Sex, marriage, and family in Christian tradition -- The new birth technologies and public moral argument -- Concluding reflections -- Notes -- Index.