What is Christian about Christian bioethics?

What is Christian about Christian bioethics? The short answer to this question is that the Incarnation should shape the form and content of Christian bioethics. In explicating this answer it is argued that contemporary medicine is unwittingly embracing and implementing the transhumanist dream of transforming humans into posthumans. Contemporary medicine does not admit that there are any limits in principle to the extent to which it should intervene to improve the quality of human life. This largely inarticulate, yet ambitious, agenda is derived first in late modernity's failed, but nonetheless ongoing, attempt to transform necessity into goodness, and second the loss of any viable concept of eternity, thereby stripping temporal existence of any normative significance. In short, medicine has become the vanguard of a profane attempt to save humankind by extracting data from flesh. In response, it is contended that an alternative Christian bioethics must be shaped by the Incarnation, the Word made flesh. This assertion does not entitle Christians to oppose the posthuman trajectory of contemporary medicine on the basis of any natural or biological essentialism. Rather, it is an evangelical witness to the grace of Christ's redemption instead of the work of self-transformation. It is Christ alone who thereby makes the vulnerability and mortality of finitude a gift and blessing. Specifically, it is maintained that the chasm separating necessity and goodness cannot be filled but only bridged through the suffering entailed in Christ's cross, and through Christ's resurrection eternity becomes the standard against which the temporal lives of human creatures are properly formed and measured. Consequently, Christian bioethics should help us become conformed to Christ rather than enabling self-transformation.     

SYNCRETISM OR CORRELATION: TEILHARD AND TILLICH'S CONTRASTING METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY

Abstract. I revisit Paul Tillich's theological methodology and contrast his practice of correlation with the syncretistic methodological practices of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I argue that the method of correlation, as referred to in Robert John Russell's 2001 Zygon article, fails to uphold Tillich's self‐limitation of his own methodology with regard to Tillich's insistence upon the theological circle. I assert that the theological circle, as taken from Tillich's Systematic Theology I, is a central facet within his methodology and that this often‐ignored concept needs to be resuscitated if one is to remain authentically Tillichian in one's approach to the science‐and‐theology dialogue.     

Εὐφραινέσθωσαν οἱ οὐρανοί, ‘Let the heavens rejoice’: an Anglican reflection on the 2014 Agreed Statement on Christology between the Anglican Communion and the Oriental Orthodox Churches

After acknowledging the importance of the Anglican–Oriental Orthodox Agreed Statement on Christology (2014) and explaining the perspective of this article, the rationale of Christology as confession and interpretation is explained and explored: its development of the fundamental theme of Christ the eternal Son, by his double solidarity in incarnation with humanity and Godhead relating and re-bonding Godhead and humanity. This theme, inherent in Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah, is essentially repeated by Paul and continuously interpreted in the Church’s unfolding self-understanding. Criticism of this process is mentioned and briefly countered. The continuity of the theme in the debates of the fourth and fifth centuries, its basis in principles of human relevance and divine commitment and its adequate expression in the Statement are indicated and affirmed. The prudent silence of the Agreement on technical refinements and definitions of Councils is noted. Finally, brief suggestions are offered in explanation of the continuance of the issue in ancient times and reflections on its relevance to modern Christology.     

Luther and the Eucharistic Controversy

Luther wrote That These Words of Christ … Still Stand Firm to teach people what they should believe about the Lord's Supper and to refute the arguments of his opponents. Luther saw the devil as responsible for the rejection of Christ's substantial presence in the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper. The disagreement concerning the eucharist rested on the opposing exegesis of key Scripture texts and had implications for Christology and the understanding of the relationship between theology, science, and human reason. Luther believed that his opponents taught a heretical position that endangered people's souls, and so their ideas could not be tolerated.     

Nothing Less than Everything: Thoughts on a Sittler Legacy

Universtiy of Chicago theologian Joseph Sittler has left a most valuable legacy. He was a “preacher's theologian.” He distinguished between a literal reading of the Bible from faith in the God of the Bible. He pioneered the interaction between Christology and ecology. Sittler was a pioneer, worthy of being remembered two decades after his death.     

LETTING REALITY BECOME REAL: On Mystery and Reality in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics

In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics the notion of reality plays a central role. The present article focuses on the ethical implications of the Chalcedonian Christology underlying this concept. This approach is tied to the debate on the relationship between the universal and specific identity of Christian social ethics in public discourse. In the opening section the article outlines the pertinence of this debate with regard to Bonhoeffer's Christological ethic. In the following section the article analyzes Bonhoeffer's concept of reality and the implied Chalcedonian traits. With this foundation established the article raises the question about its social ethical implications. The final part of the article argues that Bonhoeffer's ethics and ecclesiology cannot be separated from each other, explaining why Bonhoeffer's notion of reality leads to an assertion of the church's role in letting reality become real. In the light of Bonhoeffer's notion of reality the last section argues for the reconciliation of Christian witness and participation in public discourse.     

EVOLUTION,CONTINGENCY, AND CHRISTOLOGY

Christopher Southgate has made important contributions to theodicy and the theory of divine action in light of the contingency in evolution and the suffering of creation. What happens then when one thinks through the implications of contingency for Christology? One can admit that aesthetic and moral judgments are products of a contingent history and yet affirm that they really are valid. Similarly, we argue, one can acknowledge the contingency of Jesus’ existence, actions, and subsequent impact and still maintain that his will was uniquely united with the divine will. Following a critical engagement with the recent work of Keith Ward, we argue that a high Christology is compatible with the actual contingencies of evolutionary and social history, without the necessity of interventionist divine action.     

“THE GOD WITH CLAY”: THE IDEA OF DEEP INCARNATION AND THE INFORMATIONAL UNIVERSE

This article explores the relations between the idea of deep incarnation and scientific ideas of an informational universe, in which mass, energy, and information belong together. It is argued that the cosmic Christologies developed in the vein of Cappadocian theology (fourth century) and the Franciscan theologian Bonaventure (thirteenth century) can be interpreted as precursors of an informational worldview by consistently blending “formative” and “material” aspects of creativity. Reversely, contemporary sciences of information can enlarge the scope of the contemporary view of deep incarnation. I propose three hypotheses for showing how and why. First, mass, energy, and information have an equal causal importance for explaining reality. Second, just as transformation presupposes communication, so communication presupposes information. Third, contemporary science can elucidate seminal concerns of the idea of deep incarnation, insofar as informational structures pave the way for information capture, communication, and transformation. At the level of organismic life, new features of embodied cognition and emotion come up, important for understanding the organismic depth of the concrete incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth.     

The Christified Universe and the Vanquished Creatures: The Perspectives of Ilia Delio and Elizabeth A. Johnson

This article is a study of Christology in which Christ, the center of cosmos, is on the side of creatures in pain. I examine the argument of Jesuit paleontologist and mystic Teilhard de Chardin that the whole universe is in the process of Christification. With Ilia Delio and Elizabeth A. Johnson, I contend that Christ takes the side of suffering creatures going extinct just like Christ opts for the people on the margins of power. First, I sketch a background in which natural evil must be placed within an evolutionary framework. Second, in highlighting Delio's and Johnson's views, I ask, where is Christ in evolution? Finally, I revisit christological notions implied in Colossians 1 and John 1.     

Plurality of Self: Buddhist Anthropology and the Two Natures of Christ

The union of divine and human in Jesus Christ was codified at the Council of Chalcedon. However, while this position makes good theological sense, in terms of soteriology, it remains a conceptual problem. How do two distinct entities combine into a single entity without the loss of their respective distinctiveness? This article recommends a move from a Greek metaphysic of “substance” to a Buddhist understanding of selfhood as emptiness. By understanding the self as an interweaving of multiple energies, rather than a fixed substance, Chalcedonian Christology can retain its soteriological integrity with a more helpful conceptual understanding of how two may become one.