Christian Bioethics and the Church's Political Worship

Abstract

Christian bioethics springs from the worship that is the response of the Church to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Such worship is distinctively political in nature, in that it acknowledges Christ as Lord. Because it is a political worship, it can recognize no other lords and no other prior claims on its allegiance: these include the claims of an allegedly universal ethics and politics determined from outside the Church. However the Church is called not just to be a contrast society, but also to witness to the freeing of the world from salvific pretensions in order that it may embrace its proper temporality. The implications of this for the distinctiveness of Christian bioethics are brought out in three movements: first, the Church's itself learning how it is to conceive bioethics; second, the Church's role in unmasking the idols of secular bioethics; and third, the Church's witnessing to the freeing of medicine from idolatrous aspirations.

Bioethical Education In The Local Church

“…And just as this discernment is not just a matter for bioethical elite, so it is not limited to an ecclesiastical elite." (Song 2005) Long before there were hospitals and clinics, Christians were involved with caring for the sick in ways not found in the pagan world; reaching out to the outcasts and contagious sick, abandoned infants and lepers; those rejected by society. They saw this as a moral mandate in light of the person of Christ (Verhey 2003).…”

“…The Church is a political society which is defined by its recognition of the reign of God. (Song 2005, 335 emphasis his)…”

“…And just as this discernment is not just a matter for a bioethical elite, so it is not limited to an ecclesiastical elite. (Song 2005, 340-1 emphases mine)…”