Bioethics and Theology: A Pastoral Perspective
Nathan Carlin, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Texas Medical School
This talk offers a work-in-progress—specifically, material for a monograph (under contract with Oxford University Press) on theology and bioethics that makes the case for including pastoral theology in bioethics. Many have noted that bioethics, while to some extent launched by pastors and theologians, became, as Daniel Callahan put it in The Hastings Center Report, “secularized.” In recent years, however, there has been a renewed interest in religion and medicine, and so the question of the role of theology in bioethics regains new relevance. In the early decades of bioethics, the theological contributions to bioethics came from theological ethicists and systematic theologians, not pastoral theologians. Pastoral theologians can offer new inquiry in bioethics that is (1) theologically-informed; (2) psychologically-sophisticated; (3) therapeutically-oriented; and (4) experientially-grounded. Because the sources of moral wisdom for theological ethicists tend not to be drawn from the human sciences, a problem with some theological contributions to bioethics is that these writings, while theologically-informed, are not experientially-grounded. Likewise, bioethicists tend to draw from philosophy and not psychology; thus, a problem with contemporary writing in bioethics is that this writing, while sometimes experientially-grounded, is neither psychologically-sophisticated nor therapeutically-oriented. This talk will offer examples of these problems, as well as potential solutions. The presenter would appreciate very much feedback from the audience, so as to improve the book project.
This talk offers a work-in-progress—specifically, material for a monograph (under contract with Oxford University Press) on theology and bioethics that makes the case for including pastoral theology in bioethics. Many have noted that bioethics, while to some extent launched by pastors and theologians, became, as Daniel Callahan put it in The Hastings Center Report, “secularized.” In recent years, however, there has been a renewed interest in religion and medicine, and so the question of the role of theology in bioethics regains new relevance. In the early decades of bioethics, the theological contributions to bioethics came from theological ethicists and systematic theologians, not pastoral theologians. Pastoral theologians can offer new inquiry in bioethics that is (1) theologically-informed; (2) psychologically-sophisticated; (3) therapeutically-oriented; and (4) experientially-grounded. Because the sources of moral wisdom for theological ethicists tend not to be drawn from the human sciences, a problem with some theological contributions to bioethics is that these writings, while theologically-informed, are not experientially-grounded. Likewise, bioethicists tend to draw from philosophy and not psychology; thus, a problem with contemporary writing in bioethics is that this writing, while sometimes experientially-grounded, is neither psychologically-sophisticated nor therapeutically-oriented. This talk will offer examples of these problems, as well as potential solutions. The presenter would appreciate very much feedback from the audience, so as to improve the book project.