Soul of the Embryo: Christianity and the Human Embryo

Description

A radical examination of the Christian tradition relating to the human embryo and how this relates to the debate today. In recent years, the moral status of the human embryo has come to the fore as a vital issue for a range of contemporary ethical debates: concerning the over-production, freezing and discarding of embryos in IVF; concerning the use of 'spare' embryos for scientific experimentation; and finally, concerning the prospect of producing clone embryos. These debates have involved not only general philosophical arguments, but also specifically religious arguments. Many participants have attempted to find precedent from the Christian tradition for the positions they wish to defend.It is therefore extraordinary that until The Soul of the Embryo there has been no significant work on the history of Christian reflection on the human embryo. Here, David Albert Jones seeks to tell the story of this unfolding tradition - a story that encompasses many different medical, moral, philosophical and theological themes. He starts by examining the understanding of the embryo in the Hebrew Scritpures, then moves through early Christianity and the Middle Ages to the Reformation and beyond. Finally, Albert Jones considers the application of this developed tradition to contemporary situation and questions which contemporary Christian view or views are best regarded as authentic developments of the tradition and which should be regarded as alien to the tradition.

David Albert Jones is Director of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Oxford, and Visiting Professor of Bioethics at St Mary's University College, London, UK.

"...a fascinating historical study of what people have thought, from the earliest biblical times, about the human soul before birth". -- The Daily Telegraph "The book presents a scholarly yet accessible interdisciplinary analysis of the tradition of the Christian thinking on the status of the embryo, and a careful, powerful and fair theological and philosophical case against the destruction of the human embryo from conception. It is to be highly recommended." -Tablet, John Keown, 5th February 2005 'Archbishop Rowan Williams describes the book as 'a valuable contribution to a mist important debate'. Quite so. It is to be highly recommended.' - Adapted from a Tablet review by John Keown, Rose Kennedy Professor of Christian Ethics at Georgetown University, in Triple Helix 'In providing a systematic historical account of Christian and other approaches to the embryo, David Jones offers some fascinating material for reflection.' '...this book provides valuable material for a principled rather than merely pragmatic reflection on our attitude to this most vulnerable phase of life.' -- Andrew Fox, Epworth Review, April 2006 'The scope of his work is impressive and the topic extraordinarily significant, He deals carefully with a wide variety of primary sources, and he reflects insightfully on these sources and their theological and ethical implications...[an] important book.'~ Michael J. Gorman, Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol 19, No. 1 "David Jones (Professor of Bioethics, St Mary's College, Twickenham) has provided a scholarly and insightful contribution to this field, with its complex intersection of theology, philosophy, ethics, jurisprudence and science." - Reformed Theological Review 'A scholarly contribution to the history, background and detail of the human embryo in medical, theological and moral terms. It deserves to be studied both in itself and in the important reminder of our essential human being, where we come from, what we are and what significance we have and share in this world and in eternity' -- E David Cook * Theology *