Gilbert Meilaender

Last updated
Gilbert Meilaender
Born (1946-01-31) January 31, 1946 (age 78)
Education
Concordia Seminary (MDiv 1972)

Princeton University (PhD 1976)

Notable workBioethics: A Primer for Christians
Theological work
Main interests Bioethics

Gilbert Meilaender (born January 31, 1946) is an American Lutheran bioethicist and theologian. He is Senior Research Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University, and served on the President's Council on Bioethics from its founding in 2002 until its dissolution in 2009. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life and teaching career

Meilaender was born on January 31, 1946. His father was a Lutheran pastor, and Meilaender followed in his footsteps to also become a Lutheran pastor. He received his B.A. from Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and went on to receive his Master of Divinity in 1972 from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. Meilaender earned his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1976, where he studied under prominent Christian ethicist Paul Ramsey. [1] [2]

Meilaender taught at the University of Virginia from 1975 to 1978 and at Oberlin College from 1978 to 1996. He held the Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University from 1996 to 2014. As of 2020, he is Senior Research Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University. He has also served as a Fellow of the Hastings Center and as Paul Ramsey Fellow at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. [2]

Work in ethics

Meilaender has been called “one of Lutheranism’s brightest lights in the field of bioethics” [3] and “one of the most important Christian ethicists of his generation.” [1] In 2015, Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions cosponsored a conference with the Berkeley Institute to celebrate the Meilaender's work, describing him as "one of the leading ethicists of our time" and highlighting his contributions to the study of bioethics, human dignity, justice, and the place of religion in the public sphere. [4] Papers from the conference were collected and published in Studies in Christian Ethics's May 2017 issue, which was dedicated to discussing Meilaender's thought. The journal, in assessing Meilaender's influence on ethics and theology, stated that “for over three decades, the work of Gilbert Meilaender has been at the center of American theological and moral discussion,” both in shaping the field of bioethics during its emergence and in influencing public policy on controverted issues. [5]

Meilaender has served as an associate editor of Religious Studies Review , an associate editor of the Journal of Religious Ethics, and as a consultant editor of Studies in Christian Ethics. He also served on the board of directors of the Society of Christian Ethics. [2] He has also had a decades-long relationship with First Things , which he has served both as a writer and on the editorial advisory board. [6] He has also served as a contributing editor for The New Atlantis . [7]

One of his many books, Bioethics: A Primer for Christians, is recognized as a "short but influential" introduction to the field for general readers. [8] World declared it one of the best hundred books of the twentieth century, [9] and Christianity Today included it in a list of the top five books on life ethics. [10] First published in 1996, Bioethics: A Primer for Christians received its fourth edition in 2020, having been updated to keep pace with recent biomedical developments. Asked why he thought the book had such “staying power as a text,” Meilaender suggested its narrow focus on “questions that have been of central importance in bioethics and that almost everyone sooner or later has to think about” might be one reason. [11] Subjects addressed in the book include assisted reproduction, abortion, prenatal screening, gene editing, suicide and euthanasia, and organ donation, among others.

Meilaender also served as coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics, which discusses the field of ethics within a Christian framework. [12]

Works

Author

Editor

Related Research Articles

Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health, including those emerging from advances in biology, medicine, and technologies. It proposes the discussion about moral discernment in society and it is often related to medical policy and practice, but also to broader questions as environment, well-being and public health. Bioethics is concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, theology and philosophy. It includes the study of values relating to primary care, other branches of medicine, ethical education in science, animal, and environmental ethics, and public health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Wolterstorff</span> American philosopher

Nicholas Paul Wolterstorff is an American philosopher and theologian. He is currently Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale University. A prolific writer with wide-ranging philosophical and theological interests, he has written books on aesthetics, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, metaphysics, and philosophy of education. In Faith and Rationality, Wolterstorff, Alvin Plantinga, and William Alston developed and expanded upon a view of religious epistemology that has come to be known as Reformed epistemology. He also helped to establish the journal Faith and Philosophy and the Society of Christian Philosophers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Hauerwas</span> American theologian

Stanley Martin Hauerwas is an American theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual. Hauerwas originally taught at the University of Notre Dame before moving to Duke University. Hauerwas was a longtime professor at Duke, serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School with a joint appointment at the Duke University School of Law. In the fall of 2014, he also assumed a chair in theological ethics at the University of Aberdeen. Hauerwas is considered by many to be one of the world's most influential living theologians and was named "America's Best Theologian" by Time magazine in 2001. He was also the first American theologian to deliver the prestigious Gifford Lectures at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in over forty years. His work is frequently read and debated by scholars in fields outside of religion or ethics, such as political philosophy, sociology, history, and literary theory. Hauerwas has achieved notability outside of academia as a public intellectual, even appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Marva J. Dawn was an American Christian theologian, author, musician, preacher, and educator. She was associated with the parachurch organization Christians Equipped for Ministry in Vancouver, Washington where she taught Christians around the globe. She also served as a Teaching Fellow in Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. Dawn was generally perceived as a Lutheran evangelical. She often wrote in a paleo-orthodox style, stressing the importance of Christian tradition and the wisdom of the Church through the centuries.

John Edmund Hare is a British classicist, philosopher, ethicist, and currently the Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale University.

Janet Elizabeth Smith is an American classicist and philosopher, and former professor of moral theology at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan.

Max Lynn Stackhouse was the Rimmer and Ruth de Vries Professor of Reformed Theology and Public Life Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was ordained in the United Church of Christ and was the president of the Berkshire Institute for Theology and the Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver O'Donovan</span> British Anglican priest and academic

Oliver Michael Timothy O'Donovan is a British Anglican priest and academic, known for his work in the field of Christian ethics. He has also made contributions to political theology, both contemporary and historical. He was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford from 1982 to 2006, and Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh from 2006 to 2013.

Catholic moral theology is a major category of doctrine in the Catholic Church, equivalent to a religious ethics. Moral theology encompasses Catholic social teaching, Catholic medical ethics, sexual ethics, and various doctrines on individual moral virtue and moral theory. It can be distinguished as dealing with "how one is to act", in contrast to dogmatic theology which proposes "what one is to believe".

Gabriel Joseph Fackre (1926–2018) was an American theologian and Abbot Professor of Christian Theology Emeritus at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts. He was on the school's faculty for 25 years before retiring in 1996. Previous to that he was Professor of Theology and Culture at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, teaching there from 1961 through 1970. Fackre has also served as visiting professor or held lectureships at 40 universities, colleges, and seminaries. His papers are housed in Special Collections at Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries, Princeton, New Jersey.

Lisa Sowle Cahill is an American ethicist, and J. Donald Monan Professor at Boston College. She first became known in the 1980s with her studies on gender and sexual ethics, but now she has extended her work to social and global ethics. Lisa Sowle Cahill's work focuses on an attempt to discuss the complexity of moral issues while lowering tensions about theological disagreements between the Church and society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James F. Keenan</span> Jesuit and moral theologian

James F. Keenan is a moral theologian, bioethicist, writer, and the Canisius Professor of theology at Boston College.

Hilde Lindemann is an American philosophy professor and bioethicist and emerita professor at Michigan State University. Lindemann earned her B.A. in German language and literature in 1969 at the University of Georgia. Lindemann also earned her M.A. in theatre history and dramatic literature, in 1972, at the University of Georgia. Lindemann began her career as a copyeditor for several universities. She then moved on to a job at the Hastings Center in New York City, an institute focused on bioethics research, and co-authored book The Patient in the Family, with James Lindemann Nelson, before deciding to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy at Fordham University in 2000. Previously, she taught at the University of Tennessee and Vassar College and served as the associate editor of the Hastings Center Report (1990–95). Lindemann usually teaches courses on feminist philosophy, identity and agency, naturalized bioethics, and narrative approaches to bioethics at Michigan State University.

William A. Dyrness is an American theologian and professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. He teaches courses in theology, culture, and the arts, and is a founding member of the Brehm Center.

Celia Deane-Drummond is director of the Laudato Si’ Research Institute and senior research fellow in theology at Campion Hall, University of Oxford. She is also honorary visiting professor in theology and science at the University of Durham, UK and was professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame from 2011 to 2019. She teaches systematic theology in relation to biological science - especially evolution, ecology, genetics; bioethics - especially sustainability, ecotheology, and public theology.

Jeffrey Paul Bishop is a philosopher, bioethicist, author and the Tenet Endowed Chair of Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University. The director of the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics, he is most widely recognized and cited for work in medical ethics as relating to death and dying in addition to contributions in the field of medical humanities. Bishop is a physician, holds a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Dallas and serves on the editorial boards of both the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy and the Journal of Christian Bioethics for Oxford University Press.

William T. Cavanaugh is an American Catholic theologian known for his work in political theology and Christian ethics.

Mark Allen McIntosh was an American Episcopal priest and theologian. He specialized in systematic theology, historical theology, and the history of Christian spirituality, engaging especially with Christian mysticism. From 2014 until his death, he was Professor of Christian Spirituality at Loyola University Chicago. He was previously, from 2009 to 2014, the Van Mildert Professor of Divinity at Durham University and a Canon Residentiary of Durham Cathedral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Kilner</span>

John F. Kilner is a bioethicist who held the Franklin and Dorothy Forman endowed chair in ethics and theology at Trinity International University, where he was also Professor of Bioethics and Contemporary Culture and Director of Bioethics Degree Programs. He is a Senior Fellow at The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity (CBHD) in Deerfield, Illinois, where he served as Founding Director until Fall 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Mawson</span> Pākehā theologian and ethicist

Michael Mawson is the Maclaurin Goodfellow Associate Professor of Theological and Religious Studies at University of Auckland, a post that has previously been held by Elaine Wainwright and Joseph Bulbulia. He is an international expert on the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and has published widely in the area of Christian Ethics.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lauritzen, Paul (May 17, 2010). "Intellectual Street Fighter: Gilbert Meilaender's Ethics of the Everyday". Commonweal . Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Faculty Biography: Gilbert Meilaender". Valparaiso University. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  3. ↑ Shahan, Michael (November 1, 2005). "Review of Gilbert Meilaender's Bioethics: A Primer for Christians". Journal of Lutheran Ethics. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Politics, Theology, and the Limits of Ethics". James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. April 10, 2015. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  5. ↑ Rose, Matthew (April 18, 2017). "Introduction to Gilbert Meilaender Symposium". Studies in Christian Ethics. 30 (2): 131–132. doi: 10.1177/0953946816684074 . S2CID   152270518 . Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  6. ↑ "Author: Gilbert Meilaender". First Things . Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Contributing Editor: Gilbert Meilaender". The New Atlantis . Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  8. ↑ Wells, Samuel (2010). Christian Ethics: An Introductory Reader. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 293.
  9. ↑ Olasky, Marvin (December 4, 1999). "The century's top 100 books". World . Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  10. ↑ Cunningham, Paige C. (November 12, 2009). "My Top 5 Books on Life Ethics". Christianity Today . Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  11. ↑ Camry, Charles S. (18 July 2020). "Bioethicist: Christians must make argument for 'particular moral vision'". Crux . Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  12. ↑ Meilaender, Gilbert; Werpehowski, William (2005). The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics. Oxford University Press.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.