Book Briefs: June 17, 1977

What Kind Of Life?

The Dignity of Life, by Charles J. McFadden (Our Sunday Visitor, 1976, 296 pp., $8.50), Medicine and Christian Morality, by Thomas J. O’Donnell (Alba, 1976, 329 pp., $7.95), Science, Ethics, and Medicine, edited by H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., and Daniel Callahan (Hastings Center [360 Broadway, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. 10706], 1976, 278 pp., $4.95 pb), and Genetics and the Law, edited by Aubrey Milunsky and George J. Annas (Plenum, 1976, 532 pp., $22.50), are reviewed by Robert A. Case II, associate in ministry, McLean Presbyterian Church, McLean, Virginia.

Do medical science and metaphysics come together as adversaries or companions? As research pushes the frontiers of medical knowledge and ability farther and farther beyond the traditional limits, the question of ethics looms larger and larger. There is a direct correlation between scientific advances and ethical confusion. And no group is more confused when it comes to bioethics than evangelicals. The Bible simply does not talk about cloning or test-tube fertilization or eugenics or psychosurgery. There are principles in Scripture to show us the way in areas like these, but it is a lot easier to discuss the options in dealing with the economically deprived than with the biologically deprived.

Four recent books are attempts to show us the way to final solutions in these difficult areas, but none really succeeds. Two are by Roman Catholic moral theologians and two are collections of essays by non-theologians.

Both Charles McFadden and Thomas O’Donnell write from the traditional Roman Catholic position. Both look to the Holy See and Canon Law to steer them through the tricky shoals of bioethics. As Roman Catholic moralists, they are convinced that reasoning according to Thomistic natural law will see them through. While we evangelicals are more persuaded by divine law (teachings of Jesus) than natural law, we must admit, in the absence of evangelical biblical scholarship in these areas, that this reliance on the reasoning of rational creatures committed to the Christian tradition is better than nothing. O’Donnell and McFadden give us chapter after chapter of case-by-case applications of general ethical principles in the area of medical ethics. While these chapters tend to become tedious, they nevertheless provide something of a reference tool for the neophyte and a guide to some of the best conservative Catholic opinion about the life sciences.

Both authors attempt to deal with a paradox of Christianity that has been brought to the fore by the acceleration of medical progress: We Christians affirm life with great vigor because it is sacred, and we oppose whatever endangers life (i.e., disease, hunger, war); at the same time we are not afraid to affirm death because of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. From within this paradoxical faith these Thomists attempt to deal with the frightening irony that medical science can now fight so effectively for life that society is beginning to use that same technology to encourage people to cease their resistance to death. Regrettably, these warrior theologians are not armed with the “Word of life,” and so their answers fall short of being totally convincing to an evangelical mind.

Turning to the two collections of essays, one quickly finds that they are not for the beginner; both presuppose a knowledge of vocabulary and background and an understanding of the basic issues. The Hastings volume is the first in a series of four on ethics and science. It reflects the fact that there is no moral consensus among those engaged in bioethics. As the editors point out, “That moral philosophy has been in disarray for some decades is a proposition with which few will argue.” Clearly, the ethical system holding the field at present is contextual in foundation, but it breaks under the burden of trying to come up with answers when every situation is (by definition) “borderline.”

The nine essays in this collection range in subject from “Are Science and Ethics Compatible?” to “Toward a Theory of Medical Fallibility.” In the course of them, opposing propositions are argued (e.g., science is value-free, science is value-laden; medical ethics is derivative of other ethical systems, medical ethics is orginative). As one reads the essays, it becomes apparent that the confusion in bioethics stems in part from a defective epistemology and a failure to distinguish universal principles from particular applications. Once again we see that ethics without God is not satisfactory ethics.

The genetics volume is more esoteric than the Hastings collection. It is clearly aimed at the person who is seriously involved in genetics or the life sciences. This group of writings is more unified in its thrust, since it deals primarily not with ethics but with the present state of genetic research and how that research is transferred into public policy. Obviously this involves ethics, but for the most part the discussion deals with the practical decision-making process (mechanics) rather than with the origins, nature, and validity of ethical systems (universal presuppositions). Therefore, there is very little here about which one can constructively argue. The authors (forty-four scientists, physicians, and lawyers—no theologians) deal with such topics as the rights of the fetus, human experimentation, eugenics, cloning, and artificial insemination. After some of the essays there are round-robin discussions that make it apparent that a consensus among secularists cannot be found.

My recommendation concerning these books is this: If you are beginning your study of bioethics, forget them all. If you have done some reading in the field, you might profit from the Hastings volume. If you are deeply into medical ethics, then the genetics volume might be worth the time and money. The two Roman Catholic casuistic works are of limited worth unless you are willing to follow the finicky case-by-case application of certain rationalistic principles.

It is a tragedy of the first order that the two collections of essays do not contain any evangelical scholarship. This speaks more of our ethical forfeiture than of editorial prejudice. Because the secular ethicists have such a difficult time finding a normative ethical system from which to view the life sciences, we evangelicals are led to believe that bioethical problems and conflicts are inherent in bioethics and not (as I am convinced they are) in the secularists’ ethical systems.

Surely there are evangelical ethicists who are capable of providing pioneer leadership in these areas. Medical science and biblical scholarship are companion disciplines for the honoring of God and the service of mankind; Paul’s words in Second Corinthians 10:5 press us to this conclusion. As Nathan Hatch of the University of Notre Dame has said, “Evangelicals need to be so culturally self-conscious that we do not have our agenda for concern determined by the secular world.” There should be forums for biblically informed ethicists to interact on these various life-science questions. The Church is still waiting for gifted men and women who know the Scriptures to help our thinking in this most human of all scientific areas of study.

What Kind Of Death?

Death and Ministry, edited by J. Donald Bane, Austin H. Kutscher, Robert E. Neale, and Robert B. Reeves, Jr. (Seabury, 1975, 278 pp., $10.95), Care For the Dying, edited by Richard N. Soulen (John Knox, 1975, 141 pp., $4.95 pb), Pastoral Care and Counseling in Grief and Separation, by Wayne Oates (Fortress, 1976, 86 pp., $2.95 pb), The Minister and Grief, by Robert W. Bailey (Hawthorn, 1976, 114 pp., $4.95), Before I Wake, by Paul R. Carlson (Cook, 1975, 156 pp., $1.50 pb), Elsbeth, by Harold Myra (Revell, 1976, 159 pp., $5.95), Grief, by Haddon W. Robinson (Zondervan, 1976, 23 pp., $1.50 pb), and When a Loved One Dies, by Philip W. Williams (Augsburg, 1976, 95 pp., $2.50 pb), are reviewed by Dale Sanders, Myrtle Creek, Oregon.

Books on death and dying must be dated B.K.-R. and A.K.-R. The great divide is 1969, when psychologist Elizabeth Kübler-Ross in her book On Death and Dying described the five emotional stages of dying: denial, anger, bargaining, despair, and acceptance. The last three of the nine books here reviewed do not so much as doff their hats to Kübler-Ross, but the first six all bow, more or less deeply.

Death and Ministry is the best of the group for the pastor/counselor. Edited by four well-qualified persons, it is a collection of thirty-six essays by thirty-six authors under five headings: “Personal Perspectives,” “Ministry to the Dying,” “Ministry to the Bereaved,” “Clergy and Medical Professionals,” and “What Does Death Mean?” A high level of writing prevails, and a few essays are outstanding.

Death and Ministry begins where all better books on the subject do—with the pastor/counselor’s feelings about his own impending death. The reader is also brought as evocatively close to the death of another as possible. The essayists represent a wide variety of theological and psychological schools. In addition to Kübler-Ross, Paul Tillich is a pervasive influence. He is encountered first in the Foreword and repeatedly thereafter. For instance, the late Carl Nighswonger, who was a chaplain at the University of Chicago hospital, tells about his ministry to the dying as a “learning encounter.” He describes the patient’s ultimate resignation as “the sickness unto death”—shades of Kierkegaard—and the positive, reverse side of resignation as eventual affirmation, the “courage to be”—shades of Tillich. David H. C. Read, one of only two pastors listed as contributors, in his fine essay “Dying Patient’s Concept of God,” states: “I have never heard expressed any sort of confidence in being absorbed into a ‘stream of being,’ or being confronted with ‘one’s ultimate concern.’ ” Indeed, he identifies the chief weakness of the collection as a whole: “It is my experience that the impersonal and highly philosophical concepts of God that have been promulgated in many quarters have little relevance at this point of crisis.” The other clergyman listed as a contributor, Ralph Edward Peterson, cannot be found anywhere in the book. The rest are professors, psychologists, medical personnel, and chaplains.

Death and Ministry is largely a collection of theologies and theories; for the actual outworking of some of the positions taken, Care For the Dying is a good companion volume. Eight contributors react to five case studies, two of which are of suicidal persons. There are no pastors among the contributors.

In Death and Ministry the advisors almost uniformly oppose any attempt to speak encouragingly of the opening of the gate of heaven to those about to die. In Care For the Dying we can hear the chaplains dispensing palliatives. If those who died under such ministrations could now write essays (perhaps edited by a certain rich man of whom Jesus spoke), the spiritual poverty of most of the contributors to both volumes would be starkly revealed. Nevertheless, there is much valuable human insight to be gained from a careful reading of these two books, especially Death and Ministry.

Counseling in Grief and Separation, by Wayne Oates, long a professor of psychology at Southern Baptist Seminary and now at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, is a part of the Creative Pastoral Care and Counseling Series edited by Howard Clinebell. In addition to grief over death, Oates talks about grief over separation through divorce. Perhaps in a future book he will expand his treatment of grief counseling for divorce. A thorough discussion of that topic is greatly needed in our day.

Oates does not doff his hat to Kübler-Ross, but in his “I would like to take exception …” chapter he must swear negative fealty. His exception is to Kübler-Ross’s assertion that the suddenly, acutely bereaved pass through the same cycles as the dying. He includes shock, panic, and numbness as part of bereavement. His opinion on this is regularly borne out in Christian periodicals that give the testimonies of those who experience the suffering and death of loved ones.

Another Southern Baptist, Robert Bailey, covers much of the same territory as Oates but as a practicing pastor. Bailey begins The Minister and Grief with the pastor’s attitudes toward his own death. In an eminently readable style he offers valuable suggestions from the wealth of his pastoral experience. He wisely comments, “We believe in spiritual healing as long as it includes death.” I wish he had addressed himself to the pastor’s role to the dying lost. In my own pastoral experience, the deathbed conversions of two adults were dramatic turning points in the life of the congregation, to say nothing of the eternal benefits gained by the two converts at the very gate of death.

Bailey is appreciative of the role of funeral directors, but he also favors cremation and memorial services sometime after burial in lieu of the traditional funeral. While Bailey is diffident in these matters, the author of the next work is not. Before I Wake was written by an evangelical Presbyterian, Paul R. Carlson, and published by a major evangelical press, and it is an unabashed defense of the funeral industry. I do not doubt that the industry has been unfairly attacked from some quarters, and I would be quick to acknowledge that my own experience in working with funeral directors has been positive. But I was taken aback by the force, almost vehemence, of Carlson’s defense. He uses mostly industry sources for evidence. He disapproves of cremation, and opposes memorial services in lieu of funerals with the body present. He lumps memorial societies together with labor-union and cooperative funeral homes, which greatly reduce funeral costs. The memorial societies are then subjected to three pages of attack with ammunition supplied by the National Funeral Directors Association, while there is nary another word about the funeral cooperatives. Using the tactic of guilt by association is inexcusable. Besides, the co-ops are a real boon.

Death and Beyond by Andrew Greeley is a popularly written book by a noted Roman Catholic sociologist who directs the Center for the Study of American Pluralism at the University of Chicago. By “popular” I mean that informed laypeople can appreciate the author’s breezy way with big names and big ideas. Greeley is also an ecumenical alchemist fusing traditional Catholicism with modern notions in search of what I would call “resurrection nirvana.” Like the preceding five authors he bows to Kübler-Ross, who, by the way, recently abandoned her religious agnosticism regarding personal survival after death.

Elsbeth, Grief, and When a Loved One Dies are also popularly written books but are not intended for the highly literate layperson that Greeley has in mind.

Harold Myra’s Elsbeth is the true story of the “lovelife” and death of Elsbeth Christensen, a Swiss missionary to Africa, whose husband, David, was a doctor. A powerful story because of the intensity of the two subjects and their experience, Elsbeth is marred by certain weaknesses. The author appears uncertain whether his audience is adolescent or adult. Therefore he constantly wavers between the GP and R range of evangelical readership. Also, there are awkward and wooden scenes. Nevertheless this is a moving story, especially from midway through the book to the end.

Grief and When a Loved One Dies are designed for those who wish to give a simple gift of condolence to bereaved persons in need of the consolation of Christ. Grief is a collage-like production of the Christian Medical Society. It is visually attractive, but its text seems strangely cold because it is too clinical. I prefer, and highly recommend, Philip Williams’s When a Loved One Dies. Williams, a hospital chaplain, is acquainted with death and grief. Essentially the book is a month’s worth of four- and five-page devotions, rooted in harsh reality, Scripture, and prayer. This is a moving, lovely book, a helpful gift for anyone who has suffered loss through death.

New Periodicals

All Bible colleges and seminaries and many missionaries will want to subscribe to the Occasional Bulletin of Missionary Research. Despite its title it is a quarterly, and the first issue is dated January, 1977. Its publisher is the Overseas Ministries Study Center (Box 2057, Ventnor, New Jersey 08406). It is the successor to the Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library but will have much broader coverage. The term “bulletin” could be misleading, since it is not primarily news-oriented but contains articles and book reviews. A variety of theological positions will be represented. Subscriptions are on a calendar-year basis and cost $6.

Journal of Christian Counseling has been launched with a variety of editors from the conservative side of the theological spectrum, including Gary Collins of Trinity, authors James Dobson and Morton Kelsey, and Lee Travis of the Fuller School of Psychology. Anyone with an active counseling ministry should consider subscribing. Rates for the quarterly are $12 per year. Address: Box 548, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan 48858.

Traditionally religion has been the major social institution concerned with preparing people for death. However, like other areas, preparation for death is increasingly being handled in a secular context also. A major journal, Death Education, has just been launched with the Spring, 1977, issue. Most of the editors and editorial board are from university faculties, but there are a few clergymen among them. The first issue has nine papers, many of which were originally read at the Conference on Death and Dying held last December in Orlando. All major seminary libraries should subscribe, and teachers responsible for training ministers who can counsel the dying should be familiar with the journal. Rates: libraries, $40 per year; individuals, $19.95. Address: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, 1025 Vermont Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.

Not new but newly named is the Concordia Theological Quarterly. Volume 41 began with the January, 1977, issue. The journal was formerly entitled The Springfielder and was published by the Concordia Theological Seminary (Missouri Lutheran) in Springfield, Illinois. With the removal of that seminary to Fort Wayne, Indiana, a new name was necessary. Do not confuse this with the Concordia Journal, edited at Concordia Seminary, or with Currents in Theology and Mission, edited at Concordia Seminary-in-Exile, both in St. Louis. All three journals should be in theological libraries. CTQ averages 100 pages an issue and costs only $4 for a year’s subscription. Confessional Lutheranism is ably represented in its pages. Address: 6600 N. Clinton St., Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825.

The Christian Poetry Journal is published three times a year as “a vehicle of expression for Christian poets.” Its second issue (fall, 1976) has some quite good poems and some rather bad ones. Higher standards are needed and, given the number of Christian poets doing good work today, possible ($4/year; Ouachita Press, Arkadelphia, Ark. 71923).

When Pentecostalism is mentioned, people normally think first of the white Pentecostal denominations and charismatic movements, even though black Pentecostals have been around from the beginning. They have long been organized chiefly into their own denominations. Members of several of them have joined together to launch Spirit: a journal of issues incident to black pentecostalism to be published three times each year: April, August, and December. The first issue has five articles, including one on “doctrinal differences between black and white Pentecostals” by James Tinney, who is the journal’s editor and who has written and reviewed for CHRISTIANITY TODAY. The lamentable absence of periodicals by or about black Christians in most theological libraries calls for special effort to add this to collections. The rate is $3 per year; checks should be made payable to the editor and sent to Box 386, Howard University, Washington, D.C. 20059.

The Spiritual Counterfeits Project is a group of evangelicals who have gained a good reputation for in-depth and practical research on various alternatives to and opponents of historic Christianity. They have outgrown their newsletter format and have launched, with the April 1977 issue (Volume I, Number 1), a Journal of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project. The feature article is on death and dying with special reference to various claims of secular confirmation of life after death. For subscription information, write to the project at Box 4308, Berkeley, California 94704.

The Melodyland Christian Center and its related school of theology across from Disneyland in southern California are an increasingly well-known charismatic ministry. With the April–May issue, they have now launched their own magazine so that those further afield can keep informed of their views and activities. The title is Melodyland! Write Box 6000, Anaheim, California 92806 for subscription information.

Increasing publicity has been given in print and on television to so-called para-normal activities, such as clairvoyance, astrology, and ancient visitors from other planets. The Zetetic has been launched as a twice yearly forum for scientific investigation of such claims with an admittedly skeptical starting point. Religious libraries should subscribe, since many of the para-normal claims are rivals to traditional Christianity. However, it should be noted that the sponsors of the journal are primarily humanistic in their own orientation, and therefore in other contexts they are skeptical about traditional religious claims as well. The subscription rate for two issues per year is $10 for individuals, $15 for libraries. Address: Box 29, Kensington Station, Buffalo, New York 14215.

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