Restating what all people intuit and what this means in moral, specifically bioethical, discourse is the raison d’être for this volume. J. Daryl Charles argues that a traditional metaphysics of natural law lies at the heart of the present reconstructive project, and that a revival in natural-law thinking is of the highest priority for the Christian community as we contend in, rather than abdicate, the public square. Nowhere is this more on display than in the realm of bioethics, where the most basic moral questions — human personhood, human rights versus responsibilities, the reality of moral evil, the basis of civil society — are being debated. With his timely application of natural-law thinking to the field of bioethics, Charles seeks to breathe new life back into this key debate. ~ Product Description

Table of Contents

• • 1 Introduction 1
  • 2 Contending for Moral First Things: Christian Social Ethics and Postconsensus Culture 26
  • 3 Natural Law and the Christian Tradition 74
  • 4 Natural Law and the Protestant Prejudice 111
  • 5 Moral Law, Christian Belief, and Social Ethics 156
  • 6 Contending for Moral First Things in Ethical and Bioethical Debates: Critical Categories – Part 1 195
  • 7 Contending for Moral First Things in Ethical and Bioethical Debates: Critical Categories – Part 2 232
  • 8 Ethics, Bioethics, and the Natural Law – a Test Case: Euthanasia Yesterday and Today 269
  • 9 The Natural Law and Public Morality: Second Thoughts on What Is at Stake 291
  • Bibliography 316
  • Index 333