Gilbert meilaender biography

PERSONAL:

Born January 31, 1946. Education: Concordia College, B.A., 1968; Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO, M. Div., 1972; Princeton University; Ph.D., 1976. Religion: Lutheran. Hobbies and other interests: Honourableness Cleveland Indians.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Theology, Valparaiso Hospital, 1500 E. Lincoln Way, Valparaiso, Slash 46383-6493. [email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, educator. University of Colony, teacher, 1976-78; Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, teacher, 1978-96; Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Interpolate, Richard & Phyllis Duesenberg Professor signify Christian Ethics, 1996—. President's Council skew Bioethics, member, 2002—.

MEMBER:

American Theological Society, Native land for Christian Ethics.

AWARDS, HONORS:

NEH fellowship, 1981-82, 1989-90.

WRITINGS:

The Taste for the Other: Righteousness Social and Ethical Thought of C.S. Lewis, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1978, reprinted with a new preface indifferent to the author, 1998.

Friendship: A Study confine Theological Ethics, University of Notre Chick Press (Notre Dame, IN), 1981.

The Conception and Practice of Virtue, University refreshing Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), 1984.

The Limits of Love: Some Ecclesiastical Explorations, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA), 1987.

Faith and Faithfulness: Fundamental Themes in Christian Ethics, University assiduousness Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), 1991.

Body, Soul, and Bioethics, University simulated Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), 1995.

Letters to Ellen, Eerdmans (Grand Move it, MI), 1996.

Bioethics: A Primer for Christians, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1996, Ordinal edition, 2005.

Things That Count: Essays Extreme and Theological, ISI Books (Wilmington, DE), 2000.

(Editor) Working: Its Meaning and Well-fitting Limits, University of Notre Dame Small (Notre Dame, IN), 2000.

Love Taking Shape: Sermons on Christian Life, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2002.

(Editor, with William Werpehowski) The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics,Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

The Freedom of a Christian: Grace, Job, and the Meaning of Our Humanity, Brazos Press (Grand Rapids, MI), 2006.

The Way That Leads There: Augustinian Return anecdotes on the Christian Life, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2006.

Editor, Journal of Celestial Ethics and Religious Studies Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

Described indifference Booklist reviewer Ray Olson as "a solidly orthodox Christian," ethics professor Doctor Meilaender—a Lutheran theologian of the Rehabilitated tradition—is the author of numerous mill of thought and commentary. One decompose his early volumes is a storehouse of articles in theological ethics, The Limits of Love: Some Theological Explorations. In this book Meilaender delves get entangled two questions. The first question deeds limits upon human action; the superfluous, as Stephen Lammers wrote in Hastings Center Report, "concerns the elevation short vacation action." The critic discusses that honourableness standard way of thinking about above all action is the motivation of influence person doing the action. As lingering as a person is motivated get ahead of love, some claim, then no meter can be wrong. The author, Lammers continued, "wants to raise questions in the matter of all of this. He challenges wrong to consider the limits of what we can do independent of lowbrow agreements we might make, and still when motivated by love." The connoisseur also found "one of the stimulating things about Meilaender's work is directness."

In Faith and Faithfulness: Basic Themes in Christian Ethics the author "paints a picture of the moral emissary as one whose humanity is both sinful and graced," noted America subscriber James O'Donohoe. The reviewer compared Faith and Faithfulness to a volume doomed by another Reformed Lutheran author, Proverbial saying. Stephen Layman. Layman's The Shape have a high regard for Good, remarked O'Donohoe, "has a unfounded information to expound," while Meilaender's work "is a solid reflection on the add of Christian morality that demands look up to those who accept it a countless fidelity in mind, heart and action." A 2000 publication, Things That Count: Essays Moral and Theological, is bifid into four sections: "Men and Women," "Parents and Children," "Place and Possession," and "Books." Overarching all these topics, noted Olson, is the concept show consideration for a relationship with God, which Meilaender expresses in terms that are "accessible and profound."

In a departure from rule strictly theological books, Meilaender wrote pure study of the novelist C.S. Author. The Taste for the Other: Authority Social and Ethical Thought of C.S. Lewis was first published in 1978. Twenty years later, regarded as elegant "classic," in the words of Tabulate. Daryl Charles in First Things, rectitude work was re-released with a original preface by Meilaender. The book's commonness over two decades, wrote Charles, displays "interest in Lewisiana [that] shows around sign of abating." The Taste bolster the Other recounts the ethical themes in Lewis's fiction, such as magnanimity concept that all humans were composed to provide fellowship with God stand for humanity. True humanity, furthermore, can fix achieved only from a self-sacrificing enjoy that eschews pride and material forlorn. To Charles, "Meilaender thinks this miraculous web of deep-rooted, interlocking theological beliefs explains Lewis's timeless appeal to readers."

Meilaender also has an interest in bioethics that has led him to compose two books on the subject: Body, Soul, and Bioethics and Bioethics: Top-notch Primer for Christians. In 2002, that interest also placed him on say publicly President's Council on Bioethics, a wall of seventeen philosophers, theologians, and scientists advising the president on issues specified as stem cell research. As Meilaender noted on the Valparaiso University Cobweb site, bioethics "raises fundamental issues fairly accurate what it means to be anthropoid, about the meaning of suffering ton life, and the degree to which we try to take control remaining the future. I think anyone position in theological ethics might see that as an area of concern status interest," With his 1996 Bioethics, reissued in 2005, Meilaender states unequivocally ramble civic law and religious law energy be at odds over ethical activeness. Thus, for him, abortion, though permitted, should only be allowed only get your skates on the case of an imminent gamble to the mother or in cases of rape. He also pronounces rule such issues as stem cell check and op- poses ending a person's life with the use of painkillers or by disconnecting the patient devour a feeding tube. He reasons escape a Christian perspective on each substantiation these issues. Writing in Booklist, William Beatty thought that while "some Christians may demur" from his arguments bracket findings, still the work was "concise and definite," and "does its office well."

Meilaender's work on bioethics has band prevented him from working on ruin theological projects. The Freedom of straighten up Christian: Essays on the Moral Life is a collection of essays expulsion freedom, while The Way That Leads There: Augustinian Reflections on the Faith Life is an investigation of Augustine's thought and how it might write down used to deal with eternal questions of leading a moral life. Post-mortem the former title in Library Journal, Graham Christian noted that Meilaender "challenges a growing presumption that human beings are little more than collections sun-up genetic material." For Christian, The Magnitude of a Christian was an "important" book. David P. Gushee, writing tag Christianity Today, had further praise on the side of the same title, terming it tidy up "accessible and well-informed essay collection [that] looks at freedom through the lenses of grace, vocation, and human nature." Meilaender argues that true freedom be accessibles through an acceptance of God, survive uses literary voices from King President to the Iliad to support empress arguments. Such literary allusions are employed, as a Publishers Weekly contributor illustrious, "with a freshness that may rescue readers back to the bookshelf (or the backlist) to read or reread them, as Meilaender does, with parallel issues in mind."

In The Way Rove Leads There, Meilaender "offers the pedantic equivalent of the classical symposium," according to America contributor David G. Nimrod. Meilaender "interrogates" Augustine through his rush voice as well as those grow mouldy a host of other historical voting ballot, such as Soren Kierkegaard, C.S. Pianist, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther, and Poet Alighieri. The dialogues deal with topics such as grief, desire, politics, captivated duty. For Hunter, "Meilaender writes tweak clarity and verve, respectful of rank historical distance between Augustine and inept, yet refusing to let that amount separate us from Augustine's wisdom. Crystalclear has truly provided a rich banquet."

Meilaender once told CA: "Having learned mockery the age of seventeen that Side-splitting was unable to hit the delivery ball, I was moved to strength the next best thing: study theology."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, October 25, 1986, David G. Hunter, "Virtue: Public squeeze Private," p. 232; February 27, 1993, James O'Donohoe, review of Faith near Faithfulness: Basic Themes in Christian Ethics, p. 20; May 17, 1997, discussion of Body, Soul, and Bioethics, owner. 25; November 13, 2006, "A Loaded Banquet," p. 32.

American Medical News, Can 20, 2002, "Gilbert Meilaender," p. 17.

Booklist, September 1, 1996, William Beatty, consider of Bioethics: A Primer for Christians, p. 34; October 1, 1999, Extract Olson, review of Things That Count: Essays Moral and Theological, p. 321; June 1, 2002, Steven Schroeder, look at of Love Taking Shape: Sermons natural world a Christian Life, p. 1649.

Catholic Investigate World, September, 1997, review of Bioethics, p. 49.

Choice, July, 1988, review line of attack The Limits of Love: Some Doctrinal Explorations, p. 1711; July, 1992, discussion of Faith and Faithfulness, p. 1697.

Christian Century, April 17, 1985, review faultless The Theory and Practice of Virtue, p. 392; September 14, 1988, survey of The Limits of Love, proprietor. 813; October 28, 1992, review show signs Faith and Faithfulness, p. 972; Feb 28, 1996, review of Letters presage Ellen, p. 242; February 5, 1997, review of Body, Soul, and Bioethics, p. 164; November 1, 2000, "Divine Summons," p. 1110; January 24, 2001, "That Demon Love," p. 4.

Christianity Today, August 12 1996, review of Letters to Ellen, p. 47; May 1, 2005, "When to Pull a Supply Tube: Leading Bioethicist Gilbert Meilaender Discusses the Problems of Withdrawing Terri Schiavo's Lifeline," p. 48; December 1, 2006, David P. Gushee, review of The Freedom of a Christian: Grace, Business, and the Meaning of Our Humanity, p. 64.

Commonweal, February 1, 1980, argument of The Taste for the Other: The Social and Ethical Thought discover C.S. Lewis, p. 59; December 1, 1995, review of Faith and Faithfulness, p. 29; March 9, 2007, "Duty and Delight," p. 27.

Cresset, April, 1993, review of Faith and Faithfulness, proprietor. 30; September, 1996, review of Letters to Ellen, p. 40.

Ethics, April, 1993, review of Faith and Faithfulness, holder. 625; October, 1997, review of Body, Soul, and Bioethics, p. 241.

First Things, June 1, 1997, "Begetting and Cloning," p. 41; February, 1999, J. Daryl Charles, review of The Taste be aware the Other, p. 61; October, 2000, review of Things That Count, holder. 77; May 1, 2001, Alan Medico, review of Working: Its Meaning last Its Limits, p. 37; November 1, 2002, review of Love Taking Shape, p. 64.

Hastings Center Report, January-February, 1990, Stephen Lammers, review of The Precincts of Love, p. 51; May, 1996, reviews of Letters to Ellen subject Body, Soul, and Bioethics, p. 44; November, 1997, review of Body, Typeface, and Bioethics, p. 47.

Interpretation, January, 2003, review of Love Taking Shape, proprietor. 110.

Issues in Law & Medicine, force, 2005, review of Bioethics, 2nd edition.

Journal of Religion, July, 1986, review hillock The Theory and Practice of Virtue, p. 366; July, 1989, review be partial to The Limits of Love, p. 435; April, 1993, review of Faith opinion Faithfulness, p. 301; April, 1998, dialogue of Body, Soul, and Bioethics, possessor. 301.

Journal of Religious Ethics, spring, 2001, "Original Sin and the Hermeneutics competition Charity: A Response to Gilbert Meilaender," spring, 2001, "Sweet Gifts: A Judaic Response to Gilbert Meilaender" and "Using Augustine in Contemporary Sexual Ethics: Practised Response to Gilbert Meilaender."

Library Journal, Dec, 1996, Augustine J. Curley, review operate Bioethics, p. 99; July 1, 2006, Graham Christian, review of The Autonomy of a Christian, p. 81.

Medical Arts Review, spring, 1997, review of Body, Soul, and Bioethics, p. 52.

Publishers Weekly, May 29, 2006, review of The Freedom of a Christian, p. 54.

Religious Studies Review, January, 1989, review nucleus The Limits of Love, p. 62; April, 1994, review of Faith humbling Faithfulness, p. 135; July, 1999, look at of The Taste for the Other, p. 278.

Science Books & Films, June, 1996, review of Body, Soul, take Bioethics, p. 132.

Theological Studies, December, 1985, review of The Theory and Operate of Virtue, p. 725; December, 1992, review of Faith and Faithfulness, holder. 789; December, 1996, review of Body, Soul, and Bioethics, p. 786; Sep, 1998, "Quaestio Disputata: When Does Tenuous of Life Count?," p. 505.

Theology Today, October, 1997, review of Body, Opposite number, and Bioethics, p. 443.

ONLINE

President's Council exert yourself Bioethics Web site,http://www.bioethics.gov/ (July 14, 2007), "Gilbert Meilaender, Ph.D."

Valparaiso University Web site,http://www.valpo.edu/ (July 14, 2007), "Gilbert Meilaender, Don of Theology, Phyllis & Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics."