Abstract
As is true of many of the Routledge Studies in Religion, this series of essays is not only wide-ranging but impressive in its depth and its ability not only to answer but also to pose further questions, in this case about the reality of embodied human living. The authors set themselves a significant task – to engage with and develop a conversation between a variety of approaches to the human body, in life and in death, found and practised across the three Abrahamic religions. The contributors to this volume come from a variety of different disciplines, representing theologians, bioethicists and practising clinicians, and this allows the essays, taken either on their own or as a series, to speak both to and from within the complex challenges met by each of these disciplines in the ever developing twenty-first-century world.
The volume is quite deliberate in not attempting a contrived synthesis between the different religious standpoints, but instead presenting cogent and defined positions found in each religion when faced with questions of the human body and its relationship with the soul, eternity, righteous living and sin. The intention, of course, is to enable serious ecumenical dialogue from positions of clarity, and by being formulated in this way, it is clear that, as John Fitzgerald suggests, ‘the promise of finding new gifts, collaborative opportunities, and friendships make it a trip worth taking’ (p. 116).
Split into three sections, we are first presented with a series of essays on the understanding of the body within the different traditions, with the complex interplay of religious practices, metaphysical questions of the embodied reality of human life, and the role of medicine in engaging with and treating that body. The role of medicine is then brought into sharp relief in the second section, entitled ‘Respecting the body’; here, the authors think about the limits and appropriate use of human medicine across the religions, and the theological, historical and scriptural arguments that continue to influence ethicists today. This is no purely academic discussion, however, and the final essay in this section examines the real-life example of Catholic and Muslim responses to HIV/AIDS in Kenya, and the opportunity for collaboration built on the respect of both religions for the body of the other. The final section looks at the body in death, unflinching in its engagement with the practicalities of modern medicine – the process of dying, anatomical dissection, care after death and the definition of death.
These essays do not seek to provide dogmatic certainties; instead, they open the mind of the reader to the riches of the traditions they describe, and the challenge that ever-increasing medical knowledge and intervention pose to traditional patterns of religious thought. While this volume does, in general, provide a mostly North American view of health systems and their interaction with religious traditions, it is a welcome and helpful guide to the complex area of bioethics in the modern world, offering novel insights from the different religions that will help ethicist, theologian and clinician alike. For those with a dual vocation to medicine and theology, this book is an excellent companion on the road to discovery.