Introduction to Gilbert Meilaender Symposium

For over three decades, the work of Gilbert Meilaender has been at the center of American theological and moral discussion. His contributions to contemporary ethical debates are exceptional in both their range and influence. His work has informed not only discussion across academic disciplines—one of which, bioethics, he helped to shape as an emerging field of study. It has also influenced public policy debate, gaining an impressively wide readership among non-specialists. He has done so by working in a style all his own. To meet Meilaender on the page is to find the thought of Augustine, Luther and Barth passing into the realm of everyday life by way of poetry, literature and anecdote.

If there is a characteristic concern of Meilaender, it has been to indicate the possibilities, problems and, above all, the limits of Christian moral reflection. As he wrote in The Limits of Love, ‘Much of the pang and pathos of the Christian vision, and many of the greatest temptations for faith, arise from the need to make the best of the moral limits our nature places on us’. ¹ In pursuing this theme, Meilaender has been especially concerned with three questions, which are taken up by the essays collected here. Does the grace of God, by which we are made whole, satisfy or uproot the deepest desire of our heart? How, if at all, do Christian beliefs about human destiny and the end of history set limits to our political aspirations and goals? Should the fact that human beings are embodied, that the body is the place of our personal presence, set limits on our understanding of what is right and good?

The nine responses show more than admiration for Meilaender’s thought and a desire to learn from him. They each show the kind of special fellowship that comes from thinking with Meilaender over the course of a career. ‘The highest tribute one can pay any thinker, or any body of writing, is to wrestle with it; and this may well be the best way to bring out the innermost and most vital meaning of what any man has said.’ ² The words are those of Paul Ramsey, but they are a fitting tribute to one of his students, whose work is celebrated in this issue.

The articles in this volume were originally presented at ‘Politics, Theology, and the Limits of Ethics: A Conference Celebrating the Work of Gilbert Meilaender’ held at Princeton University on 10 April 2015. I would like to express my gratitude to the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions for sponsoring the event. A special word of thanks is owed to Brad Wilson for organizing the conference and to the editors of Studies in Christian Ethics for organizing their publication. ‘To acknowledge one’s debts is a joy’, Gilbert Meilaender once wrote. ³ And so it is a joy of mine to acknowledge my debts to him.