 |
International Conference Brent Waters Jerre and Mary Joy Professor of Christian Social Ethics, and Director of the Jerre L. and Mary Joy Stead Center for Ethics and Values Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL, USA Is there a Normative Christian Family? This paper presents a Christian normative account of the family based on the scriptural teaching of the one-flesh unity of marriage and derived theological precepts. Ideally, the core of the Christian family is an association of persons comprised of a woman and man married to each other, and who are the parents of children to which are both biologically related. This familial association is in turn related to broader social and political associations comprised primarily of strangers. The Christian family embodies a providential witness to the good of the created order. This witness in turn complements the eschatological witness of the church to the good end of created order, particularly as exemplified in vocational singleness. Together the familial and ecclesial households bear a singular witness to the providential unfolding of creation being drawn toward its eschatological end in Christ. The church should lift-up and support the ideal familial core indicated above. There are, however, variations deviating from this norm, but which nonetheless remain within this normative purview. The resulting challenge is to determine how broadly or narrowly this purview extends. To plot where a problematic point might be reached the instances of single-parent families, adoption, and intentionally childless couples are examined. Brent Waters, D.Phil., is the author of Economic Globalization and Christian Ethics (forthcoming), Christian Moral Theology in an Emerging Technoculture (forthcoming), This Mortal Flesh: Incarnation and Bioethics, The Family in Christian Social and Political Thought, From Human to Posthuman: Christian Theology and Technology in a Postmodern World, Reproductive Technology: Towards a Theology of Procreative Stewardship, Dying and Death: A Resource for Christian Reflection, and Pastoral Genetics: Theology and Care at the Beginning of Life (with co-author Ronald Cole-Turner), and editor of God and the Embryo: Religious Voices on Stem Cells and Cloning (with co-editor Ronald Cole-Turner). Waters has also written numerous articles and lectured extensively on the relationship among theology, ethics and technology. Waters has served previously as the Director of the Center for Business, Religion and Public Life, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He is a graduate of the University of Redlands (B.A.), School of Theology at Claremont (M.Div., D.Min.), and the University of Oxford (D.Phil.). Personal website Conference Main Page | Theme | Travel Programme | Call for Papers | Information | |
 |
|
|