Allen Verhey is Evert J. and Hattie E. Blekkink Professor of Religion at Hope College, Holland, Michigan.
Gerald McKenny
"These finely crafted, richly insightful essays may be the
strongest sign yet that robust theological thinking is once again
alive in biomedical ethics. Allen Verhey's deep engagement with
biblical scholarship, clinical medicine, health policy, literature,
and theology makes this book as delightful to read as it is
illuminating. Aimed equally at scholars, students, and
practitioners, Reading the Bible in the Strange World of Medicine
should be read by everyone, lay and professional, who cares about
the significance of Christian theology for health care." Ron
Hamel
"With his usual clarity, precision, superb scholarship, keen
wisdom, and eloquence, Allen Verhey carefully demonstrates in this
volume how Scripture can form and inform a Christian bioethics. Not
only do his essays convincingly bridge the gap between Scripture
and the 'strange world of medicine, ' but they do so in a manner
that is truly inspiring because they are born out of a love and a
passion for 'the story Christians love to tell and long to live.'
Anyone interested in the relevance of Scripture to a wide range of
bioethical issues confronting medicine and society would do well to
read this volume meditatively. " Andrew Lustig
"In this book Allen Verhey reconfirms his standing as today's
foremost expositor of the ways that a nuanced reading of Scripture
can both inform and reform the moral minimalism of recent secular
bioethics. Verhey analyzes a wide range of topics, including
genetic interventions, abortion, assisted reproductive
technologies, end-of-life decisions, assisted suicide, and
health-care allocation in an era of fiscal scarcity. He rejects
simplistic readings of either Scripture or these difficult issues
and instead explores, with a rich blend of insight, analysis, and
exhortation, how attending to Scripture can challenge the 'strange'
ethos of modern medicine -- a medicine that focuses on procedures
for informed consent rather than the substance of what is chosen,
that reinforces an unbiblical dualism between our power to choose
and the conditions of our embodiment, and that distorts the virtue
of compassion by reducing patients to their pathologies. Throughout
his discussion Verhey emphasizes the need for the church to be a
community of memory, deliberation, and moral discernment. The
excellence of this book prompts my deep sense of gratitude to its
author for his faithfulness to Christian scholarship as a
vocation." L. Gregory Jones
"Allen Verhey is one of our most trusted guides for following the
Great Physician in the midst of contemporary medicine. In this
wonderful, insightful book he draws on a lifetime of wise and
faithful reflection on Scripture and medical ethics. Verhey doesn't
settle for cheap victories or polarizing positions; he invites us
to think more deeply, with him and with Scripture, about profoundly
difficult issues. The result is a significant affirmation of the
redemptive, healing, life-giving power of the gospel. " Choice
"Verhey's scholarship is impeccable, and his voice is eloquent. . .
This book is worthy of close attention." The Christian Century
"A careful and gifted reader of the Bible, Verhey offers his own
wrestling with contested moral questions in medicine as a
contribution to the community practice of discernment. . . Scholars
. . . will be amply rewarded by his insights. Nonspecialists will
find it an accessible and engaging introduction to Christian
medical ethics."
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