Should We Live Forever?
The Ethical Ambiguities of Aging
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
In Should We Live Forever? Christian ethicist Gilbert Meilaender puzzles over the implications of the medical advances that have lengthened the human life span, wrestling with what this quest for living longer means for our conception of living well and completely. As he points out in his introduction, "That we often desire, even greedily desire, longer life is clear; whether what we desire is truly desirable is harder to say."
The six chapters of this book take multiple perspectives on issues surrounding aging and invite readers to consider whether "indefinitely more life" is something worth pursuing and, if humans are created for life with God, whether longer life will truly satisfy our underlying hunger.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Meilaender (Neither Beast nor God) addresses aging like a tutor in a Tudor library, the fire embering in the grate. For this brief study, he speaks conversationally and in the manner of a well-read master: "We need to think about how to think about growing old." Meilaender analyzes age-retardation from three competing angles: humans are finite organisms; humans are distinguished from other organisms by freedom and reason; and humans are marked by ecstasy, that is, drawn out of themselves toward God. In six chapters, the theologian and ethicist explores transitional humanity, living forever, and a generative life. He writes eloquently on an unexpected topic: patience. Throughout, he offers his own witty opinions and quotes widely, from experts on aging, such as Erik Erikson and Margaret Urban Walker, but also from philosopher Martha Nussbaum, Christian apologist C.S. Lewis, and poet John Hall Wheelock. After the tutorial, Meilaender offers an afterword seminar an imagined conversation -- for three voices, each representing a different viewpoint on his argument, then ends on a note of eternal youth.
