We are delighted to announce that this book has been short listed for the prestigious Michael Ramsey prize for the best in theological writing. For more information please visit: www.michaelramseyprize.org.uk A radical examination of the Christian tradition relating to the human embryo and how this relates to the debate today.In recent years, the moral status of the human embryo has come to the fore as a vital issue for a range of contemporary ethical debates: concerning the over-production, freezing and discarding of embryos in IVF; concerning the use of 'spare' embryos for scientific experimentation; and finally, concerning the prospect of producing clone embryos. These debates have involved not only general philosophical arguments, but also specifically religious arguments. Many participants have attempted to find precedent from the Christian tradition for the positions they wish to defend.It is therefore extraordinary that until The Soul of the Embryo there has been no significant work on the history of Christian reflection on the human embryo. Here, David Albert Jones seeks to tell the story of this unfolding tradition - a story that encompasses many different medical, moral, philosophical and theological themes. He starts by examining the understanding of the embryo in the Hebrew Scritpures, then moves through early Christianity and the Middle Ages to the Reformation and beyond. Finally, Albert Jones considers the application of this developed tradition to contemporary situation and questions which contemporary Christian view or views are best regarded as authentic developments of the tradition and which should be regarded as alien to the tradition.

Forms, Souls, and Embryos allows readers coming from different backgrounds to appreciate the depth and originality with which the Neoplatonists engaged with and responded to a number of philosophical questions central to human reproduction, including: What is the causal explanation of the embryo's formation? How and to what extent are Platonic Forms involved? In what sense is a fetus 'alive, ' and when does it become a human being? Where does the embryo's soul come from, and how is it connected to its body? This is the first full-length study in English of this fascinating subject, and is a must-read for anyone interested in Neoplatonism or the history of medicine and embryology.

Sophisticated imaging devices and new biological technologies have greatly enhanced our ability to detect an ever increasing number of fetal malformations during pregnancy. Elucidation of the human genetic code and exact molecular definition of various diseases, together with enhanced capabilities for repairing genetic defects have opened possibilities for diagnosis and treatment which, less than a decade ago, could only have been dreamed of. However, many clinical topics related to the embryo and human genetics as well as the issues of cloning and the use of human embryonic stem cells have outpaced our ability to keep up appropriate public discourse of ethical, religious, and legal issues. This book is designed to bridge the gap between scientific innovation, treating clinicians, and parents in whose unborn child a malformation was detected and who face a difficult and confusing decision-making process. All chapters were written by leading authorities and reflect the state of the art as well as the authors' personal experiences, unique perspectives, and predictions for developments in their fields in the near future. Specialists in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive medicine, pediatrics and neonatology, genetics, molecular biology, philosophy, ethics and law will benefit from this book written by international experts in their fields.

Psychology that ignores the soul is indeed an odd sort of psychology. But such it is in many colleges today. On the basis of thoroughgoing materialism it has to be nothing more than the physiology of the nervous system. Hence a sound philosophical study of the soul is timely. Where are we to find an exposition and proof of the basic truths on which the structure of psychology must be erected? They are in St. Thomas' DE ANIMA. This opusculum discusses twenty-one questions about the soul, among which are the following: Whether the angel and the human soul differ specifically. Whether the soul is in the whole body and in each part of it. Whether the soul is identical with its powers. Whether the soul, existing apart from the body, can suffer punishment by corporeal fire. Doctor Rowan's translation, though a faithful rendition of the original, is in clear, readable English. The value of this version is greatly enhanced by copious footnotes of two kinds: exact citations of authors (e.g., Aristotle, St. Augustine) to whom St. Thomas refers; explanations of terms and views that otherwise might be obscure to modern readers. The translator has also provided a comprehensive index.

On Power (De Potentia) is one of Aquinas's ''Disputed Questions'' (a systematic series of discussions of specific theological topics). It is a text which anyone with a serious interest in Aquinas's thinking will need to read. There is, however, no English translation of the De Potentia currently in print. Fr. Richard Regan has produced this abridgement, which passes over some of the full text while retaining what seems most important when it comes to following the flow of Aquinas's thought.

Containing a retrospective view of every discovery and practical improvement in the medical sciences, abstracted from the current medical journals of the United States and Canada.

Recent research in the philosophy of religion, anthropology, and philosophy of mind has prompted the need for a more integrated, comprehensive, and systematic theology of human nature. This project constructively develops a theological accounting of human persons by drawing from a Cartesian (as a term of art) model of anthropology, which is motivated by a long tradition. As was common among patristics, medievals, and Reformed Scholastics, Farris draws from philosophical resources to articulate Christian doctrine as he approaches theological anthropology. Exploring a substance dualism model, the author highlights relevant theological texts and passages of Scripture, arguing that this model accounts for doctrinal essentials concerning theological anthropology. While Farris is not explicitly interested in thorough critique of materialist ontology, he notes some of the significant problems associated with it. Rather, the present project is an attempt to revitalize the resources found in Cartesianism by responding to some common worries associated with it.

The past thirty years have seen an explosion of interest in Greek and Roman social history, particularly studies of women and the family. Until recently these studies did not focus especially on children and childhood, but considered children in the larger context of family continuity and inter-family relationships, or legal issues like legitimacy, adoption and inheritance. Recent publications have examined a variety of aspects related to childhood in ancient Greece and Rome, but until now nothing has attempted to comprehensively survey the state of ancient childhood studies. This handbook does just that, showcasing the work of both established and rising scholars and demonstrating the variety of approaches to the study of childhood in the classical world. In thirty chapters, with a detailed introduction and envoi, The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World presents current research in a wide range of topics on ancient childhood, including sub-disciplines of Classics that rarely appear in collections on the family or childhood such as archaeology and ancient medicine. Contributors include some of the foremost experts in the field as well as younger, up-and-coming scholars. Unlike most edited volumes on childhood or the family in antiquity, this collection also gives attention to the late antique period and whether (or how) conceptions of childhood and the life of children changed with Christianity. The chronological spread runs from archaic Greece to the later Roman Empire (fifth century C.E.). Geographical areas covered include not only classical Greece and Roman Italy, but also the eastern Mediterranean. The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World engages with perennially valuable questions about family and education in the ancient world while providing a much-needed touchstone for research in the field.

The Problem of the Rational Soul in the Thirteenth Century traces the Latin scholastics' attempt to deal with two essentially incompatible notions of the human soul: the scientific view of Aristotle which considers it to be a form, and the Augustinian view of the soul as a substance in its own right, from Gundissalinus to the Parisian condemnation of 1277. It traces the growing disarray of Latin notions of the soul, the growth of the monopsychism controversy, the solutions of Bonaventure and Aquinas, through the variety of responses to Aquinas's De unitate intellectus. Among its conclusions are that the traditional dualism diminished with time, that there was little agreement among the “heterodox Aristotelians,” and that, with two exceptions, no one in the thirteenth century taught the present position of the Catholic Church, that the rational soul is infused at conception.

A Hindu bioethics of reproductive technology that references the Mahabharata.