Adam, Eve, and the Genome: The Human Genome Project and Theology

by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Overview

The project to map the human genetic codes has been widely hailed as a monumental achievement with vast medical promise. Yet the project is also fraught with ambiguities and, Susan Thistlethwaite claims, great potential dangers to society. This important book combines a basic primer on genetic research with ethical reflection by an interdisciplinary team on key questions and a deeper look, in light of such research, at what it means to be human.

Part 1 of the book places genetic research in historical perspective, including the historical prickliness between science and religion. It shows how we have gotten from Gregor Mendel's experiments with peas to today's Human Genome Project. Part 2 explores ethical issues posed by genetic testing, screening, and counseling; gene therapy; stem-cell research; dangers of misuse through genetic identification; and engineering of particular populations (violent people, ethnic groups, gays and lesbians). Part 3 explores the possibilities of reconstruing human identity for the coming "biological age." Contributors include Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Laurel Schneider, Lainie Ross, Theodore W. Jennings Jr., Ken Stone, and Lee Butler.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800636142
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	10/13/2003
Series:	Theology and the Sciences
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, President of Chicago Theological Seminary, is a theologian and social ethicist whose many influential books include Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the U.S. (with Rita Nakashima Brock; Fortress Press, 1996), Lift Every Voice: Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside (with Mary Potter Engel, 1998), and Sex, Race, and God: Christian Feminism in Black and White (1989).

Table of Contents

About the Contributors

Preface

Introduction: Liberation Theology in Dialogue with the Human Genome Project

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

A Beginning Point

Different Questions, New Insights

PART ONE: THE SCIENCE OF GENETICS

Setting the Context: A Brief History of Science by a Sympathetic Theologian

Laurel C. Schneider

Aristotle and Plato

Islamic Science

Medieval Science in the West

The Reformation and the Renaissance

Descartes

Newton

Darwin

Freud

An Introduction to Mendelian Genetics

Lainie Friedman Ross

Gregor Mendel and Peas

DNA

Autosomal Recessive Conditions

Autosomal Dominant Conditions

X-Linked Conditions

From Peapods to the Human Genome Project: Post-Mendelian Genetics

Lainie Friedman Ross

Chromosomal Variations

Clinical Genetics

Ethical and Policy Issues

PART TWO: BEING HUMAN

Theological Anthropology and the Human Genome Project

Theodore W. Jennings Jr.

Theology and Science

Bringing Theology to the Human Genome Project

Redemption and Resurrection

Imago Dei

Reflections on Romans

Adam, Eve, and the Genome

Ken Stone

The Genome as "Text"

The Quest for a "Gay Gene" as "Etiological Text"

The Story of Adam and Eve as "Etiological Text"

Who Asks Etiological Questions?

PART THREE: CRITICAL ISSUES

Dreaming the Soul: African American Skepticism Encounters the Human Genome Project

Lee H. Butler Jr.

Racism in American History as a Feature of the American Dream

A Way out of the Nightmare: A Different Dream of Being Human

Dreaming of Freedom

The New Dream

On Being Human

A Gene for Violence? Genetic Determinism and Sin

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

A Short History of the Doctrine of Sin

Genetic Determinism

Flies Who Rape?

Flawed Science

Human Freedom and Genetics

Human Dignity/In the Image of God

Social Sin and Human Violence

To Sin Rationally

The Chemistry of Community

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

The "Case" of Hypertension in African Americans

The "Case" of Breast Cancer

Grace

Soul/Body Dualism

The Grace of Community

Notes

Glossary

Index