Overview
As the global population continues to grow, family planning is fast becoming one of the most critical issues facing the planet. While many organizations--most prominently the United Nations--are trying to implement policies that will help curb the population explosion, these measures are frequently blocked by those professing conservative religious beliefs. In many of the world's religions there is a restrictive and pro-natalist view on family planning, and this is one legitimate reading of those religious traditions. As the essays in this volume demonstrate, however, this is not the only legitimate or orthodox view. Seeking to counteract the simplistic idea that all religions are completely antagonistic toward family planning, the authors--all scholar-practitioners of the religions about which they write--present alternative interpretations of religions' views about family planning. Arguing for the existence of equally valid traditions that allow contraception and abortion, they seek to escape the confines of oversimplified either/or, pro-choice/pro-life arguments. Instead, they point the way toward a more open discussion of family planning.Dispelling the notion that the world's religions are uniformly conservative on issues of family planning, the authors show that the parameters of orthodoxy are wider and gentler than that, and that the great religious traditions are wiser and more variegated than a simple repetition of the most conservative views would suggest.
Full Product Details
Author: Daniel C. Maguire (Professor of Moral Theological Ethics, Professor of Moral Theological Ethics, Marquette University)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 22.90cm
, Height: 2.10cm
, Length: 16.20cm
Weight: 0.426kg
ISBN: 9780195160017
ISBN 10: 0195160010
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 08 May 2003
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
The pan-religious scope of the book is its greatest asset, as it yields a full sense of the wide-ranging theoretical and practical concerns of each tradition. --Choice
... important in the continuing debate on abortion and family planning from the viewpoint of religion. The International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health
Author Information
Daniel C. Maguire is Professor of Religious Ethics at Marquette University and President of the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics. Among his many published works are Death by Choice (1974, revised 1984); The Moral Choice (1978); A New American Justice (1980); The New Subversives: Anti-Americanism of the Religious Right (1982); The Moral Revolution (1986); On Moral Grounds: the Art-Science of Ethics (1991); and The Moral Core of Judaism and Christianity (1993).
