Reading Karl Barth, Interrupting Moral Technique, Transforming Biomedical Ethics

Ashley John Moyse is a Research Associate at both Vancouver School of Theology at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and Trinity College at the University of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia. His research has been presented and published internationally. He is also a co-editor of the forthcoming Correlating Sobornost: Karl Barth in Conversation with the Russian Orthodox Tradition and The Church in Self-Dispossession: Select Writings of Donald M. MacKinnon.

'This book persuasively diagnoses and critiques a widely-held foundational belief that biomedical ethics can operate according to a neutral and universal common morality applicable in all contexts. Moyse's challenge to this consensus view deserves to be widely read.' - David Clough, Professor of Theological Ethics, University of Chester, UK 'Moyse brings us a vital and fresh perspective on Christian ethics and the nature of human flourishing. He offers a deep challenge to the idea of 'common morality,' arguing that such an assumption inevitably ends in sin and idolatry. This book will be a powerful challenge to many healthcare disciplines and those who seek to reflect theologically on principles and practice.' - John Swinton, Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies, King's College, University of Aberdeen, UK 'Moyse offers an important post-modern treatment of moral method that identifies how the separation of analysis (techne) from ontology disorders, even brutalizes, moral decision making where human flourishing is concerned. Alternatively, it introduces a moral decision making process rooted in an ontology of relationality. Moyse uses the theology/ontology of Karl Barth to achieve this move. The interdisciplinary approach is welcome and reflective of a current intellectual climate in which greater respect for the local and particular are coming into their own.' - Richard Topping, Principal, Professor of Studies in the Reformed Tradition, Vancouver School of Theology, Canada 'Moyse's book exhibits in a fresh way the fruitfulness of Barth's moral reasoning on the flourishing of life as the end of God's action ad extra. Thinking, in, with, and through Barth, the study tackles with considerable skill the current state of bioethical reasoning, and not only pertinently interrogates its claims about shared moral value but indicates the crucial stake that a theological account has in such matters of life and death.' - John C. McDowell, Director of Research, Professor of Theology, University of Divinity (Melbourne), Australia

• Introduction 1. Contemporary Bioethics and the 'Sin' of the Common Morality 2. The Technique of Bioethics and the Freedom for Encounter 3. The Isolated Will and the Freedom for Agency 4. An Anxious Institution and the Freedom for Human Life Conclusion Notes Bibliography