Customer Reviews

The Soul of the Embryo: An Enquiry into the Status of the Human Embryo in the Christian Tradition

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This valuable book is a much needed corrective to the seemingly endless and fruitless misconceptions about traditional Church teaching on the status of the embryo. By adopting a historical approach to the question of the moral status of early human life, Jones outlines, with cogent argumentation, the consistency and care with which the the Church has approached ethical problems at the beginning of life. As well as demolishing some misconceptions about past thought on the status of the embryo, Jones deepens our understanding of what questions are at stake when considering the nature of personhood. The book, by looking at these questions historically, philosophically and theologically, gives an object lesson in how to use different resources in a mutually enlightening way.

This well-written and engaging work should be required reading for all who are interested in seriously debating bioethical problems at the beginning of life.

Dr David Jones has provided a thoughtful and scholarly contribution to the debate on the status of the human embryo, an issue which has renewed significance in contemporary bioethics. The Soul of the Embryo is a meticulous and exhaustive investigation of Christian reflection on the embryo, drawing upon a rich collection of theological, legal, scientific and philosophical sources over the centuries. The book clarifies Christian teaching on the subject, and unquestionably succeeds in its aim of illuminating the origin and deeper meaning of human existence. It is a significant and highly recommended work which should have universal appeal to all with an interest in ethics at the beginning of life.

This is the only book out there on the difficult topic of where in the progress of an embryo from conception to birth does the embryo acquire a soul.

I was led to this topic when thinking about in vitro fertilization, in which a number of embryos are fertiziled, and then some are implanted, discarded, or frozen. Does a frozen embryo have a soul?

This is a difficult topic and one which can become very emotional. I edit Wikipedia articles, and I found that ot is very difficult to try to even raise or discuss the topic in related Wikipedia articles

There are many interesting beliefs in this area. For example, that the soul is acquired 40 days from conception. Or that the soul comes and goes for a while in a baby after it is born, because it's body is too small a vessel.

So for those of you who believe in souls, this book is one of the few scholarly resources that review the concept thoroughly as it has developed in pre-Christian and Christian thought.

This is a very detailed account of the status of a human embryo throughout history. It does a good job of giving a detailed account of different thinkers throughout the ages and their impact on the Christian view of a human embryo. Often I think it can be too detail oriented and does a rather rushed job on getting all the facts to mesh together. But overall I would consider this a good read for those looking to dig deeper into the Christian tradition of the fetus.

This excellent and well-researched book follows the history of Christian reflection on the human embryo. Focusing mostly on abortion, although also discussing some of the issues arising from IVF and embryo research, David Jones traces the history of thought about the status of the unborn through the Jewish tradition, Greek and Roman thought and Christian theology through the ages.

His wide-ranging research and masterful summaries of the various positions set out the groundwork for an understanding of the issues. His book shows that Christians have generally been fairly consistent in their outlook over the centuries but issues such as the "soul" and the moment at which an embryo becomes a human being are deeply complex and still very much under discussion.

An excellent resource for those interested in ethics and the theology and history around them.