Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
This book presents the work of the "Sacred Choices Initiative" of the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health, and Ethics. The purpose of this Packard and Ford Foundation supported initiative is to attempt to change international discourse on family planning and to rescue this debate from superficial sloganeering by drawing on the moral stores of the world's major and indigenous religions. 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. These authors show that the paramaters of orthodoxy are wider and gentler than that, and that the great religious traditions are wiser and more variegated and nuanced than a simple repetition of the most conservative views would suggest. This theme is carried out in essays on each of the world's major religious traditions, written by scholar practitioners of those faiths.
About the Author
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).
Table of Contents
"Each one an entire world": a Jewish perspective on family planning / Laurie Zoloth -- Contraception and abortion in Roman Catholicism / Christine E. Gudorf -- Contraception and abortion within protestant Christianity / Gloria H. Albrecht -- Family planning, contraception, and abortion in Islam: undertaking Khilafah / Sa'diyya Shaikh -- The right to family planning, contraception, and abortion: the Hindu view / Sandhya Jain -- The right to family planning, contraception, and abortion in Thai Buddhism / Parichart Suwanbubbha -- Family Planning and abortion: cultural norms versus actual practices in Nigeria / Funmi Togonu-Bickersteth -- Reproductive rites and wrongs: lessons from American Indian religious traditions, historical experience, and contemporary life / Mary C. Churchill -- Heavenly way and humanly doings: a consideration of Chinese man's body management during the late imperial period / Ping-Chen Hsiung -- Excess, lack, and harmony: some Confucian and Taoist approaches to family planning and population management-tradition and the modern challenge / Geling Shang -- Religion, state, and population growth / Anrudh Jain -- Reproduction and sexuality in a changing world: reaching consensus / Jose Barzelatto and Elizabeth Dawson.