The Sacredness of Human Life

Why an Ancient Biblical Vision

Is Key to the World’s Future

David P. Gushee

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 2013 David P. Gushee

All rights reserved

Published 2013 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gushee, David P., 1962–

The sacredness of human life: why an ancient Biblical vision is key to the world’s future / David P. Gushee.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8028-4420-0 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. Theological anthropology—Christianity

2. Dignity—Religious aspects—Christianity.

3. Life—Religious aspects—Christianity.

4. Apologetics. 5. Christianity and culture. I. Title.

BT701.3.G87 2013

241′.697—dc23

2012028392

www.eerdmans.com

In honor of my beloved parents,

David and Janice Gushee

Contents

Prelude

Acknowledgments

Introduction

0.1. Why a Book about the Sacredness of Human Life?

0.2. How This Book Came to Be

0.3. Joining the Archaeologists

0.4. Plan of the Book

0.5. Notes about My Approach

0.6. Two Scenes from Europe

0.7. Sacredness as Moral Reality and Moral Task

1. What It Means to Say That Human Life Is Sacred

1.1. Definitions and Etymologies

1.2. A Sacredness Paradigm

1.3. Sacred Human Beings

1.4. Does Sacredness Require God?

1.5. Humanity as Sacred: Ancient Christian Doctrine or Recent Innovation?

1.6. Current Christian Definitions of the Sacredness of Life

1.7. My Christian Definition of Life’s Sacredness—and Puzzles That Remain

2. The Old Testament and the Sacredness of Human Life

2.1. Creation, Humanity, and the Image of God

2.2. God’s Compassionate Care and Liberating Deliverance

2.3. Biblical Law and Life’s Sacredness

2.4. The Decalogue

2.5. The Prophetic Demand and Yearning for Shalom

2.6. Toward Jesus Christ

3. Jesus Christ, the New Testament, and the Sacredness of Human Life

3.1. The Ministry of Jesus Christ

3.2. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ

3.3. The Image of Jesus Christ

3.4. The Expansive Reach of the Body of Christ

3.5. The New Testament and the Sacredness of Life: A Dialogue with Richard Hays

4. The Sacredness of Life in Early Christianity

4.1. The Christendom Question

4.2. The Church against War

4.3. The Church against Abortion and Infanticide

4.4. The Church against Judicial Torment and Killing

4.5. The Church against the Mayhem of the Arenas

4.6. “Regard People as Truly Sacred”

4.7. An Army of Peace and Piety

4.8. Love without Partiality

4.9. Sojourners of Christ

4.10. Christians as the Romans Saw Them

4.11. How the Early Church Retained Its Moral Vision

5. The Fateful Transition to Christendom

5.1. The Constantinian Transition

5.2. Theodosius Mandates Orthodox Christianity

5.3. Moral Damage at the Foundations

5.4. Advances and Regressions for the Sacredness of Life

6. Christendom Divided against Itself: Three Case Studies

6.1. The Crusades, ...