The evolutionary origins of human beings, and in particular the origins of human morality, have long attracted debate and speculation, not only in the academic community but also in popular scientific literature and in society at large. Evolutionary accounts of human behaviour and morality have great imaginative power, with the attendant risk that they sometimes stray beyond the bounds of scientific theory to become powerful popular myths. In Selfish Genes and Christian Ethics, Neil Messer challenges this tendency. He offers a careful survey of the questions raised by evolutionary accounts of...

We use such words as -health, - -disease, - and -illness- all the time without stopping to consider exactly what we understand by them. Yet their meanings are far from straightforward, and disagreements over them have important practical consequences in health care and bioethics.
In this book Neil Messer develops a distinctive and innovative theological account of these concepts. He engages in earnest with debates in the philosophy of medicine and disability studies and draws on a wide array of theological resources including Barth, Bonhoeffer, Aquinas, and recent disability theologies....