If our bodies could do more things, would our lives be better? Genome editing is a rapidly developing technology that can modify human genes. It can cure heritable diseases, but we could even make certain genetic “improvements” to healthy people. Should we change human embryos genetically to achieve such goals? Bringing together a leading molecular biologist and a Christian ethicist this book responds to the need for solid information and helpful orientation for a pressing moral issue. They explain relevant technical issues without the jargon, clarify the most important philosophical and religious arguments and bring empirical insights to the question of what helps us lead meaningful lives.

While Karl Barth is one of the most significant theologians of the twentieth century, his contribution to ethics is less well known and subject to controversy among interpreters. Barth combined his commitment to the church and its particular task in faith and theology with a concern for ethics and politics in wider society. By examining the historical development of Barth’s ethics, this study traces the vital influences and considerable shifts in Barth’s understanding of the ethical task, situating him within his political context. Alexander Massmann provides a comprehensive explication and assessment of the full scope of Barth’s ethics, from the first edition of the Romans commentary to the final volume of the Church Dogmatics. General questions of Barth’s methodology in ethics and case studies in applied ethics are both analyzed in their intricate connection to his dogmatic thought. The study highlights how an ethical approach emerged in which the freedom of the gospel allows for considerable openness to empirical insights from other disciplines. The author reevaluates Barth’s ethics in a constructive vision of the role of the church in the quest for a just society.

Using the theological work of Karl Barth as a resource for present-day inquiry, the contributors in this volume discuss the complex interconnections between the religious and the political designated by the term theo-politics. Speaking from various political and cultural contexts (Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the People’s Republic of China) and different disciplinary perspectives (Protestant Theology, Political Sciences, and Sociology), the contributors address contemporary challenges in relating the religious and the political in Western and Asian societies. Topics analyzed include the impact of diverse cultural backgrounds on given theo-political arrangements, theological assessments of political power, the political significance of individual and communal Christian existence and the place of Christian communities in civil societies. In their nuanced discussions of these topics, the contributors neither advocate for a privatized, apolitical understanding of the Christian faith nor for a religious politics seeking to overcome modern processes of differentiation and secularization. Critically engaging Barth’s theology, they examine the Christian responsibility in and for the political sphere and reflect on the practice of such responsibility in Western and Asian contexts.

English summary: Numerous recent monographs attest to the abiding importance of Karl Barth's ethics. His moral writings are not submitted to careful reconstruction often enough, however, nor are they analyzed from a historical-genetic point of view. The interpretation of Barth's ethics presented in this study fulfils these demands for the first time. The contemporary relevance of Barth's writings derives primarily from his theological call to the church to embrace its public responsibility for justice and the social welfare state. It needs to be pointed out critically, however, that a number of Barth's ethical approaches compete with one another. Still, the author shows how a strong line of reasoning in Barth's work incorporates empirical arguments into a consistent methodology, answering the danger of excessive moral demands with an emancipatory approach to the Gospel. German description: Zahlreiche neue Monographien in englischer Sprache belegen die bleibende Relevanz der Ethik Barths. Doch Barths ethische Texte werden zu selten sorgfaltig rekonstruiert und nicht historisch-genetisch analysiert. Die hier vorgelegte systematische Interpretation der Ethik Barths nimmt als erste diese Desiderate ernst. Das konstruktive Potential Barths wirdbesonders in dem theologischem Pladoyer gesehen, die Kirche solle ihre offentliche Verantwortung konstruktiv zugunsten des Rechts- und Sozialstaats wahrnehmen. Freilich ist kritisch festzuhalten, dass verschiedene ethische Ansatze Barths in Spannung zueinander stehen. Dennoch entfaltet Barth in wegweisenden Partien eine konsistente, auch empirische Argumentation, die der Gefahr moralischer Uberforderung einen emanzipatorischen Ansatz beim Evangelium entgegenstellt.