Bioethics and Religious Education in Protestantism

ABSTRACT

This essay explores the issues in the Protestant bioethics education in religious schools. In considerations of various theological positions in the Protestantism, the term, Protestantism, is limited to the Calvinist theology in this paper. Especially, some major characteristics of the Calvinist theologies are selected for the applications to the bioethical situations, which are the ideas of sovereign God, the authority of the Bible, and total depravity of human beings and Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation. Based on this theology, the Protestantism finds the norms and duties for life in the Bible, the meanings of life in nature and the dignity of human beings in relation to God, and new understandings of human dignity and life through the incarnation and salvific works of Jesus Christ. Through these Protestant understandings, the principle that may be universally applicable to various bioethical issues and education fields is to be the love of Jesus Christ on the cross. While there may be some problems of the various interpretations and of the identity of Protestantism in the process of universal applications of the principle to bioethical situations in the interactions with the secular world, creative alternatives could be suggested by Christians’ invitations for the world to the fellowship of the Christian faith and the Bible and the continuous fellowships living the life of the stewardship nurtured in the Church and sent to the world. For the alternatives, the Protestant bioethical education should set the clear goals for the bioethical education, and develop effective methods to measure the goals. Such Protestant bioethical education would contribute not only to the religious education of students, but also to the transformation of contemporary Korean society where secularism and materialism are prevalent in negligence of the value and dignity of life.