Overview

Travis Pickell explores the paradoxes of choice in modern dying and the ways Christian theology can aid in navigating the relationship between moral agency and dignity at the end of life. Burdened Agency addresses the problem of death and dying through Christian theology and ethics. In previous centuries, death was something that simply “happened” to us. To choose how or when one died was the exception, not the rule. However, due to advances in modern medicine, individuals are increasingly required to make concrete choices about the nature and timing of death. Modernity, with its emphasis on individualism, complicates this further because we are increasingly bereft of cultural and religious guidance regarding death. This gives rise to the phenomenon of “burdened agency”: the predicament of having to make such difficult choices with so little to help us. This engaging book offers a historical and philosophical account of the origins of our situation of burdened agency, as well as a Christian solution to the problems that it raises. Looking to theologians such as Karl Rahner, Karl Barth, and Stanley Hauerwas, Pickell devises a radically countercultural approach to death and dying rooted in Christian theological commitments and enacted in the practices of baptism, Eucharist, and prayer.

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9780268208417

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"""Well organized, thoughtful, and compelling, and deserves a broad readership."" —Joel Shuman, co-author of Reclaiming the Body: Christians and the Faithful Use of Modern Medicine"

"""Well organized, thoughtful, and compelling, and deserves a broad readership."" —Joel Shuman, co-author of Reclaiming the Body “Travis Pickell has given us a wise, timely, and lucidly written book. ‘How to die well?’ is a perennial question, but more choice and less cultural guidance have made it profoundly challenging. Drawing on Rahner, Barth, Hauerwas, and others, Pickell offers a path through this unavoidable thicket, a deeply Christian ethic of receptivity to the gift of our finitude and of openness to God’s providential care.” —Joseph E. Davis, co-editor of The Evening of Life"

"""Well organized, thoughtful, and compelling, and deserves a broad readership."" —Joel Shuman, co-author of Reclaiming the Body: Christians and the Faithful Use of Modern Medicine “Travis Pickell has given us a wise, timely, and lucidly written book. ‘How to die well?’ is a perennial question, but more choice and less cultural guidance have made it profoundly challenging. Drawing on Rahner, Barth, Hauerwas, and others, Pickell offers a path through this unavoidable thicket, a deeply Christian ethic of receptivity to the gift of our finitude and of openness to God’s providential care.” —Joseph E. Davis, co-editor of The Evening of Life"

Author Information

Travis Pickell is an assistant professor of theology and ethics at George Fox University, where he also directs the Character Virtue Initiative and the Cornerstone Core curriculum.

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