Gilbert Meilaender

Meilaender was born on January 31, 1946. His father was a Lutheran pastor, and Meilaender followed in his footsteps to also become a Lutheran pastor. He received his B.A. from Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and went on to receive his Master of Divinity in 1972 from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. Meilaender earned his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1976, where he studied under prominent Christian ethicist Paul Ramsey.[1][2]

Meilaender taught at the University of Virginia from 1975 to 1978 and at Oberlin College from 1978 to 1996. He held the Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University from 1996 to 2014. As of 2020, he is Senior Research Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University. He has also served as a Fellow of the Hastings Center and as Paul Ramsey Fellow at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.[2]

Meilaender has been called “one of Lutheranism’s brightest lights in the field of bioethics”[3] and “one of the most important Christian ethicists of his generation.”[1] In 2015, Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions cosponsored a conference with the Berkeley Institute to celebrate the work of Gilbert Meilaender, describing him as "one of the leading ethicists of our time" and highlighting his contributions to the study of bioethics, human dignity, justice, and the place of religion in the public sphere.[4] Papers from the conference were collected and published in Studies in Christian Ethics's May 2017 issue, which was dedicated to discussing Meilaender's thought. The journal, in assessing Meilaender's influence on ethics and theology, stated that “for over three decades, the work of Gilbert Meilaender has been at the center of American theological and moral discussion,” both in shaping the field of bioethics during its emergence and in influencing public policy on controverted issues.[5]

Meilaender has served as an associate editor of Religious Studies Review, an associate editor of the Journal of Religious Ethics, and as a consultant editor of Studies in Christian Ethics. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Christian Ethics.[2] He has also had a decades-long relationship with First Things, which he has served both as a writer and on the editorial advisory board.[6] He has also served as a contributing editor for The New Atlantis.[7]

One of his many books, Bioethics: A Primer for Christians, is recognized as a "short but influential" introduction to the field for general readers.[8] World declared it one of the best hundred books of the twentieth century,[9] and Christianity Today included it in a list of the top five books on life ethics.[10] First published in 1996, Bioethics: A Primer for Christians received its fourth edition in 2020, having been updated to keep pace with recent biomedical developments. Asked why he thought the book had such “staying power as a text,” Meilaender suggested its narrow focus on “questions that have been of central importance in bioethics and that almost everyone sooner or later has to think about” might be one reason.[11] Subjects addressed in the book include assisted reproduction, abortion, prenatal screening, gene editing, suicide and euthanasia, and organ donation, among others.

Meilaender also served as coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics, which discusses the field of ethics within a Christian framework.[12]