Dr. James Rusthoven on Ethics and Faith
On March 26th and 27th the Farel community had the privilege of welcoming Dr. James Rusthoven, an experienced medical doctor and ethicist, to present the inaugural Rev. Martin D. Geleynse lectures on faith and culture. Named after one of Farel Seminary’s pioneering directors in the 1980s, these lectures were set up to address the burning cultural and ethical questions of our day by sound biblical and theological reflection. To this end Dr. Rusthoven was a perfect fit.
In his first lecture, held at the Christian Reformed Church of Montréal, Dr. Rusthoven reclaimed the ‘mystery’ of personhood over against the dominant view in our society which defines the person by her capacities. For example, rather than define the person for what she is in God’s sight (like in Psalm 139), the reigning paradigm defines the person by her ability to think—as such the biblical view and the paradigm of our culture have substantially different understandings of the embryo (which cannot think). He persuasively argued that the church ought to be more proactive in thinking about moral issues than reactive—rather than dealing with problems after they happen, the church ought to engage with them now.
Dr. Rusthoven’s second lecture sprung from his generation of experience dealing with cancer patients. The main goal was to consider the decision-making process between doctor and patient. Presenting interesting case examples, he led us to ponder some difficult issues. Most interesting was our discussion of how to present bad news and frame it in a helpful way.
