The hermeneutics of human life is one of the most challenging issues in the fields of
bioscience and of ethics today. Recent breakthroughs in bio science challenge the prevalent
metaphors and paradigms which define human life in the human and natural sciences that
influence our understanding of diseases illness therapy aging dying and consequently
also shape medical practice. In the essays collected in this book scientists ethicists
philosophers and theologians bring Bonhoeffer's ethics and his theological anthropology into
dialogue with bioscience and explore current bioethical and anthropological issues. All
articles were first presented as lectures at the Third International Bonhoeffer Colloquium at
Freie Universität Berlin 2009. Bonhoeffer's Ethics as presented in this book helps to
articulate a semantics of human life which stimulates a debate between science and ethics and
which assists in finding fresh ways for understanding human life and the related tasks of
scientific research and medical practice.
