Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish, and Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World
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Overview
What is abortion? A convenience to society? A legal offense? Murder? We are not the first to face these questions. Abortion was a common practice 2,000 years ago. The young Christian church, growing up in influential centers of Greco-Roman culture, could not ignore the practice. How would church leaders define abortion? Michael J. Gorman examines Christian documents in their Greco-Roman context, concluding that Christians held a consistent position throughout the church’s first 400 years.
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Check out more on this subject from Gorman with Holy Abortion? A Theological Critique of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
- Investigates the early church’s interactions with the issue of abortion
- Examines ancient Christian documents in their Greco-Roman context
- Surveys Greco-Roman culture’s stance on abortion
- Abortion in the Ancient World
- The Pagan World
- The Jewish World
- Christian Beginnings: The First Three Centuries
- Christianity Established: The Fourth and Fifth Centuries
- Abortion and the Early Church: The Wider Context
- The Relevance of the Early Church for Today
Top Highlights
“Why did both Plato and Aristotle support abortion? It is highly unlikely that either philosopher condoned abortion generally or for personal convenience. Rather, each held a utilitarian view of the individual, born or unborn, seeing that individual as existing for the state. No rights granted to the individual were absolute. All rights—even the right to life—were subordinate to the welfare of the state (or the family, the religion or the race) and had to be sacrificed if the best interests of the state demanded it.” (Pages 22–23)
“Both Plato and Aristotle recommended family limitation by abortion (if necessary), and the declines in population of the Roman Empire at the time of Augustus and again after Hadrian were probably due in part to such action by both rich and poor.6 The wealthy did not want to share their estates with many offspring,7 while the poor felt unable to support large families.” (Page 15)
“We will see that three important themes emerged during these centuries: the fetus is the creation of God; abortion is murder; and the judgment of God falls on those guilty of abortion.” (Page 47)
“Abortion in the early stages of pregnancy, ‘on demand’ or as a means of birth control, ‘is very likely not even contemplated in the Mishnaic law.’15 This is important to realize in reading the Talmud and the Mishnah, since most English editions of these works use the word abortion as a synonym for miscarriage or miscarried fetus.” (Page 38)
“If medical ethics opposed abortion, social and philosophical ethics to some extent endorsed it. The ‘Greeks enjoy the dubious distinction of being the first [in the Ancient Near East or Western world] positively to advise and even demand abortion in certain cases.’” (Page 21)
- Title: Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish, and Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World
- Author: Michael J. Gorman
- Publisher: Wipf & Stock
- Publication Date: 1998
- Pages: 120
- Resource Type: Monographs
- Topic: Early Church
Michael J. Gorman holds the Raymond E. Brown Chair in Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Baltimore, Maryland. A highly regarded New Testament scholar, he is the author of Reading Paul, Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers, and Cruciformity: Paul’s Narrative Spirituality of the Cross.
Reviews
2 ratings
Ray Mills
9/11/2023
Glenn Crouch
2/26/2016
This book does a good and reasonably thorough examination of the views and practice of Abortion in the world of the Early Church. It includes examination of Jewish and non-Christian writers / philosophers, as well as a comparison of Early Church writers with them. A good representation of the Early Church writers is included. However be aware that this is also a relatively short book - so should not be seen as exhaustive - though it does give good references at the end. Thus perhaps better to see it as a good start for further investigation for those who desire more. I also appreciated the section near the end, that examined how do we use what the Early Church did and taught - and in fact included a couple of good criticisms. The final chapter whilst still relevant does seem a bit dated reading it in 2016 - and thus may need an update. However I think this is a valuable work for all Christians to read regardless of their Pro-Choice or Pro-Life leanings.
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