Burdened Agency: Christian Theology and End-of-Life Ethics

by Travis Pickell

Travis Pickell explores the paradoxes of choice in modern dying and proposes that we turn to Christian theology to rethink moral agency and dignity at the end of life.

This engaging study 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.

Pickell’s study 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, he devises a radically countercultural approach to death and dying rooted in Christian theological commitments and enacted in the practices of baptism, Eucharist, and prayer.

228 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2024

Reviews

[Daniel Rempel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review forthcoming in Studies in Christian Ethics.

[LJ Brazier · Rating 1 out of 5]

A good-ish start at some questions. Conflates several words and ideas in ways that make his point at the expense of removing a lot of meaning from each word. Even the title - he conflates “agency” with “autonomy” but seems to be actually referring to autonomy. Would love to see a later version of this with input from colleagues in medical ethics and spiritual care, and a much more aggressive edit