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Begotten or Made?
Davenant Press

Begotten or Made?

A New Edition for the 21st Century

by Oliver O’Donovan

A new edition of a prescient volume for the 21st century

How is it that we have so lost sight of the meaning of the human person that our very biological sex is seen as just another medical problem to be solved by technique? In a society that has rejected all moral norms, that refuses to honor God as Creator, what hope do we have of stemming the tide of scientific intervention into even the most sacred dimensions of our humanity? In this prescient volume, originally published in 1984, the eminent theological ethicist Oliver O’Donovan offers a penetrating analysis of our confusion over human nature and the proper boundaries of medical science.

O’Donovan exposes the assumptions that underlie new technologies that presume to “make” human life, and offers Christians the philosophical clarity they need to navigate the torrent of increasingly baffling ethical questions they face.

Today we need this wisdom more than ever, which is why the Davenant Institute is proud to be publishing this affordable new edition for the 21st century, complete with a new introduction by Matthew Lee Anderson and a retrospective by the author.

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About the Author

Oliver O’Donovan

born in 1945 in London, held teaching posts at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Wycliffe College Toronto before becoming Regius Professor of Moral & Pastoral Theology and Canon of Christ Church at the University of Oxford in 1982. He was Professor of Christian Ethics & Practical Theology at Edinburgh from 2006 to 2012. Ordained as a priest of the Church of England, he was an active participant in ecumenical dialogue and a past President of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2000.

He is the author of a number of well-received works on faith and ethics, including On the Thirty-Nine Articles (Paternoster, 1986), The Desire of the Nations (Cambridge University Press, 1996), The Ways of Judgment (2005) and Begotten or Made? (Oxford University Press, 1984)

He is married to Joan Lockwood O’Donovan, and have two sons and four grandchildren.

Jointly he and his wife are the authors of a well-received collection of readings in the history of Christian political thought, From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought 100 – 1625 (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1999) and of a volume of essays, Bonds of Imperfection. Christian politics past and present (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2004).

Publication Details

  • Publisher: Davenant Press
  • ISBN: 978-1-949716-14-6
  • Publication Date: december 13, 2022
  • Pages: 110
  • Author: Oliver O’Donovan

Endorsements

  • “Though written decades ago, this little book by O’Donovan is a masterpiece and still one of the best reflections on what it means to be human in our modern world. It transformed my own thinking on key issues and deserves to be widely read by a new generation of theologians, philosophers, and pastors.”

    — Matthew Lee Anderson, Assistant Research Professor of Ethics and Theology at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and the Associate Director of Baylor in Washington. He is an Associate Fellow at the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at Oxford University, where he completed a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics. Academically, Anderson writes on a wide range of subjects, including pro- and anti-natalism, political theology, and bioethics. Anderson has an M.Phil. from the same university, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University’s Torrey Honors Institute. In 2005 he founded Mere Orthodoxy, a web-based magazine that provides both long- and short-form commentary on matters of religion, politics, and culture from a broadly conservative, evangelical standpoint. He is the author of two books, Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter to Our Faith and The End of our Exploring. Anderson writes occasionally for Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. He was listed among Christianity Today’s ‘33 under 33’ list of younger evangelical leaders, and co-hosts Mere Fidelity, a podcast on faith, theology, and ethics. He lives in Waco, Texas, and in his spare time enjoys beating fourth-graders at basketball

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