An Episcopal Bishop's Teaching on Abortion, Part 7: Back to the Bible

Earlier in this series we saw that the Bible has almost nothing to say about abortion. Neither is there much in the scriptures about when a human being becomes a human being. There are, however, a few passages that hint at this question. They support the conviction among most Christian thinkers in the tradition before the 19^th century that the life in the womb, however sacred, is not a fully ensouled human being at conception.

Remember that you fashioned me like clay
     and will you turn me to dust again?
Did you not pour me out like milk
     and curdle me like cheese?
(Job 10:9-10)

“Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?” It is not hard to imagine what the question is getting at. Our ancestors were less squeamish about some things than we often are. The understanding behind it is the idea that male semen interacted with female blood in the womb similar to the way milk interacted with rennet to make cheese. There it “curdled” or “coagulated” to gradually form a new baby. As with the making of cheese, the making of a new human was a gradual process. 

This was a common understanding in the ancient world and Middle Ages across different cultures. The ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, used this image. The buddha is recorded as having used it. It shows up in the medieval Muslim world and medieval Europe.[1] 

It is this understanding that informs one of Hildegard of Bingen’s visions as depicted here. She does not reference Job, but the idea is the same. In her vision, the soul is infused into the fetus’ body only after it has taken the proper form symbolized by people carrying baskets of cheese around the mother.[2]

The passage from Job 10 continues with a more familiar image that is also found in Psalm 139:

You clothed me with skin and flesh,
     and knit me together with bones and sinews.
You have granted me life and steadfast love,
     and your care has preserved my spirit.
(Job 10:11-12)

 
For you yourself created my inmost parts;
     you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I will thank you because I am marvelously made;
     your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
My body was not hidden from you,
     while I was being made in secret
     and woven in the depths of the earth.
(Psalm 139:12-14, Book of Common Prayer, 1979)

Like the cheese image, the poetic picture of life being “knit” or “woven” in the womb suggests a gradual process of becoming. A skilled knitter sees in a ball of yarn the potential for a beautiful sweater. The yarn might be beautiful and costly. It might thus have great value in itself and to the knitter. But the ball of yarn is not a sweater. It only gradually becomes a sweater as it is fashioned day by day. As the waistband takes shape one can see what it is becoming, but a waistband is not an actual sweater. A knitted sleeve by itself is not a sweater. A sweater is more and other than the ball of yarn from which it began and the stages in between.

Though it is not the only way these inspired poetic images can be interpreted, they lend themselves to the Church’s traditional understanding that becoming human in the womb is a gradual process. This is not exactly what Hildegard, Thomas Aquinas, and others taught. They believed the soul was created directly by God and infused into the body once the fetus had developed sufficiently to be a proper home and instrument of a soul. But that creates a problematic separation of the body and soul.

I think Gregory of Nyssa’s understanding is better. Gregory believed (as did most Christian teachers until the modern era) that all living things, including plants and animals, have souls to a degree.[3] Humans contain all those degrees of soul and our soul develops with our body in the womb. According to Gregory, everything we need to become fully human, body and soul, is there at conception (like a ball of yarn). From there, the body and soul gradually become fully human. Here is how Gregory put it:

“. . . it would not be possible to style the unformed embryo a human being, but only a potential one, assuming that it is completed so as to come forth to human birth, while as long as it is in this unformed state, it is something other than a human being. . .”[4]

“[A]s the soul finds its perfection in that which is intellectual and rational, everything that is not so may indeed share the name of soul, but is not really soul, but a certain vital energy associated with the appellation of soul.”[5]

“[W]e suppose the human germ to possess the potentiality of its nature, sown with it at the first start of its existence, and that it is unfolded and manifested by a natural sequence as it proceeds to its perfect state, not employing anything external to itself as a stepping-stone to perfection, but itself advancing its own self in due course to the perfect state . . .”[6]

According to Gregory, the potentiality of our nature is there at conception. Its actual perfection or completeness involves the capacity for rationality: reason and relationship. imagination and empathy, self-reflection and self-utterance, memory, etc. Not everything nor every organism is fit for a a fully human soul. It is doubtful even God could infuse a rock with a human soul. Or a tree. Or any animal whose brain is incapable of rationality. It is not until later in a pregnancy that the fetus is sufficiently formed with the necessary biological complexity, and with it the soul, that there is an actual human person. Though Hildegard, Aquinas, and others believed the soul was imparted at some later point in the pregnancy, they agreed with Gregory that until it was sufficiently formed, the life in the womb could not bear a fully  human soul.

Although Gregory of Nyssa and the scriptures indicate a gradual becoming in the womb from potential to actual human being, there is no doubt that God is actively and intimately involved in the life from the beginning. And even before (Jeremiah 1:5). Even if we accept that it is not possible “to style the unformed embryo a human being”, we are still talking about something sacred, worthy of care, and not to be denigrated, or interfered with lightly.

Also sacred and worthy of care is the woman in whose womb new life is developing. Her life and well-being are also worthy of respect, consideration, and care. The life that is being knit in her womb is being knit partly from the material and resources of her own life and body. More on that in the next post.

We have looked at the scriptures and tradition. But neither is written from the perspective of modern science. Next, we will look at the biology of pregnancy and the development of life from conception to birth. What might we learn from our contemporary scientific understanding in conversation with scripture and tradition?

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[1] Ott, Sandra. “Aristotle Among the Basques: The ‘Cheese Analogy’ of Conception.” Man 14, no. 4 (1979): 699–711. https://doi.org/10.2307/2802155.

[2] Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias, Mother Columba Hart, Translator, (Paulist Press, 1990) p. 107-129

[3] Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man, VIII.4 (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2914.htm) See also, Oelze Anselm, Animal Rationality, BRILL (2018), pp. 28-35, Chapter 5, ‘Animal Souls and Sensory Cognition’ (https://brill.com/display/book/9789004363779/BP000008.xml)

[4] Gregory of Nyssa, On the Holy Spirit, Against the Macedonians (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2903.htm)

[5] Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man, XV.2 (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2914.htm)

[6] Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man, XXIX.3 (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2914.htm)

Next:

Part 8: Biology of Pregnancy and the Development of Life

Previous:

Part 1: The Episcopal Church’s Stated Position on Childbirth and Abortion

Part 2: Context

Part 3: Old Testament

Part 4: New Testament

Part 5: Tradition

Part 6: Tradition, continued

An Episcopal Bishop's Teaching on Abortion, Part 6: Tradition, continued

In the last post, we saw that Christianity has always had a negative view of abortion. We also saw that most theologians in the Western Christian Tradition made a distinction between the life in the womb early in a pregnancy vs later in a pregnancy. That life, however sacred, was not considered fully human until later, after it was “formed.” We also saw that the Church’s on-the-ground pastoral care made that same distinction and also took into account the reason a woman resorted to abortion – poverty, some medical conditions, and rape being mitigating factors. And even in the Eastern Church, which was generally more strict, the mother’s life took precedence over the life in her womb. Abortion, though sinful, was not simply and always equated with murder.

With few exceptions, this was the standard teaching in the Western Church – particularly the Roman Catholic Church until the 19^th century. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V did change this ancient teaching, decreeing that there was no distinction between a potential and fully human person in the womb. But soon after Sixtus’ death, Pope Gregory XIV returned the Church’s teaching to what it had been. There were also some who argued that abortion earlier in a pregnancy could be defended as not sinful at all. But those arguments got little traction and the official teaching remained more or less consistent until Pius IX who was pope from 1846 to 1878.[1]

In 1854, Pope Pius IX summed up a particular and deepening aspect of devotion to Mary and formally defined the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, asserting that, “from the first moment of her conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was, by the singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of Mankind, kept free from all stain of original sin.”[2] According to this doctrine, with Mary there was an interruption to the general human inheritance of original sin in preparation of her being worthy of conceiving Jesus. For that to work logically, that interruption had to begin at her conception. “The new dogma dealt the old formula [that the soul was not present until later in a pregnancy] a glancing if not fatal blow.”[3] The fatal blow came in 1869 when Pope Pius IX revised canon law and asserted that the fully human person, soul and all, began at conception removing any distinction as to when the fetus might be ensouled. He ruled that abortions at any point of gestation were punishable by excommunication. With that the contemporary Roman Catholic position was born. While some scientific discoveries about the biological specifics (the discovery of sperm and the ovum) might have played a part in this, it seems unlikely given the timing. In any event it seems clear that a theological logic of the Immaculate Conception was decisive.

As a bit of an aside, it is important to note that the Immaculate Conception as a dogma is unique to the Roman Catholic Church. It is not a dogma of the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Tradition. Charles Grafton, 2^nd Bishop of Fond du Lac, who in many ways was very catholic, rejected the teaching.[4] It is also possible to have great devotion to Mary without accepting the idea of the Immaculate Conception, as do the Eastern Orthodox and many Anglicans.

Protestants and Anglicans

I have focused on the Roman Catholic Church partly because of its size and its influence on the topic of abortion. But I am also just unaware of Protestant theologians who have given the topic extended reflection prior to the last half of the 20^th century (that doesn’t mean there have not been, I just haven’t come across them). As we saw, in Part 2, until the late 1970’s, many conservative Protestants, including Southern Baptists and other Evangelicals, held that life in the womb was not fully human.

When they gathered for the Lambeth Conference in 1930, the bishops of the Anglican Communion expressed an “abhorrence of the sinful practice of abortion.”[5] But, beginning in the 1960’s, the teaching of the Church of England moved toward a more gradualist position, holding that “all life is God-given but that life emerges only gradually as does our moral responsibility towards that life.”[6] Though less clearly articulated, this seems to be the direction of the various resolutions of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.[7]

Some observations about this survey of the tradition 

1.       Three ways of understanding. In the Christian tradition we see that there have been three ways of understanding life in the womb. Each of these has implications for how one views abortion. One is Immediate Animation in which the fully human soul begins at conception. This is the view held by Basil of Caesarea and most of the Eastern Church. Augustine of Hippo also seems to have been inclined toward this view though he remained noncommittal. A second understanding is Delayed Animation in which the soul is imparted or infused into the fetus by God at some point after conception. This was the view of Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Aquinas, and most theologians of the Western Church until 1869. Gregory of Nyssa (along with his sister, Macrina, perhaps) seems to hold a third view, a Gradual Animation, in which the soul and body gradually develop together into a fully human being. We will observe in the next post that this third understanding is reflected in the Old Testament.

2.       What’s the question? How one comes at the philosophical or theological question of when life begins depended partly on what prior question one was trying to address.

For Augustine, the prior question was “How is it that we are sinners from the start and how is original sin passed from generation to generation?” Why, after all, do we baptize infants for the forgiveness of sin? These are questions Augustine wrestled with, not because he made them up, but because they were implications of the traditional teaching of the church as he inherited it. Grappling with those questions led him to favor the notion of immediate animation, though in deference to the tradition he had received, he never fully embraced that position. Similar questions lie behind the notion of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

A different question concerned Gregory of Nyssa and Thomas Aquinas. For them, the question was what kind of body is suited for the human soul? A fully human rational soul cannot exist until the organism is sufficiently developed to receive it – only after some weeks or months of development in the womb.

3.       A mostly male perspective. By far, most of the theologians known in the tradition are male. That needs to be acknowledged. While they can be simply dismissed for that, it is impossible to deny that their perspective and experience is thus limited.

There were some women theologians, several of whom are not only considered saints, but according to the Roman Catholic Church, “Doctors of the Church”, i.e., authoritative teachers. Hildegard of Bingen is one of those. Other women saints and doctors like Catherine of Siena and Theresa of Avila do not speak to the issue of abortion or when life begins as far as I know. Neither does Julian of Norwich. Macrina might have, if it is really her words recorded by Gregory of Nyssa in the ‘On the Soul and the Resurrection’.

One can have great respect for male theologians of the tradition while also admitting that they often have very limited and sometimes negative understandings toward women generally and the reasons why a woman might feel compelled to contemplate abortion. Then, as now, there was a good deal of blaming and shaming of women. There also seems at times, then as now, to have been a general discomfort with female sexuality that colored views on abortion The most common assumption was that they chose abortion because they had had illicit sex and wanted to hide their guilt.

There were exceptions to the tendency to place all the blame on women. John Chrysostom aimed his preaching against abortion at men whose sexual promiscuity impregnated women causing them to seek drastic solutions, “For even if the daring deed be hers, yet the causing of it is yours.”[8] Others, like Thomas Sanchez (1550-1610) expressed concern for the violence some young women would be subject to at the hands of their families or others if they became pregnant outside of marriage.[9]

We don’t know much about what everyday women or men thought about this. Or much else. Clearly some thought abortion was the necessary thing to do even if they thought it was sinful in some sense. And it is the case that there were women who were knowledgeable about natural medicine that included medical recipes of herbs to regulate menstruation. Some of these could also cause abortion in the early stages of a pregnancy. Hildegard of Bingen, who along with being a theologian, mystic, and composer, also wrote medical treatises that included recipes for such medicine. Given the common teaching and understanding that the life in the womb was not fully human or ensouled until later, it is not hard to imagine women (along with their husbands if they were married) resorting to the medical assistance of a local woman knowledgeable in the use of medicinal herbs. It might still be a sin in need of confession and repentance. But it would not be considered murder.

4.       Mostly celibate. Another thing that needs acknowledging and factoring in is the reality that nearly all theologians, men and women, were committed to celibacy. Augustine notoriously had a live-in girlfriend with whom he had a son before he got more serious about his faith. Gregory of Nyssa might have been married at some point before becoming a bishop. But there were no serious theologians or spiritual writers before the Reformation who were married and living with the possibility of being responsible for a pregnancy. I do not think that disqualifies their teaching. But it is not irrelevant nor is it disrespectful to ask how it might have shaped their thinking.

5.       Early Abortion and Contraception. One thing that makes it hard to sort out the reason for opposition to abortion, particularly in the earlier stages of a pregnancy, is that the opposition is often linked with opposition to contraception and that the language against contraception mirrors that against abortion. Here are a few examples:

Caesarius of Arles (died, 542) preached,

“Who is he who cannot warn that no woman may take a potion so that she is unable to conceive or condemns in herself the nature which God willed to be fecund? As often as she could have conceived or given birth, of that many homicides she will be held guilty”[10]

            In his penitential guide, Regino of Prüm (died 915) gave this counsel,

“If anyone, to satisfy their own desires, or through hatred did something to a man or woman which would impede their having children, or gave them any drink so that they could not, he could engender or she conceive, this must be held to be homicide”[11]

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) asserts that contraception is analogous to murder.[12]

John Calvin (1509-1564), in his commentary on Genesis 38:9-10, wrote,

“[Interfering with conception during intercourse] “means that one quenches the hope of his family, and kills the son, which could be expected, before he is born.”[13]

Martin Luther (1483-1546), commenting on Genesis 25:1-4 wrote,

“How great, therefore, the wickedness of human nature is! How many girls there are who prevent conception and kill and expel tender fetuses, although procreation is the work of God.”[14]

Most Christians, including Anglicans, do not consider contraception to be sinful. Even fewer would associate contraception with murder or abortion. That these authors did so raises questions about where they drew the line between contraception and abortion. It is plausible that their opposition to abortion in the early stage of pregnancy has more to do with opposition to contraception than concerns about taking a fully human life. This would not be the only reason they would oppose abortion in the earlier stages. But it is something to take into account as we seek to understand them.

6.      Tradition as an ongoing conversation.

Many find the idea that we might be beholden to tradition difficult. We tend to be suspicious of tradition. But being shaped by a tradition of some sort, explicitly or implicitly, is inevitable. Even the being suspicious of tradition is a tradition we have inherited from philosophical and political ideas from three or four centuries ago. As Christians, we are committed to placing ourselves under the authority of scripture and tradition understood through the application of careful reason in community. We are to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1-6), including our own thinking, our own prejudices, in light of those authorities. Because any authority can be abused, they should also be tested, at least in their application.

As we’ve seen, the Tradition is not one thing. There is a diversity of views and interpretations. Nor is it static or unchanging. But that need not worry us. Christian philosopher, Alasdair MacIntyre, has written, “Traditions, when vital, embody continuities of conflict.”[15] Tradition is an ongoing conversation and even debate in which every generation takes part. To faithfully take part we need to be conversant in the continuities as well as the conflicts, so we know the language of Christianity, not just the language of our contemporary world. Our task is to understand what the conflicts are about and look for the continuities as we seek to embody faithfulness in our time.

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[1] John T. Noonan, “Abortion and the Catholic Church: A Summary History” (1967) Natural Law Forum, p. 85-131

[2] Pope Pius IX, “Ineffabilis Deus. The Immaculate Conception” (1854) (https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9ineff.htm)

[3] John T. Noonan, “Abortion and the Catholic Church: A Summary History” (1967) Natural Law Forum p. 114

[4] Charles Grafton, “The Three Religions: Protestantism, Romanism, and Catholicism”, Project Canterbury, (http://anglicanhistory.org/grafton/v8/350.html)

[5] The Lambeth Conference, 1930, Resolution 16 (file:///C:/Users/BishopMattGunter/Downloads/1930.pdf). This was reaffirmed with more nuance at the 1958 Lambeth Conference

[6] Robin Gill, “Church of England (Anglican) Perspectives on Abortion” , pp 63 – 72 in “Abortion: Global Positions and Practices, Religious and Legal Perspectives”, Alireza Bagheri ed., Springer (2021)

[7] “The Episcopal Church’s Stated Position on Childbirth and Abortion” (https://anoddworkofgrace.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-episcopal-churchs-stated-position.html)

[8] John Chrysostom, Homily 24 on Romans

(https://bibleportal.com/sermon/John-Chrysostom/homily-24-on-romans)

[9] John T. Noonan, “Abortion and the Catholic Church: A Summary History” (1967) Natural Law Forum, p. 126

[10] Caesarius of Arles, Sermons 1:12 (https://www.catholic.com/tract/contraception-and-sterilization)

[11] Pierre Riché; Jo Ann McNamara, ed and trans, “Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne” (University of Pennsylvania Press), p. 50.

[12] Thomas Aquinas, “Contra Gentiles”, 3.122.9 (https://isidore.co/aquinas/english/ContraGentiles3b.htm#122)

[13] John Calvin, “Commentary on Genesis” (https://bibleportal.com/commentary/section/john-calvin/12835)

[14] Martin Luther, “Luther's works / Vol. 4, Lectures on Genesis, chapters 21-25”, Jaroslav Pelikan, ed., p. 304 (https://archive.org/details/luthersworksv4c21-25unse/page/304/mode/2up)

[15] Alasdair MacIntyre, “After Virtue”, University of Notre Dame Press (2007) p. 221

Next:

Part 7: Back to the Bible

Previous:

Part 1: The Episcopal Church’s Stated Position on Childbirth and Abortion

Part 2: Context

Part 3: Old Testament

Part 4: New Testament

Part 5: Tradition

An Episcopal Bishop's Teaching on Abortion, Part 5: Tradition

Introduction

We start with the Bible, but most Christians, including Anglicans, do not stop there. “We understand the meaning of the Bible by the help of the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church in the true interpretation of the Scriptures” (BCP, p. 853). We look to how the Church has interpreted the Bible through the years with particular attention to official teaching, the thinking of major theologians, and the lives of the saints. We are not bound to simply repeat the Tradition. For one thing, the Tradition is not uniform and we have to attend to a diversity of voices that do not always agree. Also, the Tradition is not static and unchanging. Still, we do believe the Holy Spirit has been present in the Church to inspire and guide it. So, while we are not bound to simply repeat the Tradition, we do want to humbly engage and maintain continuity with it even as we pray and listen together for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our own day.

Christianity’s Radical Newness

As Christianity spread throughout the classical Greco-Roman world, it reshaped the imagination of converts and eventually society in general. Things that had been despised or held in low esteem were now valued – things like humility, compassion for the poor and the weak, for slaves, etc. This included the then radical idea that every human being, regardless of social standing or nationality or gender or age, was a person with dignity and worthy of respect and care. This included a new valuing of children.[1]

One thing that set Christians (along with Jews) apart from their pagan neighbors was their emphatic rejection of infanticide. In the ancient world it was assumed that a father could dispose of an unwanted baby after it was born as he saw fit. Any offspring belonged to the father and he had the right to choose if it lived or died. From its beginning, the Church rejected this, insisting that the life of the child was God’s, not the father’s.

Early Christian Teaching on Abortion

Christians extended this concern for life into the womb. From the beginning, Christianity taught that abortion was a serious sin. An early Christian text, the Didache, usually dated in the decades after the death of Paul says, “you shall not abort a child or commit infanticide”[2] The Epistle of Barnabas, another early Christian text said, “You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not slay the child by abortion. You shall not kill that which has already been generated.”[3] St. Basil the Great (c330-379), Bishop of Caesarea, wrote, “The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed..”[4]

St. John Chrysostom (347-407) also described abortion as murder.[5] This became the standard teaching in the Eastern Church. But, despite the quote above, Basil imposed a lesser penalty or penance for abortion than for murder.[6] And though abortion was generally against the law in the medieval Byzantine Empire, “both Imperial Legislation and the Orthodox Church accepted selective abortion for medical reasons,” particularly when the mother’s life was threatened[7] and the Jusintinan Cosde of the sixth century excused from penalty abortions performed prior to forty days after conception.

The Beginning of Soul/Person in Church Tradition

But it gets more complicated. Although Basil in the quote above explicitly rejects the idea, other theologians made a distinction depending on how far along the pregnancy was. Basil’s younger brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa (335-395), took this approach,

“. . . just as it would not be possible to style the unformed embryo a human being, but only a potential one, assuming that it is completed so as to come forth to human birth, while as long as it is in this unformed state, it is something other than a human being. . .”[8]

This became the common understanding in the Western Church of which the Anglican Tradition and the Episcopal Church are a part. Christian thinkers in the Western Church grappled with the question, at what point are we talking about a human soul? They did not engage this question in a vacuum. In the absence of a clear teaching in the Scripture, they were also influenced by the teaching of classical philosophy. And on this, ancient philosophers and philosophical schools differed. Plato taught that the soul was there from conception (although he still advocated for the option of abortion and infanticide for the sake of population control and eugenics). Aristotle taught that the life in the womb was not animated, or ensouled, until some weeks after conception (he also believed that abortion and infanticide were useful for population control and eugenics). The Stoics, like the Jewish tradition, taught that human life began at birth. Ironically, the Stoics were nevertheless strongly opposed to abortion.[9] These philosopher and philosophical schools shaped the thinking of Christian theologians.

The common teaching in the Western Church has been, until relatively recently, that in the early stages of pregnancy there was only a potential human in the womb which did not become or receive a fully human soul until later in the pregnancy – after the body was “formed”. The rationale seems partly to be based on the Christian conviction that the human soul and body are fundamentally inseparable. Though the teaching has generally been that the soul in some sense survives the death of the body, the tradition has insisted that the soul remains incomplete until it is reunited with the body in the resurrection. There must be a human body for there to be a human soul. And one cannot have a soul or relate to God or others until one has the biological capacity – physical and mental.

St. Jerome (died, 420), who translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin, affirmed the notion that only at a certain stage of development was the life in the womb a fully human person,

“For just as seeds are gradually formed in wombs and for so long a time murder is not considered until mixed up elements take up their appearances and limbs . . .”[10]

Though the question of the origin of the human soul baffled him throughout his life, St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) wrote,

“If what is brought forth is unformed (inforne) but at this stage some sort of living, shapeless thing (informiter), then the law of homicide would not apply, for it could not be said that there was a living soul in that body, for it lacks all sense, if it be such as is not yet formed (nondum formata) and therefore not yet endowed with its senses.”[11]

In On Virginal Conception and Original Sin, St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) wrote, 

"no human intellect accepts the view that an infant has the rational soul from the moment of conception."[12]

The great mystic and theologian, St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), also taught that it was not until the fetus was formed whole with all its members that it received a spirit,

“. . . when a woman has conceived by human semen, an infant with all its members whole is formed in the hidden chamber of womb. . . by God’s secret and hidden command and will, fitly and rightly at the divinely appointed time the infant in the maternal womb receives a spirit . . .”[13]

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the most consequential medieval theologian also taught that the life in the womb gradually became human, but was not fully human until it was “animated” (ensouled) many weeks into the pregnancy.[14]

Penitentials

In the medieval period penitential canons were developed. These were handbooks to guide those who heard confessions in discerning what penances needed to be done for various sins. The more serious the sin, the more intense the penance. The teaching was always that abortion was a sin. But the seriousness of the sin depended on when it occurred and other circumstantial factors.

The Canons of Theodore were an early medieval penitential composed around 700 A.D soon after the death of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury. In assigning penance for an abortion a distinction was made based on whether it was earlier and later in the pregnancy. Only if the abortion is later is she “to be accused as a homicide” and do penance accordingly.[15] Irish penitentials form this period made similar distinctions.[16]

In some early medieval penitential guides, the reason for resorting to abortion was considered. The penance was significantly reduced if it was resorted to due to poverty, for example. One penetential of this period deems, “But it makes a great difference whether a poor woman does it on account of the difficulty of feeding [her child] . . .” Medical conditions were also seen as a mitigating factor, as in the case of a woman who took an abortifacient potion because of her fear of “death or concern about the narrowness of her birth canal.” Rape was also an extenuating circumstance in some penitenbtial texts, which “explicitly state that a woman is 'not guilty', if she commits abortion after being raped.”[17]  

Gratian's Decretum was a collection of canon law completed around 1140 by a Benedictine monk from Italy Gratian became known as the father of the study of canon law. The Decretum became the standard for church discipline in subsequent centuries. Gratian states, “He is not a murderer who brings about abortion before the soul is in the body.”[18] He does not specify precisely when the soul enters the body, but, as with the theologians quoted above, it is at a later point in a pregnancy.

Reformation and After

Martin Luther did not write extensively about the issues and questions related to abortion. But when he did refer to abortion, he condemned it.[19] He does not mention any distinction between early and later pregnancy.

John Calvin also makes no mention of a distinction between early and later life in the womb. In his Commentary on Exodus 20:21 he wrote,

“If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a foetus in the womb before it has come to light.”[20]

But his interpretation of this passage is problematic.[21]

Luther’s collaborator, Phillip Melanchthon “believed that the soul was given by God only after the body was formed.” “Seventeenth-century Anglican and Puritan authors shared in condemning abortion, usually associating it with sexual immorality, and sometimes reviving the distinction between the formed and unformed fetus.”[22]

Conclusion

The Christian Tradition has always taken a negative view of abortion. The mystery and sanctity of life and the process of procreation have always been a concern. But its most authoritative theologians have taught that the life in the womb was not a fully ensouled human early in the pregnancy. They considered abortion at any point a sin. But the seriousness of the sin depended on when it occurred. It was not considered homicide before the fetus was formed. In the Church's on-the-ground pastoral practice, the seriousness of the sin could also depend on other factors. For example, abortion might be considered less sinful if resorted due to poverty or or fear of detrh due to medical conditions, or not sin at all if due to rape. And, in any event, if the life of the pregnant woman was threatened, her life took precedence.

This was more or less the common teaching of most of the Church. It was the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church until 1869. We’ll look at that change and make some other observations in the next post.

______

[1] O. M. Bakke, When Children Became People: The Birth of Childhood in Early Christianity (Fortress Press, 2005)

[2] Didache 2.2

[3] Epistle of Barnabas XIX, 5

[4] Basil of Caesarea, Letter 188, To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons II (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3202188.htm)

[5] John Chrysostom, Homily 24 on Romans

 (https://bibleportal.com/sermon/John-Chrysostom/homily-24-on-romans)

[6] David Albert Jones, The Soul of the Embryo (Continuum International, 2004), p. 64

[7] Poulakou-Rebelakou, Lascaratos, and Marketos, Abortions in Byzantine Times, Vesalius, II, 1,19-25, 1996

[8] Gregory of Nyssa, On the Holy Spirit, Against the Macedonians (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2903.htm) This can appear to be in some tension with what Gregory (or his sister, Macrina) seems to say in On the Soul and the Resurrection and in On the Making of Man where it is affirmed that the soul is coterminous with the body. But those isolated quotes need to be understood in light of Gregory’s understanding that even plants and animals have souls to a degree. The soul of the preformed fetus has only the potential to become a fully human soul even as the embryo has only the potential to be a fully human body. See On the Making of Man, VIII.4 (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2914.htm). Thomas Aquinas also articulated this understanding (see footnote #14)

[9] Michael Gorman, Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish and Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World, (Downers Grove, Intervarsity Press), p. 22-23

[10] Jerome, Letter 121, To Algasia (https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/1291.html)

[11] Augustine of Hippo. Questions on the Heptateuch; quoted by G R Dunstan in The moral status of the human embryo: a tradition recalled (Journal of medical Ethics, 1984 Mar;10(1):38-44)

[12] Anselm of Canterbury, On Virginal Conception and Original Sin, Chapter 7 (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://jasper-hopkins.info/DeConceptu.pdf)

[13] Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias, Mother Columba Hart (Translator)  (Paulist Press, 1990) p. 119

[14] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Question 64, (https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3064.htm)

[15] Early Penitentials: Canons of Theodore (opensource) p. 20 B66.05.02 (https://archive.org/details/EarlyPenitentialsTheCanonsOfTheodore/page/n19/mode/2up)

[16] G R Dunstan in The moral status of the human embryo: a tradition recalled (Journal of medical Ethics, 1984 Mar;10(1):38-44)

[17] Margaret D. Kamitsuka, Abortion and the Christian Tradition, (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY), p. 29-32 

See also, Marianne J. Elsakkers, Reading Between the Lines: Old Germanic and Early Christian Views on Aborretion, PhD Dissertation, (University of Asterdam, 2010), p. 449-450 (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/1578630/76086_chapter_3_embargo_twee_jaar.pdf). 

And also, Pierre Riché; Jo Ann McNamara, ed and trans, Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne (University of Pennsylvania Press), p. 50.

[18] Donald DeMarco, The Roman Catholic Church and Abortion: An Historical Perspective - Part I, (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3361##)

[19]  Peter Barnes, Abortion and the Reformation, Evangelicals For Life.com, posted on May 24, 2010. (http://evangelicalsforlife.com/abortion-and-the-reformation)

[20] John Calvin, Commentary on Exodus 20:21 (https://www.bibliaplus.org/en/commentaries/3/john-calvins-bible-commentary/exodus/21/22)

[21] As we saw in Part 3, this passage is unclear. Calvin admits that it is ambiguous and unclear as to whether it applies to the pregnant woman only or to the foetus also. But then he assumes it must include the foetus given his conviction expressed in the quote above.

[22] Lisa Sowle Cahill, “Abortion” in The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics, James E. Childresa and John Macquarrie, ed., p. 3. Unfortunately she does not include names or references.

Next:

Part 6: Tradition, continued

Previous:

Part 1: The Episcopal Church’s Stated Position on Childbirth and Abortion

Part 2: Context

Part 3: Old Testament

Part 4: New Testament