Each year in January, Calvin College, with the support of civic-minded individuals and institutions, hosts an extraordinarily rich series of lectures and musical events. This year's January Series brings to Grand Rapids a typically wide-ranging array of speakers, beginning on the 3rd with Robert Hughes, the iconoclastic art critic and cultural commentator, and concluding on the 23rd with Hanan Ashrawi, commissioner of information and public policy for the Arab League and a member of the Palestine Legislative Council. In between, audiences at Calvin will hear from figures as varied as the Wilberforce Forum's Chuck Colson, New Testament scholar N.T. Wright, and Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the preeminent African American scholar. Books & Culture is pleased to offer reports on selected lectures in the series.

"Biotechnology can be of great service in fulfilling God's mandate to sustain, restore, and improve Creation," according to Wingate University ethics professor James C. Peterson. On January 17, the same day on which the bioethics commission newly appointed by President Bush held its first meeting, Peterson told an audience of over 800 at Calvin College that human genetic intervention can be justified within a Reformed Christian worldview. Indeed, Peterson said, such technology-properly used-is becoming an important means of loving God and neighbor.

Peterson, who holds the C.C. Dickson endowed Chair of Ethics at Wingate University, is also an adjunct professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and an ordained minister of the American Baptist Churches. Many of the issues discussed in his lecture are detailed in his recent book, Genetic Turning Points: the Ethics of Human Genetic Intervention (Eerdmans, 2001).

Peterson outlined some of the ethical dilemmas facing Christians in a biotech world, but he also stressed that followers of Jesus Christ have no option but to develop these technologies to the glory of God. As Christians, we are called "to develop the Creation as good stewards of God," said Peterson.

One method of developing Creation is genetic research, testing, pharmaceutical treatment, and surgery, said Peterson. Scientists must climb this twisted ladder of genetic intervention, not "playing God" but obeying God by intervening genetically as long as human safety is assured and proper goals are kept in perspective.

Peterson opened his lecture by describing genes as merely a slice of the physical world, which is in turn only a small part of human life. The double helix of DNA within each human cell determines the physicality of a human body but not the totality of the person as a child of God. Nevertheless, human genetic intervention is an opportunity to increase the quality of a life, soul as well as body. All genetic efforts, whether they be preliminary research or advanced manipulation, should work toward God's plan for creation, redemption, and restoration in the cosmos.

Peterson warned that both eugenics and idleness are slippery slopes to be avoided. Racism-induced eugenics reminiscent of the Nazi era and humanistic attempts at a genetic utopia are sinful possibilities, but damning all genetic intervention as evil is also an affront to God. The physical world matters to God, Peterson argued; clearly, we as humans "could be physically better. Pride is a sin, yes, but so is sloth."

Jesus himself taught that humanity should not bury the talents and resources which God has provided. Using the three parables of Matthew 24, Peterson argued that it would be sinful for biogeneticists to leave unemployed the budding genetic technologies. Scientists should use their time and talents wisely in order to meet the physical needs of the "least of these" on earth. Peterson said that many of the substantial events in the life of Jesus were physical events, from the incarnation itself to miracles of physical healing and wine production. Just as Jesus concentrated on the "relief of suffering and the increase of ability," biogeneticists should be among Christ's agents of renewal and do the same.

Hessel Bouma III, professor of biology at Calvin College and a frequent commentator on bioethical issues, said after the lecture that Peterson "is eminently qualified to address the morally laden issues of genetic interventions," and that he "made a compelling case for the responsible use" of genetic biotechnology in the world today.

At a time when many Christians are deeply alarmed at the prospects of biotechnology run amok, Peterson offered a strikingly optimistic perspective. Acknowledging that we need to proceed cautiously when entering this realm, he concluded that as long as we keep "the big picture" in mind, we can expect a bright and God-glorifying horizon for genetic intervention.

Benjamin Fox is an undergraduate at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.