The term “Eastern Orthodox Ethics” carries two common meanings. First, it refers to a normative way of life that reflects the teachings of the Eastern Orthodox Church about how to live, about right and wrong, and about the meaning of human flourishing. Second, it refers to the discipline of scholarly inquiry and application practiced by religious ethicists working within the tradition of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Before considering the term's two meanings in greater detail, a brief overview of the Eastern Orthodox Church will orient and ground the topic.

Attention to virtue ethics in Eastern Christianity complicates the dominant narrative within the field by revealing new ways of conceptualizing classical problems in virtue theory, new insights into the dynamics of virtues’ development, as well as new contexts for applied virtue ethics. Human flourishing is understood as the progressive realization of theosis—a godly mode of being cultivated through liturgy and askesis, marked by the embodiment of the full range of virtues, and crowned by a radical love.

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Biomedical technologies capable of sharply reducing or ending human aging, “radical life extension” (RLE), call for a Christian response. The authors featured in this article offer some preliminary thoughts. Common themes include: What kind of life counts as a “good life;” the limits, if any, of human freedom; the consequences of extended life on the human species and on the Earth; the meaning and value of finite and vulnerable embodied life; the experience of time; anthropological self-understanding; and human dignity. Notably, all four authors share serious concerns about RLE’s potential effects.

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