Culture of life
way of life highlighting life's sanctity
A culture of life describes a way of life based on the belief that human life begins at conception, and is sacred at all stages from conception through natural death. It opposes abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment (death penalty), studies and medicines involving embryonic stem cells, and contraception, because they are seen as destroying life. It also promotes policies that "lift up the human spirit with compassion and love." The term originated in moral theology, especially that of the Catholic Church, and was popularly championed by Pope John Paul II; it has been widely used by religious leaders in evangelical Christianity as well. The philosophy of such a culture is a consistent life ethic.
In the United States, secular politicians such as George W. Bush have also used the phrase. In 2004, the Republican Party included a plank in their platform for "Promoting a Culture of Life".
Catholic Church
The expression "culture of life" entered popular parlance from Pope John Paul II in the 1990s. He used the term in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus annus, and then more fully expanded upon it in the 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae ("Gospel of Life"):
In our present social context, marked by a dramatic struggle between the "culture of life" and the "culture of death", there is need to develop a deep critical sense, capable of discerning true values and authentic needs.
In the encyclical, the pope noted that even those who were not Catholic "can appreciate the intrinsic value of human life." He also issued "a pressing appeal addressed to each and every person, in the name of God: Respect, protect, love, and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!"
John Paul linked this to Catholic teaching, which believes every person is created in the image and likeness of God and is intimately loved by God.
“Culture of life” enters the record as way of life highlighting life's sanctity. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Culture, life and highlighting can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3441538. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2004, 1991 and 1995.
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This entry incorporates text from “Culture of life” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.