Christian Ethics

Violence, Nonviolence and the Temple Incident in John 2:13-15

by Andy Alexis-Baker

Alexis-Baker, Andy. "Violence, Nonviolence and the Temple Incident in John 2:13–15." Biblical Interpretation 20 (2012): 73–96.

The temple incident has been a popular episode in Jesus’ ministry from which Christians since Augustine have drawn to... more The temple incident has been a popular episode in Jesus’ ministry from which Christians since Augustine have drawn to justify Christian violence ranging from punishing schismatics and heretics to justifying war and the death penalty. However, another tradition of reading this passage nonviolently began well before Augustine. Whether contextualizing the passage in a narrative reading so that it would have spiritual meaning or seeing the Greek grammar as disallowing that Jesus hit people with the whip, these nonviolent strategies effectively undercut any notion that Jesus’ action could provide a model for Christian violence. A close reading of the Greek text, I believe, supports these nonviolent strategies for reading the text, which simply denies based on Greek grammar that Jesus used his whip on any person.

Christianity and the Rights of Women

by M. Christian Green

In John Witte, Jr., and Frank Alexander, eds., Christianity and Human Rights: An Introduction (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 302-319.

Christianity, like other religious traditions, has often had an ambivalent relationship to women’s rights. While some... more Christianity, like other religious traditions, has often had an ambivalent relationship to women’s rights. While some passages in the New Testament prescribe for women a posture of submission, subjection, silence, and subordination, others hold out the tantalizing prospect of equality. When it comes to the rights of women, Christianity is rife with dualities of subordination and liberation, equality and difference, sacrifice and virtue, creation and redemption. In this chapter, I provide a brief historical overview how Christian women, both comfortably ensconced and sometimes alienated from the tradition, have addressed, resisted, and reconciled these tensions. I relate these historical struggles to the ongoing evolution of women’s rights in the international human rights frameworks established in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1981, the International Conference on Population and Development at Cairo in 1994, and the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995. From these historical and contemporary tensions between Christianity and the human rights of women, I distill some key tensions in the relationship between Christianity and women’s rights that continue to be present, even as Christian women around the world today are advocating both for women’s rights and wider frameworks of “third generation” human rights with the potential to benefit all humanity.

Rowan Williams as Hegelian Political Theologian: Resacralising Secular Politics

by Carys Moseley

Published in Heythrop Journal 53(3), May 2012: 362-381.

Forgiveness without God?

by Glen Pettigrove

forthcoming in 'Journal of Religious Ethics' 40.3 (September 2012).

Of the many forgiveness-related questions that she takes up in her novels, the one with which Iris Murdoch wrestles... more Of the many forgiveness-related questions that she takes up in her novels, the one with which Iris Murdoch wrestles most often is the question, ‘Is forgiveness possible without God?’  The aim of this paper is to show, in the first instance, why the question Murdoch persistently raises is a question worth asking.  Alongside this primary aim stands a secondary one, which is to consider how one might glean moral insights from the Christian tradition even if one does not (any longer) endorse its theological commitments.

Martin Wight on War: Towards a Better Understanding of the Enigma

by Lucas Freire

First draft only. ISA 53rd Annual Convention. San Diego: 1-4 April, 2012.

Martin Wight’s contribution to British IR is well-known. His radical defence of Christian pacifism is often contrasted... more Martin Wight’s contribution to British IR is well-known. His radical defence of Christian pacifism is often contrasted with his acute sense of ‘tragedy’ in the analysis of power politics. Such tension has been characterised as an ‘enigma’. Some have claimed that Wight changed his mind over time, labelling his position as ultimately ‘realist’ in the classical sense. However, this notion must be challenged in light of his own negative opinion on realism read against the religious and intellectual background of his work. In this paper it is argued that there is a considerable degree of continuity in Wight’s reflections on realism and war since the early pacifist phase. For this reason, judgement on whether or not Wight has abandoned pacifism later in his career should at least be suspended. However, a closer look at his statements which at first sight seem to support realism and to eschew pacifism actually opens up space for the opposing view that he remained sympathetic to pacifism and critical of realism even in the later years. In any case, it must be granted that his approach to activism considerably changed over time and that the whole issue was subsequently treated as a private matter.

Review of Bruce G. EPPERLY. "Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed"

by Hans Gustafson

Leaving Iraq: Immunity, Impunity, and the End of the War

by Ronald Osborn

Commonweal Magazine, Vol.139, No.5, March 9, 2012 (cover story)

If the logic of empire dictates that U.S. soldiers be placed above or beyond the laws of any land they occupy, even in... more If the logic of empire dictates that U.S. soldiers be placed above or beyond the laws of any land they occupy, even in peaceful, modern, and democratic nations that are close American allies, how much more so in still war-torn Iraq—a country in which documented war crimes involving U.S. forces during the past nine years continue to go unpunished. There are obvious political reasons why the Obama administration refused to leave troops stationed in Iraq without guarantees of immunity from Iraqi law. There are also obvious reasons why the Iraqis refused to accept the neocolonial logic that U.S. soldiers must be granted immunity from the legal jurisdiction of any country that “hosts” them.

Heroism in the Harry Potter Series

by Rita Singer

Chapter: 'Harry Potter and the Battle for the Soul: The Revival of the Psychomachia in Secular Fiction'

On regular intervals a discussion of Christian elements seems to arise in the Harry Potter novels. Usually, the... more On regular intervals a discussion of Christian elements seems to arise in the Harry Potter novels. Usually, the critics are looking for the obvious and either end up praising the inclusion of a number of selected imagery or the lack of a comprehensive Christian world view on all levels. Consequently, a balanced discussion of the series from a theological point of view is still missing to date. J. K. Rowling said herself on the matter that her novels 'are not that secular' . This article argues that the Harry Potter novels not only contain Christian imagery, but that they are constructed after a once very popular and highly influential literary genre of the Middle Ages, namely the psychomachia. The struggle of seven virtues against seven vices forms the narrative arc of the entire series and, thus, firmly roots the stories in the Christian literary tradition. An analysis of the final instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, shall serve as an example to introduce the reader to the most important aspects of the psychomachia and their respective application.

When the State is Evil: Biblical Civil (Dis)Obedience in South Africa

by James W. McCarty III

Co-written with Joel A. Nichols. St. John's Law Review, 85.2 (2011): 593-625.

Participating in Beauty Culture

by Feminism and Religion

originally posted on the Feminism and Religion Project.

At the most recent Society of Christian Ethics annual meeting, I got into an impromptu late night discussion with... more At the most recent Society of Christian Ethics annual meeting, I got into an impromptu late night discussion with several women friends about why some of us participate in “beauty culture” and how we feel as feminist Christian ethicists and moral theologians about our decisions. Each of us shared why we have chosen to wear make-up (or not), keep up with fashion (or not), dye our greying hair to mask the signs of aging (or not), or put in the effort to maintain a certain physique (or not). We also addressed what role our own mothers and larger communities have played in our decision-making processes.

Since it is certainly not my place to reveal what others disclosed behind closed doors over wine, let me expand upon a few things I shared that night.

First, I told them that when I used to work at Virginia Tech (2003-2009), I had both noticed and been a little self-conscious about the fact that I was the only faculty member in Women’s Studies who regularly wore make-up. My self-consciousness stemmed from multiple sources:

(1) I was a new member of the faculty who simply didn’t know what the conventions of dress were among my female colleagues (and thus I didn’t want to over- or under-do it),

"Moral Agents in the Built Environment: Performing the Ethical Function of Architecture through Interpretation

by Elise Edwards

Presented at the 2012 Society of Christian Ethics annual meeting in Washington, DC.

The task of architecture is usually understood as an aesthetic or utilitarian endeavor; my study of the ethical... more The task of architecture is usually understood as an aesthetic or utilitarian endeavor; my study of the ethical approach provides an expanded perspective.  Drawing from Karsten Harries’ The Ethical Function of Architecture, I argue that architecture presents interpretations of an ethos for a specific time and place.  Architecture’s ethical task can be performed by moral agents who interpret the built environment according to their community’s ethos and Christian conceptions of justice and human flourishing. Interpreters should assess whether architectural projects support justice and liberation goals as these interpreters respond to contextual and normative questions about their communities and specific buildings.  In the presentation of this paper, I use images from the US Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to demonstrate how an interpreter would critique an architectural work in this way, determining if their built environment interprets an appropriate community ethos and serves the common good.

Major Paper - Transcendence in Barth and Bonhoeffer

by Dean Marco Funk

“True Christianity”

by Mark Lindley

Published in 1994 in the newsletter of the Humanist Association of Massachusetts.

Agency and Formation in Paul's Romans and Plato's Republic

by Dean Marco Funk

The purpose of this essay is to examine Paul and Plato’s overlapping, yet differing, accounts of the formation of... more The purpose of this essay is to examine Paul and Plato’s overlapping, yet differing, accounts of the formation of justice in the individual and in the larger community.

Rejecting Utopias, Embracing Modesty: Reflections on Interreligious Peacebuilding in Light of the International Summer School on Religion and Public Life

by James W. McCarty III

ISSRPL Occasional Paper Series, No. 4. http://www.issrpl.org/vision/op.html

Drawing on my experience with the ISSRPL in 2011, this paper argues for an approach to interreligious peacebuilding... more Drawing on my experience with the ISSRPL in 2011, this paper argues for an approach to interreligious peacebuilding that emphasizes shared practices over dialogue, and highlights the necessity for epistemological and theological modesty in the work of peacebuilding.

Gary Dorrien, Social Ethics in the Making

by Richard Davis

Studies in Christian Ethics August 2011 24: 385-389.

REVIEW OF: Gary Dorrien, Social Ethics in the Making: Interpreting an American Tradition (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell,... more REVIEW OF: Gary Dorrien, Social Ethics in the Making: Interpreting an American Tradition (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) xviii + 728 pp. £85 (hb), ISBN 978-1-4051-8687-2

‘Generating Christian Political Theory and The Uses of Ethnography,’ Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography, Studies in Ecclesiology and Ethnography, vol 1, ed., Pete Ward (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011).

by Luke Bretherton

To be human is to be free: a protestant contribution to the discourse on human dignity

by Willem Fourie

Under Humanity's Flag: The Role of Secularization in the Rise, Reign & Crisis of Modern Humanitarianism

by Emily Key Vielma

This master's thesis follows the rise of the modern humanitarian movement over the past century and a half, the development of the humanitarian system since the end of WWII, the boom of the humanitarian industry since the end of the Cold War, and the role secularization and various ensuing "-izations" have played in contributing to the growth, expansion, authority and also crises of humanitarianism today.

William Lloyd Garrison and the United States Constitution: The Political Evolution of an American Radical

by Ronald Osborn

Journal of Law and Religion, Vol.24, No.1, 2009: 65-88

In this article I trace the development of William Lloyd Garrison's radical abolitionism, his politics of disunion,... more In this article I trace the development of William Lloyd Garrison's radical abolitionism, his politics of disunion, and his evolving critique of the United States Constitution. Flawed and problematic as Garrison's politics were, I argue, his Christian anarchist critique of the Constitution was based upon a realistic reading of the document as an inherently pro-slavery document. His case for disunion was also based upon a plausible political calculation of what might be done to end slavery without bloody civil war. Garrison did more to force the slavery issue into public debate and to galvanize the nation around the slavery issue than any other individual. There are ways to work to advance the Good Society, he demonstrated in the process, that do not involve compromises with massive injustice or sacrifice of nonviolent principles.