DESCRIPTION:

This doctoral seminar, open by special permission to a limited number of advanced master's students, is a systematic and comparative analysis of essential ingredients in an ethical method adequate for developing Christian character and grappling with concrete issues. An analytical model of essential ingredients will be used to compare representative methods in Christian ethics.

Authentic Christian ministry helps persons become faithful disciples, which requires growing character and calling forth faithful deeds or practices. But persons and practices are shaped powerfully by perceptions, loyalties, beliefs, and styles of reasoning that we are often unaware of. The seminar identifies key variables that shape our ethics, and compares how they interact.

Seminar discussions, in which we help each other map different methods in Christian ethics as they relate to a concrete issue. The seminar will meet Wednesday afternoons for three-hour sessions.

Cahill, Lisa Sowle. Love Your Enemies: Discipleship, Pacifism, and Just War Theory. Augsburg/Fortress, c1994.

Gushee, David. Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust. Augsburg Fortress, 1994.

Hauerwas, Stanley. Suffering Presence: Theological Reflections on Medicine, the Mentally Handicapped and the Church. University of Notre Dame Press, 1986. OR

_________. A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic. University of Notre Dame Press, 1981.

Hollenbach, David. The Common Good and Christian Ethics. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Mount, Eric. Covenant, Community, and the Common Good. Pilgrim Press, 1999.

Mouw, Richard. Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World. InterVarsity Press, 1992.

Rasmussen, Larry. Earth Community, Earth Ethics. Orbis, 1996.

Sider, Ronald. Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America. Baker, 1999.

Walzer, Michael. On Toleration. Yale University Press, 1997.

Yoder, John Howard. The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel. University of Notre Dame Press, 1984.

Attend all seminar sessions prepared to analyze the readings of the day and to hand in a two- or three-page analysis paper on the readings for the day. Choose a concrete ethical issue; write a paper comparing two or more ethical arguments on the issue and seeking to develop your own method, due the first week of January classes. Reduced assignment to be negotiated for 500-level students.

One prior course in Christian ethics and one in theology, and written permission of instructor.

Elective.

None. At the time of the exam, we shall meet for the final seminar discussion.