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 grappling with concrete issues. An analytical model of essential ingredients will be used to compare representative methods in Christian ethics.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: I hope that you will develop skill in analyzing the key variables that shape some leading methods in Christian ethics. Second, that you will develop a holistic awareness of how these variables work together to shape the way Christian ethicists do ethics. Third, that these two analytical and synthesizing skills will help your writing about concrete questions in Christian ethics. Fourth, that your analysis and comparison of these variables can build the base for cumulative sharpening of your own self-critical definition of these variables in your own method in Christian ethics, and thus your own ethical growth. Fifth, that together we can discuss how to do Christian ethics within a tradition, while learning from other traditions.

RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY: Authentic Christian ministry helps persons become faithful disciples, which requires growing character and calling forth faithful deeds or practices. But we 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.

COURSE FORMAT: 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 weekly for three-hour sessions.

REQUIRED READING:

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.

Marsh, Charles. The Beloved Community. Basic Books, 2005.

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

Niebuhr, Reinhold. The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness. Scribner's, 1944.

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

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

Stassen, Glen, D. M.Yeager, and John Howard Yoder. Authentic Transformation: A New Vision of Christ and Culture. Abingdon, 1996.

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

West, Traci. Disruptive Christian Ethics. Westminster John Knox, 2006.

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