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January 26, 2023

Dear Colleagues, 
 
The 2024 Society of Christian Ethics meeting will investigate our common discipline of Christian Ethics asking what difference it makes for society and what difference society makes for it.  
 
Conference Theme: 
 
The conference theme for the 2024 Society of Christian Ethics is:  
 
“Teaching and Learning Christian Ethics: What’s the Matter?” 
 
The term “matter” has a twofold significance. First, what is the matter or content of Christian Ethics? Second, how do the political and social contexts within which we teach and learn it matter for Christian Ethics and how does Christian Ethics matter for them? Primary consideration will be given to paper, panel, and poster proposals that address the following questions, sub-questions, or related topics: 
 
Question I: What is the matter or content of Christian Ethics? 

  1. What is Christian Ethics? Is it a coherent discipline? What makes ethics Christian?  
  2. How are theology and philosophy, theory and practice, doctrine and ethics related?
  3. What role do diverse media have in teaching and learning Christian Ethics such as publishing essays, books, editorials, blog posts, podcasts, newspaper, and other social media?
  4. Is there a “scholarly canon” for a course in Christian Ethics: what is the place for previous Christian ethicists and issues as the discipline expands with new voices and issues?
  5. Should Christian Ethics be taught? Should someone learn it? Is there evidence that our discipline has salutary consequences?
  6. What, or how, does truth matter in the discipline?  
  7. How does Christian ethics adjudicate between competing accounts of embodiment, nature, and creation, drawn from the natural, social, and philosophical sciences?

Question II:  How do the political and social contexts within which we teach and learn it matter for Christian Ethics and how does Christian Ethics matter for them?

  1. Matters of race, class, sex, and gender play an integral role in teaching and learning Christian Ethics. How should those matters be conceived, and their significance taught and practiced by teachers and by learners?
  2. What is the contribution of Christian Ethics to politics such as pluralistic, liberal democracies that assume religious neutrality, the rise of illiberal and postliberal political movements, and/or the increasingly interreligious nature of our civic, social, and political spaces?
  3. What impact does the rise the Christian nationalism and the new integralists make on teaching or learning Christian Ethics?  
  4. How has postcolonialism, liberation movements, or secularism transformed the teaching and learning of Christian Ethics?  
  5. Where can Christian Ethics be taught and what difference does it make? Examples would be seminaries, professional schools, religious universities or colleges, secular universities or college, churches, prisons, non-profits, business corporations, hospitals, professional schools, and new emerging contexts.  
  6. What contribution does Christian Ethics have in considerations of contending economic approaches such as neoliberalism, modern monetary theory, Keynesianism, Marxism, democratic socialism, and nationalized markets?
  7. What are the appropriate or inappropriate means for communicating Christian Ethics such as words, currency, data, algorithms, and so on?
  8. How should we think about the diverse students we teach: the religious, the secular, the nones, the searchers?
  9. How should Christian Ethics be taught in conversation with Muslim and Jewish Ethics, or what might Muslim and Jewish ethicists desire Christian ethicists to do and not do? (Respondents or Presenters from SJE or SSME would be welcome)

Plenaries: 
 
We will hold two plenaries. The first is “The difference Christology makes for ethics.” Sarah Coakley, formerly Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity in the Faculty at Cambridge University from 2007-2018, will deliver the plenary address. Gerald McKenny, Walter Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, will offer a response. The second plenary is “Teaching and learning ethics in the context of racialized capitalism and pluralistic democracies.” Nichole M. Flores, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia, Vincent Lloyd, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova University and Jonathan Tran, Associate Professor of Great Texts (Philosophical Theology) at Baylor University where he also serves as Associate Dean for Faculty in the Honors College, will be our presenters.  
 
Poster Sessions: 
 
Posters that include syllabi or content for teaching and learning Christian Ethics, as well as those that include teaching Christian Ethics in non-traditional contexts, are most welcome. If your proposal is selected for the 2024 meeting, it will not affect your eligibility to submit paper or poster proposals for our 2025 meeting. Finally, many universities and colleges provide institutional support for those who are listed in the program as presenters, including those of poster sessions. I hope this year we generate even more posters to further engage each other. 
 
Submitting Proposals 
 
All proposals (from individual Members, Interest Groups, and Working Groups alike) are due Monday March 20, 2023.  Proposals that are submitted after that date will not be eligible for the 2024 meeting.  Proposals will be accepted only from members whose 2023 SCE dues have been paid.  All the relevant policies governing proposals for papers, panels and posters are summarized in the document “Submission Guidelines” which is available on the SCE website along with the forms to be used for the online submission of proposals and nominations.  
 
Call for Nominations: 
 
Vice President and Board of Directors 
The Nominations Committee invites recommendations for Vice President and Board of Director Members, including our Student Board Member. Please submit your recommendations via the online call for nominations form. This year's Chair is Nichole Flores ([email protected]). Other members of the committee are John Boopalan, Elisabeth Kincaid, Brent Laytham, Nelly Wamaitha, and Tobias Winright.  
 
Lifetime Achievement Award 
 
March 20, 2023 is also the deadline for proposing names to the Lifetime Achievement Award Committee.  Click here for more information about the selection committee and the submission process.
Send nominations to Bryan Massingale who chairs the committee as past president of the SCE, [email protected]. 
 
Nominations for International and Global Scholars 
The International Scholarly Relations Committee (ISRC) seeks to strengthen ties between the SCE and scholars and their institutions from around the world.  

  • Two subsidy scholarships are available for international scholars to attend the 2024 annual meeting that include a waiver of the registration fee as well as a $500 stipend to offset the cost of attending the annual meeting.  Applications are due Friday, August 4, 2023
  • Bring a Global Scholar to the SCE Annual Meeting. The Global Scholar receives a waiver of the registration fee, a $4,000 stipend, and a guaranteed concurrent session slot. SCE members are invited to nominate scholars from around the world, notably the Global South, to be SCE Global Scholars. Click here for additional information.

Members are also encouraged to invite international and global scholars for lectures or discussions at their institutions.  
 
Meeting Location 
The 2024 annual meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics will be held January 4-7, 2024 at the Palmer House Hilton, 17 East Monroe St., Chicago IL. Phone number: 312-726-7500.
Website: https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/chiphhh-palmer-house.  
 
Sincerely,  
Steve Long 
President, Society of Christian Ethics