Friday, January 9

Co-Editor Search Committee        Georgia Room

Registration       Coat Check

7:45 AM – 8:45 AM

CONVERSATION WITH AN AUTHOR      Congressional & Senate Room

Light breakfast served 

Ticketed event. Pre-registration required. Please check in at door.

Conflict and Catholic Social Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Approach |Routledge/Taylor & Francis

Taylor Ott, St. Bonaventure University

Facilitator: Julie Hanlon Rubio, Santa Clara University

 

Enfleshed Counter-Memory: A Christian Social Ethic of Trauma | Orbis

Stephanie Edwards, Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium

Facilitator: Aristotle Papanikolaou, Fordham University

 

Reproductive Justice and the Catholic Church: Advancing Pragmatic Solidarity with Pregnant Women |  Sheed & Ward / Rowman & Littlefield (now Bloomsbury)

Emily Reimer- Barry, University of San Diego

Facilitator: Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar, Loyola University, Chicago

 

Law from Below: How the Thought of Francisco Suárez, SJ, Can Renew Contemporary Legal | Georgetown University Press

                  Elisabeth Kincaid, Baylor University

                  Facilitator: Thomas Massaro, Fordham University

          

Political Theology in Chinese Society | Routledge

Joshua Mauldin, Center of Theological Inquiry

Facilitator: Matthew Tsz Him Lai, University of South Carolina

 

Meeting the Enemy: The Fossil Fuel Industry and the Power of Christian Climate Resistance | Fortress Press

Kevin O’Brien, Pacific Lutheran University

Facilitator: Letitia Campbell, Emory University

  

Theology in Motion: Migration, History, and Responsibility | Fortress Press

Aimee Hein, Creighton University

Facilitator: Janna Hunter-Bowman, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

 

The Moral Vision of Pope Francis: Expanding the US Reception of the First Jesuit Pope | Georgetown University Press

Conor Kelly, Marquette University

Kristin Heyer, Boston College

Facilitator: Linda Hogan, Trinity College Dublin

 

The Problem of the Christian Master: Augustine in the Afterlife of Slavery | Yale University Press

              Matthew Elia, Saint Louis University

              Facilitator: Frederick Simmons, Center of Theological Inquiry

 

Grace and Social Ethics: Gift as the Foundation of Our Life Together | Baker Academic

Angela Carpenter, Hope College

Facilitator: Gerald McKenney, University of Notre Dame

 

9:00 AM – 7:30 PM

Exhibit & Poster Hall Open      Congressional & Senate Room

 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM

 SCE Plenary      Presidential Ballroom

 Sarojini Nadar, University of Western Cape

 ‘Undisciplining the Sacred’: Transdisciplinary Work for Transformative Ethics

This paper takes its cue from the conference’s central question, What must we do? Yet in a world marked by genocide, gendered violence, and resurgent authoritarianism, a further question emerges: how must we do it? How can we think, teach, and research ethically within institutions that so often reproduce the very injustices they claim to resist?

The paper begins by locating this question within the current crisis in Christian social ethics — a crisis not only of contending moral authorities, but one of epistemic imagination. Drawing on both the South African and global contexts, I will show, through a series of autobiographical reflections, how the field continues to privilege masculinist and colonial ways of knowing that discipline the study of the sacred into the language of abstract reason and private virtue. This narrowing of moral vision detaches theology from the collective work of justice and aligns it with systems of power rather than liberation.

Secondly, the paper engages Black feminist and decolonial thought to interrogate how theology’s disciplinary architecture reinforces this disciplining of the sacred. By policing the borders between subfields such as biblical studies, systematic theology, ethics, and practical theology, the academy fragments what could otherwise be a unified pursuit of justice. Through examples from my own academic journey, I trace how these boundaries shape the production of knowledge itself: determining what kinds of questions may be asked, who is authorised to ask them, and what counts as legitimate scholarship.

The final part of the paper proposes a reimagining of ethics as both a distinct discipline and an integrative mode of inquiry that animates all theological work. Rather than treating ethics as an applied or secondary concern, the argument advances an understanding of ethics as a transdisciplinary, embodied, and liberatory praxis. Within this framework, story, struggle, and solidarity are explored as epistemic practices through which the sacred becomes intelligible as a living engagement with the pursuit of justice.

Respondent: Traci West, Drew University

Convener: Rebecca Todd Peters, Elon University

Break in Exhibit & Poster Hall      Congressional & Senate Room

Light Refreshments Served

10:30 AM – 11:00 AM

Professional Conduct Committee: Office Hours (Open to All)    Continental

11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

CONCURRENT SESSION #2

Bridging Faith, Scolarship, and Civic Engagement in Black Communities      Federal A Room

African and African-American Working Group

Presenter: Mr. Dyjuan Tatro, Senior Government Affairs Officer with the Bard Prison Initiative                                                                                    

This presentation focuses on firsthand experiences working with faith-based voters and community organizing within Black congregations and neighborhoods. Drawing from their experiences, our speaker will explore approaches to engaging communities in the democratic process. It will also examine how Christian ethicists can translate academic knowledge into meaningful impacts in Black communities. Participants will glean strategies for building bridges between the academy and practical civic engagement, including concrete ways to support and enhance faith-based organizing without taking over leadership or compromising community autonomy.

Conveners: Marvin Wickware, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

       Shari Mackinson, Texas Christian University

 

Labor, Agency, and Japanese American Incarceration: Admonitions for Today      Federal B Room

Karen Peterson-Iyer, Santa Clara University

The Japanese American incarceration of 1942–1946 is a blight on US history. A lesser-discussed aspect of this historical episode is the labor extracted from incarcerated persons. Unlike chattel slavery and the US prison system, the incarceration of Japanese Americans did not explicitly include forced work; however, their labor was exploited, and their experiences thus serve as a reminder of the ethical continuum between free and forced labor. Drawing upon justice and the dignity of work, I examine the constrained forms of agency that Japanese Americans experienced, highlighting the complexity of human agency itself and cautioning against analogous violations today.

Convener: Elizabeth Block, Saint Louis University

 

Disability Working Group: Christian Ethics and Deaf Liberation     South America B Room

Kirk VanGilder, Gallaudet University

As Deaf communities face increasing cultural and political threats, what is the responsibility of faith leaders to protect Deaf culture, language, and education? How might Christian communities practice solidarity with Deaf communities? In this session, the Disability Working Group invites Kirk VanGilder from Gallaudet University to reflect on the task of Christian ethics in promoting disability justice and Deaf liberation.

Convener: Kevin Lazarus, Emory University

 

Augustine, Race, and the Problem of Christian Unity: A Critical Retrieval      South America A Room

Gregory Lee, Wheaton College

This presentation critically retrieves Augustine’s theology to address modern racial divisions among Christians. Augustine’s defense of church unity fails to address circumstances in which one group of Christians is oppressing another. Based on his arguments, it might seem that minorities must remain in fellowship with egregiously racist churches. Despite this problem, this presentation seeks to reclaim Augustine’s thought for the marginalized. Augustine’s analysis of domination elucidates how racist churches have invoked religious language to legitimate oppression. His treatments of church unity and discipline also yield unexpected insights for minority Christians deciding whether to leave or remain in racist communities.

Convener: Kevin Carnahan, Central Methodist University

 

What Use is History? A Conversation about the Relationship between Christian Ethics and Historical Tradition        Statler A Room

Christian Ethics in Historical Context Interest Group

Panelists:           David Lantigua, University of Notre Dame

                          Emily Dumler-Winkler, St. Louis University

                          Elisabeth Kincaid, Baylor University

                          John Carlson, Arizona State University

Over the past many years, the “Christian Ethics in Historical Context” interest group has curated conversations centered around normative questions that emerge from the study of history. This year, the interest group will go back to basics, asking fundamental questions about the relationship between normative Christian ethics and its historical sources. Our four panelists will address two orienting questions: (1) What normative and methodological procedures and commitments inform your use of historical traditions? (2) How does your early academic formation under specific mentors impact the way you approach theological ressourcement through historical study?

Conveners: Jesse Couenhoven, Villanova University

                    David Henreckson, Whitworth University                                         

 

Gendered Power and Addiction Onset: Political Theory, Theology, and Culpability     Statler B  

Todd Whitmore, University of Notre Dame

"Caution: This article contains descriptions of events of sexual assault and physical abuse as narrated by survivors."

This paper examines the impact of gender violence on the onset of women’s substance addictions. Over 100 author-conducted interviews with women in addiction show that 96% of the women experienced traumatic physical or sexual abuse/assault antecedent to the onset of addiction. The paper argues that such patterns of violence reflect a “regime of gendered torture,” in a way that mitigates women’s culpability for their addictions and enlarges men’s responsibility for those addictions. This regime is underwritten and driven by a combination of republican (active male/passive female) and liberal (public/private split) political ideologies. Official Catholic gender theory reinforces the violent pattern.

Convener: Marie-Claire Klassen, KU Leuven

 

Justice as Healing: An Interpretation of Christian Ethics in Traumatic Times        New York Room

James McCarty, Boston University, School of Theology

Justice understood as healing is an emergent conception of justice in multiple social movements including restorative justice, transformative justice, healing justice, and trauma-healing. I propose to analyze the tensions and possibilities of using healing as a framework for justice in Christian ethics via attention to three case studies: the Hollow Water Community Holistic Circle Healing Program in Canada, the Institute for the Healing of Memories in South Africa, and trauma-healing discourse in restorative justice and transformative justice communities of practice. Drawing on decolonial theories, trauma theory, and trinitarian theologies I propose a Christian ethic of justice as healing.

Convener: Andrew Peterson, PC(USA) Office of Public Witness

 

The Catholic Debate on Brain Death    Massachusetts Room

Jason Eberl, Saint Louis University

Debate persists within both secular and Catholic arena regarding the validity of using neurological criteria for determining death. Despite continued affirmation of brain death by Catholic authorities, some Catholic scholars have challenged its moral validity. This presentation elucidates the history of the intra-Catholic debate, canvasses the various arguments offered in critique or defense of brain death, and outline key points of disagreement yet to be resolved. A brief argument will be given in support of neurological criteria as sufficient for establishing death. 

Convener: Christopher Krall, Creighton University

 

Scotosis and Sustainability: How Christian Ethics Must “Learn” from Indigenous Ways     Ohio Room

Monica Marcelli-Chu, Jesuit School of Theology, Santa Clara University

This paper applies a lens of historical consciousness to the language of sustainability in Christian environmental ethics in order to ask “how” this discourse “must” learn from indigenous ways, with a focus on models of subsistence. Applying Lonergan’s use of scotosis to consider how a stadial view of history is operative in sustainability discourse, it also interrogates scotosis in Lonergan’s own thought on history. I argue that a notion of “sustenance” invites Christian ethics to learn from indigenous ways in theory, practice, and communication; in other words, in a manner that turns “the epistemological gaze,” as Kelly Brown Douglas articulates.

Convener: Virginia Landgraf, Atla

 

Evolution, Animal Suffering, Eschatology, and Ethics: Attending and Responding to Creaturely Struggle    California Room

Neil Messer, Baylor University

This paper explores the ethical implications of a current debate about evolution, natural evil, and the goodness of God. There is an ongoing “fault-line” (Christopher Southgate) between those who believe God willed the evolutionary process with all its struggle, suffering, and destruction, because this was the only way to create complex life, and those who regard the struggle, suffering, and destruction as opposed to God’s good purposes. The ethical dimension of these arguments is, however, sometimes neglected. The paper explores this dimension, focusing on two issues: killing animals for food, and responding to anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic species extinction.

Convener: Kevin O’Brien, Pacific Lutheran University

 

A Sojourner's Ethic: A Latino/a Response to Christian Nationalism, Dominion Theology, and the Seven Mountain Mandate    Pan American Room

Daniel Montañez, Boston University

This paper seeks to propose an alternative social ethic of sojourn as a response to the political theology of Dominion theology and the Seven Mountain Mandate. The methodology for this social ethic will be grounded in a rereading of the Creation Mandate, and also through the exploration of political theology of Justo Gonzalez in his recent keynote address, “The Story of Christianity and Migration.” In contending for a posture of the sojourner as attested to in the Christian Scriptures and throughout Church history, my hope is to present a social ethic of migration that can positively and proactively respond to past and present colonialist ideologies of Christian nationalism.

Convener:  James Bretzke, John Carroll University

 

 Women’s Caucus Lunch -Ticketed Event                                            

Offsite-Busboys and Poets (14^th & V), 2021 14^th St, NW, Washington, DC

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Poster Session   Senate Room

Teaching Reproductive Justice at a Catholic University

Emily Reimer-Barry, University of San Diego

 

Vulnerability Beyond Passivity: Virtue, Vice, and Moral Agency

Tucker Jonah Gregor, University of Iowa

 

Freedom, Eating, and Women's Bodies

Megan Heeder, University of Scranton

 

Corporate Political Power and Symbiosis: Envisioning an Althusian Model of Political Corporate Social Responsibility (PCSR)

Seung Woo Lee, Fuller Theological Seminary

 

Civil Society and Critical Mass: The Example and Prospects of Nuclear Disarmament

James Patrick O’Sullivan, Saint Joseph's University

 

Christianity, Politics, and Power: Thomistic and Augustinian Perspectives on the Involuntary Commitment of People with Mental Illness in the United States

Peter K. Fay, Villanova University

 

The democratization of morality: involving theatre audiences in reflecting on dementia

Theo A. Boer, Protestant Theological University

 

Transhumanism Amidst Capitalism: How Framing Biotechnologies as ‘Consumer Choice’ Evades the Moral Question

Maria R. Kenney, Asbury Theological Seminary

                                                                                                                                 

Presidential Cabinet Meeting: Conveners of Interest Groups, Working Groups, and Caucuses     Federal A Room

Nominating Committee    Executive Lounge 

2:30 PM – 4:00 PM 

CONCURRENT SESSION #3

 

What Must We Do? Queer Ethics and the Established Legacy of DC's LGBTQ Activism    Federal A Room 

LGBTQI+ Working Group

Emma Cieslek

To explore the question, “what must we do?” the LGBTQI+ Working Group will consider, “What have we done?” Emma Cieslek, a journalist, public historian, and museum professional who stands and works at the intersections of queerness, disability, and neurodivergence will present about her work on the history of LGBTQI+ faith activism in DC, and will lead a conversation about preserving and learning from histories of LGBTQI+ religious movements.

Conveners: Brandy Daniels, University of Portland

                   Shatavia Wynn, Rhodes College

 

Caring for Medcaid: Public Ethics as Methodology in Motion      Federal B Room

David Craig, Indiana Unversity Indianapolis

Ivan Douglas Hicks, The AfricaLogical Institute

During a seven-year community-university partnership, we have “done ethics” in diverse publics by centering community as the experts. Living in relationship with one another not only practices a Christian ethics of love in motion, but also creates spaces for community direction, critique, and creativity in co-producing innovative methodology for collecting the most incisive, genuine, and usable data and for articulating community-driven values and relationships for public policy change. Through an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods health equity study, we challenge the presuppositions of an ideology of “aid” that imposes administrative burdens on Medicaid recipients in the name of “personal responsibility.”

Convener: Lorraine Cuddeback-Gedeon, Catholic Relief Services

 

“Saving the Bay: Enviromental Coericion and a ‘Dark Green’ Augustianism    South America B Room

Joseph Walker-Lenow, Duke Divinity School

What, if any, is the legitimate place of coercion in environmental policy and social action, and what constraints upon it are needed if it is judged to be permissible? This paper stages a conversation between several scholarly literatures—environmental theology; the growing interest among non-theologically oriented environmental ethicists and policymakers into the use of coercive legislation, economic policy, and social action to achieve ecological goals; and Augustinian moral theology, particularly investigations into moral psychology and the vexed question of coercion in Augustine—to investigate these questions through careful attention to the particular case of the conservation of the Chesapeake Bay.

Convener: Matt Jantzen, Hope College

 

A Democratic Faith: Public Theology for a Church and Nation in Crisis       South America Room A

Raymond Roberts, University of Richmond

By failing to impart their values to their members, mainstream Protestants contributed to the exhaustion of the cultural and moral resources of America’s hybrid, religious-secular enlightenment. This depletion is a significant factor in America’s democratic crisis. For democracy to thrive a portion of the public needs to know how democratic and moral principles are authorized by their thicker beliefs, not all of which need to be Christian. Mainstream Protestants need to recover the wisdom in their theological heritage and recommit themselves to effectively spreading their ideas to help replenish the resources that enable a pluralistic democracy to thrive.

Convener: James Bretzke, John Carroll University

 

Day Zero as Apocalypse from Below       Statler A

Kyle Lambelet, Virginia Theological Seminary

I argue that the apocalyptic can be an eminently useful resource for Christian ethics, not as a principle, a genre, or an imagination, but as a praxis for living through world endings. Learning from interviews with church, civic, and grassroots leaders in Cape Town, I show how they performed an apocalypse from below. Through their framing and reframing, the apocalyptic edge of Day Zero starkly demonstrated the unsustainability of the world as it is, generated creative world-building imaginations, and enabled piecemeal, caring, and just responses to a specific catastrophe accelerated by climate change.

Convener: Dan Rhodes, Loyola University Chicago

 

Christian Ethics in a World Without Work      Statler B 

Joe Pettit, Morgan State University

Many discussions of economic justice within Christian ethics are now outdated and unrealistic because they have a labor-centric understanding of economic justice. This assumption will not hold in a world where massive structural unemployment results from technological changes in artificial intelligence and robotics. I propose three theological frameworks for thinking about a world without work: 1) co-hosting with God rather than co-creating; 2) an emphasis on being rather than becoming; 3) a theology of “enough” in defense of a universal basic income.

Convener: Scott Paeth, DePaul University

 

Metabolizing Moral Shocks: Gun Control Activism & Democratic Hope       New York Room

C. Melissa Snarr, Vanderbilt University

What does it take to organize, endure, and hope in the face of radical polarization, democratic erosion, and disillusionment? Scholars rank the state of Tennessee last in the United States in democratic health. With its Republican supermajority, gerrymandering, voter suppression, extreme legislation, and Christian Nationalism, comparisons to authoritarian regimes have become relevant. Analyzing the recent rise of gun control activism, particularly among previously apolitical parents, after the “moral shock” of an elementary school mass shooting, this paper considers how religious resources help metabolize private grief into public lament and catalyze political grievance for democratic renewal. I argue religious resources help metabolize moral shocks into social change in five ways: 1) cultivating practiced, purposeful pathos, 2) offering collective lament, 3) building networked resiliency materially and theologically, 4) risking new compassationate alliances, and 5) storying hope. This case analysis contributes to a broader claim for political theology: Christianity can be understood as a movement based on a moral shock. This framing animates practices of care to accompany those in moral distress and help disciple grief into movements of faith that rejects death-dealing political and social policy and foster democratic political agency.

Convener: Kate Ott, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary

 

Ordo Amoris and Obligations to Others       Massachusetts Room

Bharat Ranganathan, University of Nebraska Omaha

In 2025, Vice President J.D. Vance invoked the ordo amoris to defend the Trump administration’s policies regarding foreign aid. For him, we should move outwards from loving first our families and to finally loving the rest of the world. We argue that Vance’s claim is morally problematic. In our view, Vance confuses the descriptive claim that we can more easily love our proximate neighbors with the normative claim that we should only secondarily love, with our “remaining love,” our distant neighbors. Because we are members of the Body of Christ, invoking the ordo amoris to delimit our obligations isn’t tenable.

Convener: Nicholas Ogle, Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary

 

Understanding Minority Support for Trump: Opportunities and Obstacles For Interacial Organizing and Politics     Ohio Room

African and African-American Working Group, Asian and Asian-American Working Group, Latino(a) Working Group

Panelists: TBA

Trump gained support from Asian, Black, and Latinx voters in the 2024 election. The gradual shift of POC voters away from the Democratic Party necessitates attention from community organizers and religious leaders regarding the needs and priorities of our voting blocs. The papers will investigate what notions of "self-interest" (not to be confused with selfishness) led individuals of various races to vote for Trump. How can Christian ethicists and the communities we serve respond meaningfully to these notions of self-interest? By taking self-interest seriously, what possibilities for organizing—or obstacles to organizing—across racial lines become evident?                                                                                                    

Conveners:  Shari Mackinson, Morehouse University

                    Marvin Wickware, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

 

The Abolition of Capitalism: What Must Christian Ethics Do?    California Room

Jeremy Posadas, Stetson University

This paper argues that Christian ethics needs to move from the paradigm of ameliorating capitalism to the paradigm of abolishing it outright. Contra wishes for a more humane, greener capitalism, as a structure of human death and environmental devastation, capitalism is per se incompatible with the Christian gospel, no less incompatible than racism, patriarchy, and colonialism are. Having demonstrated this and delineated the difference between ameliorating and abolishing capitalism, the paper then ponders: What would it sound like if Christian ethics advocated for the abolition of capitalism as cogently as for the abolition of White supremacy, patriarchy, and coloniality?

Convener: AnneMarie Mingo, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

 

From Arab Spring to Tech Broligarchy: Sin, Evil, and Social  Media’s Fall From Grace     Pan American Room

Anna Floerke Scheid, Duquesnue University

This paper draws on scholarship on sin and evil in two dimensions – 1) the notion of structural sin discussed in Catholic social thought, and 2) the idea of the cultural production of evil articulated by Emilie Townes – to show how social media, pursuing profit, has fallen from grace. Under the techbroligarchy, has become a form of structural sin that amplifies the cultural production of evil. Employing an interdisciplinary method that draws on Christian ethics, computer science, political science, and communication and media studies, I trace social media’s fall from grace arguing that algorithms designed to engage users toward ever increasing profits have helped normalize political polarization and violence.

Covener: Danielle Tumminio Hansen, Emory University

 

Emerson Magnanimity    Continental Room

Justin Hawkins, Columbia University

This paper is the first ever study of the virtue of magnanimity in the essays and sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The saturation of Emerson’s thought in the language of the virtues proves that reflection upon the virtues in general, and magnanimity in particular, persists into the canon of democratic and modern thought, against some of the nostalgists and "new traditionalists" who claim that the virtues disappear in the modern world.

Convener: Emily Dumler-Winckler, St. Louis University

                                                                              

Lifetime Achievement Award     Presidential Ballroom

Jean Porter, 2026 Lifetime Achievement Awardee                                                                                             

SCE Presidential Address        Presidential Ballroom

Re-imagining the work of Christian ethics in the 21st Century

President: Rebecca Todd Peters, Elon University                                                                         

SCE Presidential Reception     Congressional and Senate Room

INTEREST GROUP SESSION #1   

God’s Absolute Power and the Problem of Divine Domination      Federal A Room              

Moral Theory Interest Group

Panelist:              Toni Alimi, Princeton University

                            Mary Nickel, University of South Carolina

                            Justin Hawkins, Columbia University

According to a prevalent Christian understanding of God’s nature, God is all-powerful, and humans live at the mercy of God (Job 12:10). However, this seems to constitute domination: an unjust state of affairs wherein one party is subject to the arbitrary will of another. In this panel, we consider whether God dominates humans. One paper introduces the “problem of divine domination,” and rejects solutions to the problem that appeal to humanity’s childlikeness, divine goodness, justice, or greatness. It then gestures toward what a solution to the problem might require. A second paper takes an alternate route, by showing how religious luminaries like Milton, Douglass, and Stanton argued that interhuman domination is unjust precisely because it usurps a prerogative that is God’s alone. A third paper argues that the canonical formulation implies that parents dominate children, and argues for a reformulation of domination according to which God doesn’t dominate humans.                                           

Conveners: Matthew Puffer, Villanova University

                    Christina McRorie, Boston College

                    Scott Paeth, DePaul University

 

Chat-GPT and Computer AI in the Ethics Classroom: Strategies and Best Practices      Federal B Room 

Pedagogy Interest Group & University Ethics Interest Group                                                                                       

The recent emergence of widely accessible computer AI technology poses significant challenges and raises numerous questions for ethics educators. With bot technologies like Chat-GPT now able to create well-structured essay responses to single sentence requests from users, how are educators to ensure that student submissions reflect the actual learning of students? What strategies might teachers employ to limit the adverse impact of AI technology on student learning? Are bot technologies necessarily obstacles to such learning, or are there constructive ways to employ tools like Chat-GPT in the ethics classroom? In this session a panel of ethics educators will discuss strategies and best practices for meeting the challenge raised by tools like Chat-GPT.

 Conveners: Vic McCracken, Abilene Christian University

                    Julie Mavity Madalena, Lakeland University

                    Mary Roche, College of the Holy Cross

 

Calvin for the World: Theocrat, Political Visionary, or Something More?      South America A Room

Reformed Theology and Ethics Interest Group

Panelists:            Angela Carpenter, Hope College

                            David True, Pfeiffer University

                            Rubén Rosario Rodríguez, Saint Louis University

                            David Morrison, Davis & Elkins College

Rubén Rosario Rodríguez’s Calvin for the World offers critical engagement with John Calvin’s theological and political legacy. While Calvin is often viewed as either a visionary reformer or a rigid theocrat, this book presents a more nuanced perspective, exploring his historical context, lasting global impact, and broader legacy for Christian ethics. This panel will discuss Rosario Rodríguez’s examination of Calvin’s relevance to contemporary social and political issues, including nationalism, migration, social welfare, and racial justice.

Conveners: Tanner Capps, Davis & Elkins College

                    Angela Carpenter, Hope College

 

Ecology, Ethics, and the Commons.        South American B Room

Environmental Ethics and Theology Interest Group

Panelists:            Amy Levad, University of St. Thomas

                            Brooklynn Reardon, Duke University

                            Daniel Castillo, Loyola University

                            Luke Bretherton, University of Oxford

Any shared good, from more practical (such as pasturelands and fisheries) to more conceptual (such as shared culture and collective morality), can be considered a commons. A commons features forms of collective management or ownership that often interact in complex ways with private markets and state regulatory regimes. The new term “commoning” refers to practices that create and sustain common resources or common goods. The commons, and commoning, build upon an implicitly ecological worldview of interdependence, holism, and cooperation. In this session, we gather four panelists who bring unique perspectives to the commons, in its ethical and ecological dimensions, and plan for a robust conversation in response.

Convenor: Laura Hartman, Roanoke College 

 

The Dignity of Society and a Society of Dignity: The Heritage of Catholic Social Thought Speaks to Political Polarization        Statler B Room

Ethics and Catholic Theology Interest Group

Panelists:            Christine Firer Hinze, Fordham University

                            Kelly Johnson, University of Dayton

                            Matthew Shadle, Independent Scholar

Respondent:      Russell Hittinger, Catholic University of America

Political polarization and crises should push Christian ethics to examine more fundamental questions: what exactly makes a group of persons a “society”? How do we understand the dynamics of reciprocity and cooperation in ways that honor the dignity of every individual and pursue truly common goods? How can social cooperation be distinguished from coercive forms of collective action? This panel of three diverse senior scholars, as well as a respondent who recently authored a book on the topic, examines how these deeper conceptual questions about what a true “society” is have arisen in the development of Catholic social thought in the past two centuries, how such a concept of true society is necessary to understand CST principles of the dignity of all, the common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity, and what those developments might have to say to us today.                                                                                                                                         

Conveners: David Cloutier, University of Notre Dame

                   Dana Dillon, Providence College

 

Transforming ‘Power’ and ‘Politics’ via the Praxis of Beloved Community    Massachusetts Room

Conflict, Non-violence, and Just Peace Interest Group

Dr. Ron Hopson, Howard University

Respondent: Dr. Margaret Pfeil, University of Notre Dame

The frame of Beloved Community offers fertile soil to address the conference theme on Christianity, power and politics. For Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, the Beloved Community is a vision of unity-in-diversity and a goal that could be lived into with a critical mass of people committed to and trained in the philosophy and methods of nonviolence. This session will generate a conversation between King’s vision of a Beloved Community and other scholarly voices represented in Christian ethics, linking contemplation and creative action as well as mysticism and political theology. Dr. Ron Hopson of the Department of Psychology and School of Divinity at Howard University will provide opening remarks, followed by a response from Dr. Margaret Pfeil of the University of Notre Dame.

Conveners: Jana Hunter-Bowman, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

                    Eli McCarthy, Georgetown University

 

Health Care Ethics Interest Group: Public Health Ethics in The Current Era     Pan American Room

Health Care Ethics Interest Group

Panelists:            Mark D. Fox, IU School of Medicine - South Bend

                            Brianne Brenneman, University of Michigan

                            Paul Shetler Fast, Maple City Health Care     

Medical Ethics often narrowly grounds its reflection in the experiences of individuals through the concept of autonomy. Public Health Ethics is more attentive to solidarity and justice. These contradictory frameworks were widely debated during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to be a source of values conflict today. Our expert panel will explore what Public Health Ethics looks like now. This interactive session will address Public Health’s movement toward “social determinants,” lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, competing notions of justice within Public Health Ethics, and challenges presented by the chronic underfunding of and political attacks on Public Health.

Conveners: Joe Kotva, IU School of Medicine - South Bend

                   Christian Cintron, Children’s National Hospital

                   Ben Parks, Mercy College

 

Latine Politics Today: Perspectives from Christian Ethics      California Room              

Latino(a) Working Group

Panelists: TBA                                              

This panel draws together Latine ethicists to discuss the present and future of Latine politics in the U.S. What role do nationalism, race, gender, religion, and contending perspectives on immigration play in it? What resources can Christian ethics contribute towards addressing the growing political divisions within the Latine community and advancing a political vision that better promotes the common flourishing of all? By reflecting on these questions together, we hope to enhance our analysis of the present situation of Latine politics and discern what must be done to respond to the challenges of doing politics from a Latine perspective today.

Convener: Alberto la Rosa Rojas, Western Theological Seminary

 

University of Chicago Reception    Senate Room

Student Caucus Reception 

Offsite at K Bird DC, 1333 P St NW, Washington DC; 15 min walk / 5 min drive