Dissertations and Spirits with Andrew DeCort
Wednesday, February 3
5:00 – 6:20 PM
Location: Swift 406

Bonhoeffer’s Beginning: Universal Entry, “the Problem of Morality,” and the Ethics of New Beginning 

This dissertation investigates the ethics of making new beginnings after devastation and moral rupture in the thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A full introduction can be downloaded ahead of time here.

Join us as we discuss DeCort’s project and hear about his own experience going through the dissertation process.

“History and Comparison in the Study of Religious Ethics”
with Professor David Clairmont, University of Notre Dame
12:15 – 1:20 PM
Location: Swift 106

The Theology & Religious Ethics Workshop and the Medieval Studies Workshop invite you to a joint session on Thursday, January 21st – 12:00 – 1:20 PM at Swift 208 – Lunch will be provided!

Professor David Clairmont (Tisch Family Associate Professor of Theology and Director of Master of Theological Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame) will be presenting on “History and Comparison in the Study of Religious Ethics (with additional thoughts on the challenges of writing and publishing in the field!)”. See the abstract below.

Abstract

In the genre of informal intellectual autobiography, this presentation will offer an account of the places negotiated for historical and comparative studies in religious ethics by tracing the development of one intellectual project initiated at the University of Chicago (an ecumenical divinity school with a long standing respect for the critical, comparative, academic study of religion) and completed at the University of Notre Dame (in a Roman Catholic department of theology). Among the topics examined will be (1) understanding the institutional context of the graduate student-as-scholar’s academic work, (2) thinking about intellectual continuity and scholarly audience when one’s institutional context changes with one’s first academic appointment, and (3) exploring how the elements of one’s academic formation can be either constrained or liberated, perhaps even integrated, with a change in academic environment and a guarded recognition of multiple viable academic publics. Guests are encouraged to share the genesis and transformation of their own recent academic projects, and some time will be devoted to describing the process of publishing journal articles and books.

David A.Clairmont studies comparative religious ethics, particularly the moral thought of Roman Catholicism and Theravada Buddhism, and issues of method in Catholic moral theology. He is interested in questions of moral formation, inter-cultural dialogue in the Church, and the importance of inter-religious dialogue for the future of Catholic moral theology. He is co-editor (with Don S. Browning) of American Religions and the Family: How Faith Traditions Cope with Modernization (Columbia University Press, 2007) and author of Moral Struggle and Religious Ethics: On the Person as Classic in Comparative Theological Contexts (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). His articles have appeared in the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. He is currently working on two books: first, an analysis of the shape and contemporary relevance of Bonaventure’s moral theology tentatively titled “Bonaventure’s Hope; and second, an introduction to comparative religious ethics” (with William Schweiker) tentatively titled “Religious Ethics: Meaning and Method.”

Academic Study of Religion and Religious Faith and Practice
Panel Discussion
5:00-6:30 PM (new time!)
Location: Swift Hall Room 208

What is the academic study of religion? Does it challenge religious beliefs? Is there a way to overcome the potential challenges? Do you see your work having any impact in religious communities or religious practice? How do you address audiences as different as academia, religious communities, general public, etc?

We have asked Elsa Marty, Danielle DeLano, Aslan Cohen, and Patrick Lambelet to respond to these challenging questions and explain their own approach to the topic during an open panel discussion. Please join us on Thursday Jan. 14th- 5:00-6:30 PM, Swift 208 for a friendly and rich conversation on topics that concern us all.

Please note that the Workshop will meet now on Thursdays from 5:00-6:30 PM in Swift Hall (room# tbd). Our first meeting for the winter quarter is scheduled for January 14, 2015 when we will have our first Panel Discussion. The topic will be “Academic Study of Religion and Religious Faith and Practice.” Please check back soon for more information.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Theology & Religious Ethics Workshop invites paper proposals for the spring and winter quarters 2016. We invite conference papers, dissertation chapters, papers prepared for publications, and other research and work-in-progress, concerning both research and teaching in theology and religious ethics. Master students are encouraged to present.

The Theology and Religious Ethics Workshop is an intellectual forum that hosts vibrant conversations on topics related to theology and religious ethics. Acknowledging that theology and religious ethics are two distinct areas of study, an important aim of the Workshop this year is to bring the relationship between the two disciplines into focus. Therefore we encourage all presenters to make the nature of this relationship part of their concerns while participating in the Workshop, though it need not be addressed explicitly. All methodological approaches, historical periods, and geographical contexts are welcome for discussion. Interdisciplinary approaches are highly encouraged.

If you are interested in presenting, please write to us at contact-theologyandethics-workshop@lists.uchicago.edu with the following information:

• A tentative title for your presentation
• Your program and departmental affiliation
• The format you are choosing
• Your preferred term (winter or spring)
• A brief abstract of your project (200-300 words)

The Enhancing Life Project, Panel Discussion
4:30 – 6:00 PM
Swift Hall Common Room

On Tuesday, December 1, 2015 the Theology & Religious Ethics Workshop will hold a special session featuring The Enhancing Life Project. All are welcome to join us from 4:30 – 6:00 PM in the Common Room for a panel discussion with the Principal Investigators, Prof. Schweiker and Prof. Günter Thomas (Ruhr-University Bochum), along with Prof. Culp and Prof. Sulmasy, who are two of the thirty-five scholars selected to be part of the Project.We will hear about the history, development and aims of Enhancing Life Project and learn about each of the scholars’ individual research projects (see titles below).

About The Enhancing Life Project
The Enhancing Life Project explores an essential aspiration of human beings that moves persons and communities into the future. Given the profound expansion of human power through technology as well as advances in genetics, ecology, and other fields, the vulnerability and endangerment as well as the enhancement of life are dominant themes in the global age. The Enhancing Life Project aims to explore this rich but widely unexamined dimension of human aspiration and social life, and increase knowledge so that life might be enriched. Learn more.

Panelists:

• William Schweiker, Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chicago
  Research Project Title: Spiritual Laws, Human Flourishing, and Global Humanism
• Günter Thomas, Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics, Ruhr-University Bochum
  Research Project Title: The Pragmatics of Religious Counter Worlds: Enhancing the Life Given and Hoped For
• Kristine Culp, Associate Professor of Theology, Dean of the Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago
  Research Project Title: Glorious Life?
  Project Description: http://enhancinglife.uchicago.edu/people/limned-by-glory-theological-resources-for-imagining-and-enhancing-vulnerable-life
• Daniel Sulmasy, Professor of Medicine and Ethics, Director of the Program on Medicine and Religion, University of Chicago
  Research Project Title: Now and at the Hour of Our Death
  Project Description: http://enhancinglife.uchicago.edu/people/now-and-at-the-hour-of-our-death

“Concept History and Religious Discourse”
Evan Kuehn, PhD Candidate in Theology
12:15 – 1:30 PM
Swift 208
Lunch will be provided

Abstract:
Since the second half of the twentieth century, the history of concepts (Begriffsgeschichte) has made important contributions to the study of political and social thought, as well as to cultural history more generally. Reinhart Koselleck is generally recognized as the founder of this approach to historical study, which focuses on “basic concepts” without which modern social and political discourse would be impossible. Koselleck has argued that during the eighteenth century, basic concept use in Europe experienced widespread trends of 1) democratization, 2) temporalization, 3) incorporation into ideologies, and 4) politicization. More recently Koselleck’s original proposals have been revisited and reinterpreted, and researchers from Finland, Brazil, England, and other countries have worked to give the project a more global linguistic scope.

This presentation will consider the possibility of a conceptual history of religious discourse. While conceptual history has thus far focused primarily on political and social concepts, some research has more recently turned to religious concepts. This work should be expanded, and can be improved by the insight of theologians and ethicists who often have a better understanding of religious concept use than conceptual historians whose main focus is political thought. I will summarize how concept history could be applied to religious concepts, and how theologians might make a contribution to the theory behind Koselleck’s understanding of modern concept use, particularly with regard to ideas about the secularization of concepts. Questions will also be raised about the extent to which the practice of theological concept history should make normative claims about religious concepts, and how national and linguistic boundaries that are traditionally in play for conceptual history should be modified in the case of religious discourse, which is often more trans-national in scope, or otherwise determined by communal boundaries that do not coincide with official political and linguistic boundaries.

Lisa Landoe Hedrick, PhD Candidate in Theology, will offer a response.

Download Paper
*Reading the paper ahead of time is optional.

“Majestic and Macabre Mirrors: Virginity and Leprosy in the Theology of Gregory of Nyssa”
Mark Lambert
12:00 – 1:20 PM
Swift 208

Abstract: In a pair of sermons “On the Love of the Poor,” more traditionally known by the Latin equivalent, De pauperibus amandis, Gregory of Nyssa presents an impassioned plea on behalf of the plight of the poor and leprous in his native Cappadocia. These sermons not only provide insight into Gregory’s theological anthropology, but are also linked to his understanding of virginity. Through an exegesis of De pauperibus amandis in dialogue with On Virginity and The Life of Macrina, I will elucidate Gregory of Nyssa’s rendering of lepers and virgins as numinous mirrors, capable of reflecting the grace and image of God/Christ. I will further demonstrate the congruence of Gregory’s thought on virginity and leprosy as explicated in three themes: the body as a mutable membrane liable to transformation; the irresistible incandescence and aesthetic of virgins/lepers; and finally, the ability of these “mirrors” to refract tangible grace and healing.
Download Paper
https://uchicago.box.com/s/1eu8wofevz9ak7xe8hb3u659ilzhp0xo

“Ritual, Ethics, and Geoengineering”
Prof. Sarah Fredericks
Tuesday, 12:00 – 1:20 PM
Swift 208

You are cordially invited to a special meeting of the Theology and Religious Workshop with Sarah E. Fredericks, Assistant Professor of Environmental Ethics. Prof. Fredericks joined the Divinity School faculty this year. She will be giving a lecture on a chapter that is to be published in the forthcoming volume, Calming the Storm: Theological and Ethical Perspectives on Climate Engineering (Edited by Kevin J. O’Brien and Forrest Clingerman; Rowman & Littlefield). Geoengineering is the intentional, global-scale manipulation of the climate to combat climate change. In “Ritual Responses to Geoengineering,” Fredericks discusses the existential and moral threats revealed by the fact that some people are considering climate change and the need for religious action before, during, and after its implementation. Her chapter specifically focuses on solar radiation management, the most favored type of geoengineering and also, she argues, the most ethically controversial.

Professor Fredericks joins us from the University of North Texas, where she was Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion. She is the author of Measuring and Evaluating Sustainability: Ethics in Sustainability Indexes (Routledge, 2013). Her research focuses on sustainability, sustainable energy, environmental guilt and shame, and environmental justice. Professor Fredericks holds a PhD in Science, Philosophy and Religion from Boston University.

Participants may read Prof. Fredericks’ chapter in advance. It can be accessed using your CNetID credentials here:
https://uchicago.box.com/s/jk81e9sadvdm49704bmm8ht8x729zks2

“Florida Water: Meaningful and Messy Hybridity in the Atlantic Modern”
Hector Varela
12:00 -1:20 pm
Swift Hall 208

Abstract: Florida Water, a perfume produced by a U.S. company for more than two centuries, has become a powerful signifier in Latin American communities. Agua Florida, as it is called in Spanish, is ubiquitous and polyvalent, used for cleaning the house, and, for some, for purifying the body and space in religious ritual. The paper explores Agua Florida’s cultural agency, inter-religious relevance, and quotidian liminality as an example of messy while meaningful hybridity. Hank Owings will offer a response.
Lunch will be provided.
Co-sponsored with Global Christianities Workshop.

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