RELIGIOUS ETHICS AREA REQUIREMENTS
Description
The Religious Ethics area is concerned with the meaning of religion for the lives of
persons and the ordering of societies, and, therefore, with problems of the good life,
justice, and the common good. Study in the history and methods of religious and non-
religious ethics is essential to work in the area. The examination of specific moral
problems and the study of comparative religious ethics require work in the relevant
social and historical sciences or in the professions. Students are thereby encouraged to
pursue work in pertinent areas of the University outside of the Divinity School.
Statement of Written and Oral Examinations
A student concentrating in Religious Ethics will take three examinations in the area,
including at least two of the following: RE I: Philosophical Ethics; RE II: Theological
Ethics; RE III: Ethics and Political Life. The student must select another, third
examination from those offered by the Area.
A student concentrating in Religious Ethics will submit for the oral examination a 20-25
page paper which typically engages one major thinker, relevant primary materials, and
also important secondary scholarship with respect to a question pertinent to the
student’s scholarly aspirations. This paper should, accordingly, explicate and assess the
thinker(s) chosen and also advance, through that engagement, a constructive argument
on the question. The paper should be distributed to examiners at least two weeks prior
to the oral examination.
The distinctive business of the oral examination is to engage the submitted paper and
pursue other lines of inquiry, especially, but not limited to, the written examinations.
Qualifying Examinations in Religious Ethics
Religious Ethics I: Philosophical Ethics
Religious Ethics II: Theological Ethics
Religious Ethics II: Ethics and Political Life
Religious Ethics IV: Ethics and the Social Sciences
Religious Ethics V: Comparative Religious Ethics
Religious Ethics VI: Moral Problems
Examination Bibliographies
RELIGIOUS ETHICS I: PHILOSOPHICAL ETHICS
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This examination asks the student to demonstrate knowledge of major historical writings
in Western philosophical ethics. In Part A, students are responsible for representative
figures in the history of philosophical ethics, as specified below. In Part B, students are
responsible for the ethics of three recent authors. The three figures chosen by the
student must be approved by the examiner. The list of thinkers under Part B is
illustrative; the student may propose an alternative figure or figures.
Part A:
Plato The Republic
Aristotle Nichomachean Ethics
Aquinas Summa Theologiae. I-I, QQ. 1-25; I-II, QQ. 49-89, 90-108.
Hobbes Leviathan
Hume Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
Mill Utilitarianism
On Liberty
Kant Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals
Hegel Natural Law
Sidgwick Methods of Ethics
or
Moore Principia Ethica
Part B:
Karl-Otto Apel
Hannah Arendt
John Dewey
Alan Gewirth
Jurgen Habermas
R. M. Hare
William James
Emmanuel Levinas
Alasdair MacIntyre
Iris Murdoch
John Rawls
Paul Ricoeur
Jean Paul Sartre
Alfred North Whitehead
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RELIGIOUS ETHICS II: THEOLOGICAL ETHICS
This examination has three parts constituted by major “periods” of the history of
theological ethics. The core of the examination bibliography is the development and
differentiation of Christian moral thinking. However, classic texts are set within and
compared with the complexity of other traditions (philosophical, Jewish, Islamic) that
intersect and often collide throughout the centuries of Western ethics. The examination
thereby has an explicit comparative dimension and purpose.
The student is responsible for each of the parts of the examination. While the first two
parts of the examination form a "set" exam with identical questions for all takers, the
third part is "specialized" in accordance with each student's choice of two thinkers.
Questions covering the bibliography in Parts I and II may be either from within each
period or call for relating writings from different periods. Questions covering authors
from Part III will be developed in accordance with the student's choice of readings and
long terms scholarly interests.
Recommended Secondary Texts:
Albert Jonsen and Stephen Toulmin, The Abuse of Casuistry
G. F. Hourana, Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics
Kenneth E. Kirk, The Vision of God
Vladimir Lossky, Orthodox Theology: An Introduction
John Mahoney, The Making of Moral Theology
J. Meyendorff, Living Tradition
Peter Paris, The Social Teaching of the Black Churches
Servais Pinckaers, Les sources de la moral chrétienne
William Schweiker (ed), The Blackwell Companion to Religious Ethics
Ernst Troeltsch, The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches
Required Texts:
PART ONE:
Required
Bible: Exodus 19:17-23:33; Leviticus 19; Amos; Matthew 5-7; Luke 6:20-49; Romans
12:1-15:13; I John
Qur’an: Surah 17 "The Children of Israel;" Surah 23 "The True ; Believers;”Surah 5 "The
Feast"
Plato, Euthyphro
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, bks 1, 2, 10.
Epicurus, "Epicurus to Menoeceus;" "Principal Doctrines;" "Vatican Sayings"
Epictetus, Enchiridion
The Didache, in Early Christian Fathers: Library of Christian Classics Vol. I.
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Clement, "The Rich Man's Salvation;" "On Spiritual Perfection" (Stromateis, VII) in
Alexandrian Christianity
Augustine, On the Morals of the Catholic Church; The City of God, Books XIV and XIX;
On Grace and Free Will; On the Good of Marriage.
John Chrysostom, “Treatise to Prove that No One Can Harm the Man Who does not
Injure Himself” in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1st Series, Vol. 9; On Marriage and
Family Life (selections)
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, qq. 5-6 (goodness and God); I-II, qq. 6 and 8,
12-13
(human acts), 26 (love), 54-55 (virtue), 61-62 (cardinal and theological
virtues),90-95, 100 (law), 106-108 (new law); II-II, qq. 25-26 (charity), 40 (war),
63 (respect), 64 (murder), 154 (sex).
al-Ghazzâlî, Confessions
Maimonides, Guide to the Perplexed in Ethical Writings, pp. 129-154; “Laws Concerning
Character Traits”
in Ethical Writings,pp. 27-58; Maimonides, “Eight Chapters” in Ethical Writings,
pp. 59-104
Averroes, selection on free will and God's foreknowledge in Readings in Medieval
Philosophy, pp.209-
213.
PART TWO:
Sixteenth Century: Required
Martin Luther, "Sermon on the Mount" (Mt. 5:27-48), in Luther's Works, American ed.,
vol. 21:83-129; "Lectures on Galatians" (1535) (3:2), Works, 26:202-216; (3:16-29), 26:
298-358; "The Estate of Marriage," Works, 45:17-49; "The Freedom of a Christian,"
Works, 31: 337-377; "On Temporal Authority," Works, 45:81-129.
Thomas Muentzer, "Sermon Before the Princes," in G.H. Williams and A.M. Mergal,
eds., Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers (LCC 25), pp. 47-70.
Schleitheim Confession, in John H. Leith, ed., Creeds of the Churches, pp. 282-292.
Menno Simons, On the Ban, in Spiritual and Anabaptist Writers (LCC 25), pp. 261-271
John Calvin, Institutes, Book I chapter 2; Book II, chapters 7-9 (laws); Book III, chapter
2. i-vii, 6-8, 19 (theChristian life), Book IV, 20 (civil government).
Richard Hooker, Of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I.
Jesuit Moral Theology, excerpts in George Forell. ed.,Christian Social Teachings, pp.
204-213.
Seventeenth-Eighteenth Centuries: Select Two.
B. Pascal, Provincial Letters, 4-15.
Gerrard Winstanley, The Law of Freedom.
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Joseph Butler, Sermons (selections)
John Wesley, in Albert Outler, ed., John Wesley, pp. 119-305.
Jonathan Edwards, The Nature of True Virtue
B. Spinoza, Ethics Part I; Part V
Nineteenth-Twentieth Centuries: Select Three.
F.D.E. Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, pp. 371-585; Introduction to Christian
Ethics
S. Kierkegaard, Works of Love or Training in Christianity.
F.D. Maurice, Social Morality.
Leo XIII, "On Christian Philosophy," "On Human Liberty," "On Christian Marriage," "On
Civil Government,”
"On the Christian Constitutions of States," "On Socialism," "On the Rights and
Duties of Capital
and Labor," "On Christian Citizenship."
Walter Rauschenbusch, Theology For The Social Gospel
John XXIII "Mater et Magistra," "Pacem in Terris," and also "Gaudium et Spes" in
Renewing the
Earth:Catholic Documents on Peace, Justice and Liberation, D. O'Brien and T.
Shannon, eds.
J. Meyendorff, Marriage: An Orthodox Perspective (selections)
S. S. Harakas, Toward Transfigured Life: The Theoria of Orthodox Ethics (selections)
Kenneth Kirk, Conscience and Its Problems (selections)
Karl Barth, The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life
Martin Buber, I and Thou
Abdolkarim Soroush. Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam
H. Richard Niebuhr, The Responsible Self
Reinhold Niebuhr, An Interpretation of Christian Ethics
Paul Tillich, Morality and Beyond
PART THREE: (Select Two) The following names are only suggestions:
Stanley Harakas, Bernard Häring, Beverly Harrison, Gustavo Gutierrez, Trutz Rendtorff,
Joseph Fuchs, Karl Barth, K.E. Kirk, H. Richard Niebuhr, Jürgen Moltmann, James
Gustafson, Reinhold Niebuhr, John Paul II, Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, Paul
Ramsey, John Paul II, Maragret Farley, Oliver O’Donovan, John Courtney Murray,
Stanley Hauerwas, Paul Tillich, Emil Brunner, Karl Rahner, R. Bultmann, Vigen
Guroian, James Cone, M. L. King, Jr., Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas, Charles
Curran, Richard McCormick, R. Green , etc.
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RELIGIOUS ETHICS III: ETHICS AND POLITICAL LIFE
This examination asks the student to demonstrate knowledge of historical and
contemporary theories in Western theology and political philosophy concerning the
origin, ends, and legitimation of political communities. Special attention will be paid to
the role religion plays in a particular thinker’s vision of political life. Is religion a core or
peripheral value? Does religion offer specific legitimation of the ends of political life as
well as its limits? Is politics central to human flourishing? What is the relationship of the
religious order to the political order? And so on.
Students must have a command of the following texts or selections from texts.
Plato, The Republic
Aristotle, The Politics
Nichomachean Ethics, V
Augustine, The City of God, Pt.II,Bks.XI,XIV,XV,XIX,XX
The Confessions
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae,I-II,QQ.90-108;II-II, QQ.42, 57-58
M. Luther, On the Freedom of the Christian
Secular Authority. To what extent it should be obeyed?
J. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV,xx.
Machiavelli, The Prince
T. Hobbes, The Leviathan, Parts I and II
J. Locke, The Second Treatise of Civil Government
Letter Concerning Toleration
J. Rousseau, The Second Discourse
The Social Contract
Hegel, The Philosophy of Right (Third Part)
J.S. Mill, On Liberty
S. Freud, Civilization and its Discontents
J. Dewey, The Public and its Problems
R. Niebuhr, The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr
Love and Justice
H. Arendt, The Human Condition
A. Camus, The Rebel
D. Bonhoeffer, Ethics
Letters and Papers from Prison
John Paul II Centesimus Annus
RELIGIOUS ETHICS IV: ETHICS AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
The purpose of this examination is to explore, compare, and contrast alternative
perspectives in the philosophy of the social sciences. Contrasting approaches will be
analyzed with an emphasis on the implications of each for assessing connection
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between religious ethics and the social sciences. With respect to some works on the
bibliography, selections from them will be determined with the examiner.
Required Texts.
S. Freud, New Introductory Lectures
R. Bernstein, Praxis and Action.
G. Winter, Elements for a Social Ethic
P. Winch, The Idea of a Social Science
B. Wilson, ed., Rationality and Social Science (selections)
A. MacIntyre, Against the Self Images of the Age (selections)
C. Taylor, Philosophical Papers, 2 volumes (selections)
J. Kovesi, Moral Notions
Rabinow
and Sullivan, eds. Interpretive Social Science: A Reader (selections)
C. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures
S. Hampshire, Thought and Action
P. Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Social Sciences
M. Weber, Methodology of the Social Sciences. Chps. 1,2
E. Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle
D.Browning, Religious Thought and Modern Psychologies
E. Durkheim, Moral Education.
M. Midgley, Beast and Man.
T. Parsons, The Evolution of Societies.
R. Abbey, ed., Charles Taylor.
C. Taylor, Malais of Modernity
A. Wolfe, Whose Keeper? Morality and the Social Sciences.
J. Elshtain, Who are We? Critical Reflections and Hopeful Possibilities
H. Daly and
J. Cobb, For the Common Good
J. M. Gustafson, Intersections
John Paul II, Laborem Exercens
RELIGIOUS ETHICS V: COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS ETHICS
The purpose of this examination is to address methodological and substantive matters
in comparative religious ethics. A student will thereby be required (1) to have command
of the basic required texts and thus conversant with major theoretical options for
comparison and (2) select in consultation with appropriate faculty and additional five (5)
texts from each of the two (2) traditions compared in this exam around a basic moral
issue.
Required Texts:
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R. Green, Religion and Moral Reason
D. Hume, A Natural History of Religion
I. Kant, Lectures on Philosophical Theology
D. Little
and S.B. Twiss, Comparative Religious Ethics
A. MacIntyre, Three Rival Versions of Moral Inquiry
F. Nietzsche, On the Geneaology of Morals
F. Reynolds and R. Lovin, Cosmogony and Ethics
E. Troeltsch, The Absoluteness of Christianity and the History of
Religions
L. Yearley, Mencius and Aquinas
D. Fasching
and D. deChant Comparative Religious Ethics: A Narrative Approach
W. Schweiker, Power, Value and Conviction: Theological Ethics in the
Postmodern Age
Recommended Reading:
E. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
L. T. Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution.
J. Runzo
and N.M. Martin (eds), Ethics in the World Religions
W. Schweiker (ed), The Blackwell Companion to Religious Ethics
A. Sharma, Our Religions
M. Stackhouse (ed) God and Globalization
M. Weber, The Sociology of Religion.
E. Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas.
RELIGIOUS ETHICS VI: MORAL PROBLEMS
The purpose of this examination is to address in some detail a specific moral problem
(e.g., medicine research; war; ecology; economic justice) with theoretical clarity and
descriptive depth and to reach a defensible normative judgment. Each student will be
required to read a set bibliography on a range of books about a selected moral problem,
and, additionally, determine, in consultation with appropriate faculty, other texts
pertinent to her or his specific moral problem.
The bibliographic lists given below are illustrative of moral problems appropriate for
this examination. Students may also petition to the Religious Ethics area to constitute
an examining committee of additional, appropriate faculty members.
1. JUST WAR: THE ETHICS OF WAR-MAKING
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In consultation with the examiner, a student taking the exam will select additional texts
that address her or his specific interests, and, with the same end in view, other texts
may be substituted for some of those below.
Required Texts.
M. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars
P. Ramsey, Just War: Force and Political Responsibility
J. Elshtain, Just War Against Terror
Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law of Islam
L. Swift, ed., The Early Fathers on War and Military Service.
Augustine, City of God, Book I (1-7, 21), Book III (10, l14, 18-31), Book
5 (17, 22-23), Book 19 (in its entirety)
J. Elshtain, ed. Just War Theory
T. Aquinas, Political Writings Book I (1-5, 9-11,l4,16), Book II (3),
Summa theologiae, IIaIIae66 (‘On theft’), IIaIIae40 (‘On
War’), IIaIIae42 (‘On sedition’, IIaIIae64 (‘on homocide’)
Luther, “Can a Christian be a soldier?”, “The War Against the Turk”
De Vitoria, Political Writings, ed. Anthony Pagden and Jeremy
Lawrance
R. Gordis, Jewish Ethics for a Godless World
Cicero, On the Commonwealth, Book I (63-65), Book 3 (34a-34b)
F. Russel, The Just War in the Middle Ages
H. Grotius, Of the Rights of War and Peace (Book I (1-3), Book II (22-
25), Book III (1-4,11,13,15,17,19)
I. Kant, On Perpetual Peace
R. Niebuhr, Love and Justice
R. Lovin, Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism.
J.T. Johnson, Ideology, Reason and the Limitation of War:Religious and
Secular Concepts
G. Weigel, Tranquillitas Ordinis. The Present Failure and Future
Promise of American Catholic Thought on War and Peace.
U.S. Roman Catholic
Bishops, “The Challenge of Peace,” Pastoral Letter, 1983.
Recommended Reading.
M. Walzer, Understanding War
J. Elshtain, Women and War
M. Walzer, “The Idea of Holy War in Ancient Israel, “The Journal of
Religious Ethics, 20 (2), Fall, 1992, pp.215-228.
D. DeCosse,ed., But was it Just? Reflections on the Morality of the Persian
Gulf War.
R. Miller, “Aquinas and the Presumption Against Killing and War”,
Journal of Religion, 82, no.2 (April, 2002), pp. 173-204.
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J. Capizzi, “On Behalf of the Neighbor,” Studies in Christian Ethics 14,
no.2 (2002), pp. 81-108.
Bassam Tibi, “War and Peace in Islam,” in T. Nardin, ed., The Ethics of
War and Peace (Princeton University Press, 1996, pp. 128-
145.)
2. ECONOMICS
In consultation with the examiner, a student taking the exam will select additional texts
that address her or his specific interests, and, with the same end in view, other texts
may be substituted for some of those below.
Max Weber. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Robert Heilbroner. The Worldly Philosophers.
Robert Heilbroner. The Nature and Logic of Capitalism.
Michael Harrington. The Accidental Century.
John Kenneth Galbraith. Economics and the Public Purpose.
John Kenneth Galbraith. The Good Society.
Michael Novak. The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Alan Gewirth. The Community of Rights.
Herman Daly
and John B. Cobb, Jr. For the Common Good.
U.S. Roman Catholic
Bishops. Economic Justice for All
John Paul II. Laborem Exercens
3. ECOLOGICAL ETHICS
In consultation with the examiner, a student taking the exam will select additional texts
that address her or his specific interests, and, with the same end in view, other texts
may be substituted for some of those below.
James M, Gustafson, A Sense of the Divine
Erazim Kohak, The Embers and the Stars
____________. Green Halo
Mary Midgley, Man and Beast
Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation
James Nash, Loving Nature
Michael Northcott, The Environment and Christian Ethics
Holmes Rolston, Philosophy Gone Wild
Peter Singer, Animal Liberation
Mick Smith, The Ethics of Place
Paul Taylor, Respect for Nature
C. Birch and J. Cobb, Liberation of Life
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H. Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility
4. MEDICAL ETHICS
In consultation with the examiner, a student taking the exam will select additional texts
that address her or his specific interests, and, with the same end in view, other texts
may be substituted for some of those below.
Tom Beauchamp
and James Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 5th ed.
Francis Fukyama, Our Posthuman Future
Jurgen Habermas, Future of Human Nature
William F. May, The Physician’s Covenant
Edward Pelligrina
and David Thomasma, Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice
Paul Ramsey, The Patient as Person
Paul Ramsey, Fabricated Man
Peter Singer, Unsanctifying Human Life
Leon Kass, Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity
5. THE ETHICS OF DEMOCRACY
In consultation with the examiner, a student taking the exam will select additional texts
that address her or his specific interests, and, with the same end in view, other texts
may be substituted for some of those below.
M. Sandel, Democracy’s Discontents
J. Elsthain, Democracy on Trail
F.I. Gamwell, Democracy on Purpose
R. Putnam, Bowling Alone
J. Dewey, The Public and Its Problems
R. Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness
J. Addams, Democracy and Social Ethics
J. Elsthain (ed), The Jane Addams Reader (selections)
John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis; Centesimus Annus
The Federalist Papers (selections)
A. Lincoln, Collected Speeches and Other Writings (selections)
6. GENDER, POLITICS AND ETHICS
In consultation with the examiner, a student taking the exam will select additional texts
that address her or his specific interests, and, with the same end in view, other texts
may be substituted for some of those below.
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J. B. Elshtain, Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political
Thought
C. Gilligan, In a Different Voice
M. Beard, Women as Force in History
S. de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
M. Fuller, The Writings of Margaret Fuller
E. C. Stanton, The Solitude of Self
J. B. Elsthain (ed), The Family in Political Thought
M. Wollstonecraft, The Vindication of the Rights of Woman
J. Mitchell, Woman’s Estate
M. Rosaldo
and L. Lamphere, Woman, Culture and Society
J. Sherman
and E. Beck, The Prism of Sex: Essays in the Sociology of Knowledge
7. RACE AND ETHICS
In consultation with the examiner, a student taking the exam will select additional texts
that address her or his specific interests, and, with the same end in view, other texts
may be substituted for some of those below.
A. B. Anderson and
G. W. Pickering Confronting the Color Line
L. Bennett, Jr. Before the Mayflower
Katie Cannon Black Womanist Ethics
J. Cone Black Theology and Black Power
F. Douglas Life and Times of Frederick Douglas
Du Bois, W. E. B. The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois
D. Hopkins Shoes That Fit Our Feet
M. L. King, Jr. Why We Can’t Wait?
M. L. King, Jr. Where Do We Go From Here?
Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X
P. Paris The Social Teachings of the Black Churches.
M. J. Perry We the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the
Supreme Court
J. D. Skrentny The Ironies of Affirmative Action
C. West Prophesy Deliverance.
C. West Race Matters
8. ETHICS AND GLOBALIZATION
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In consultation with the examiner, a student taking the exam will select additional texts
that address her or his specific interests, and, with the same end in view, other texts
may be substituted for some of those below.
W. Schweiker, Theological Ethics and Global Dynamics
M. Stackhouse (ed), God and Globalization 4 vols. (Selections)
A. Appadurai, Modernity at Large
S. Benhabib, Situating the Self
A. Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity
D. Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity
S. Hauerwas, Christian Existence Today
H. Kung, Global Responsibility
H. Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility
E. Levinas, Humanism of the Other
J. Milbank, Theology and Social Theory
M. Nussbaum, Women and Development
R. Robertson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture
S. Sassen, Globalization and its Discontents
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