Ethics and Advocacy
Bridges and Boundaries
Edited by Harlan Beckley, Douglas F. Ottati, Matthew R. Petrusek and William Schweiker
Imprint: Cascade Books
Harlan Beckley is Fletcher Otey Thomas Professor Emeritus of Religion at Washington and Lee University. His publications include Passion for Justice (1992), Economic Justice (1996), James M. Gustafson’s Theocentric Ethics (1989), and numerous periodical articles. He founded and directed the Shepherd Program on Human Capability and Poverty and the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty.
Douglas F. Ottati is Craig Family Distinguished Professor of Reformed Theology and Justice at Davidson College. His publications include A Theology for the Twenty-First Century (2020), Theology for Liberal Presbyterians and Other Endangered Species (2006), and Hopeful Realism: Reclaiming the Poetry of Theology (1999).
Matthew R. Petrusek is Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at Loyola Marymount University. His books include Value and Vulnerability: An Interfaith Dialogue on Human Dignity (with Jonathan Rothchild), Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life (with Christopher Kaczor), and Evangelization and Politics: A Catholic Guide to Navigating Ideological Conflict (forthcoming). Petrusek serves as a fellow in Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Institute.
William Schweiker is Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chicago. His publications include Religious Ethics: Meaning and Method (2020), Dust That Breathes: Christian Faith and the New Humanism (2010), Religion and the Human Future (2008), Theological Ethics and Global Dynamics: In the Time of Many World (2004), among others. He has served as Mercator Professor at Universität Heidelberg and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala. Schweiker was President of the Society of Christian Ethics (2016).
“Today, ‘everyone knows’ that theology always comes out of and returns to a sociopolitical context. But, as Ethics and Advocacy shows, whether and how theology should advocate for contextual reforms is a contested and divisive question. . . . No matter which side of the debate you incline toward, this collection sheds light on roles we fulfill every day without always being clear on their connections.”
—Lisa Sowle Cahill, Boston College
“The authors of this probing volume lead us through the debate between ethics and advocacy as . . . an opportunity for us to see how integrating the two may give us productive and much-needed ways in which we can bridge the polarizations that often divide us and engage in the necessary conversations we must have to build and maintain a vibrant democracy.”
—Emilie M. Townes, Vanderbilt University Divinity School