God, Ethics, and Christian Traditions

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Religions is focused on philosophical questions pertaining to the relationship between God (as conceived both in classical monotheism and in historic Christian traditions) and ethics (broadly conceived). Does God’s existence and nature make any difference with respect to morality? And if so, in what ways? This line of inquiry naturally connects up to a variety of debates in metaethics, moral psychology, normative moral theory, applied ethics, and other related areas. We invite papers that attend to these questions.

Additionally, we welcome papers that address these questions by thinking out of, or by engaging with, specific Christian traditions or denominational heritages. In other words, while this Special Issue is not limited to such engagements, we welcome papers that pertain not just to a generalized form of Christian thought, but to the specific traditions from which, or within which, one might live and work. What can be learned by taking a look at this or that distinctive stream within the broader Christian tradition? How might the particularities of this or that narrower tradition inform debates in ethics? While the literature on God and ethics is sometimes incidentally or implicitly informed by specific Christian traditions, this Special Issue aims to expand the literature by welcoming authors to think intentionally and unapologetically with, and out of, specific Christian lineages.

This Special Issue will publish papers that address such questions as:

In metaethics and moral psychology:

• How does God’s existence and nature inform debates pertaining to the metaphysical foundations of morality? How do moral obligations arise in relation to God?  In the ways explained by theological voluntarism or divine command theory?  Natural law theory?  Virtue theory?  Some combination thereof?  Some alternative altogether? 
• Is a classical monotheistic conception of God necessary for moral realism? Does a Christian conception of God entail moral realism?
• What difference does God’s existence and nature make with respect to moral epistemology? Does it affect how we come to have knowledge of morality? What difference does believing in God make with respect to how we come to this knowledge?
• What difference does God’s existence and nature make with respect to whether and what extent we are motivated to be moral? How, and in what ways, does religious faith affect the moral life? Are we made morally better by having religious faith?

In normative ethics:

• What implications does an acceptance of the Christian conception of God have on normative moral theory?
• Does the Christian conception of God stand in conflict with consequentialism? Deontology?
• Does the Christian conception of God entail virtue ethics? If so, what is the relationship between virtue ethics and other normative theories?
• What is the relationship between Christian metaethics and normative theories? Does an acceptance of a natural law metaethics, for example, have any implications for normative ethics?

In applied ethics:

• Are there specific salient issues that are informed by God’s existence and nature? How might the proper reflection on God’s relationship to morality influence one’s views on issues of race, policing, gender identity, genetic engineering, recreational drug use, distributive justice, etc.?
• What entailments does an affirmation of this or that specific Christian tradition have on some given issue of applied ethics (for example, in sexual ethics or in debates about the role of religion in politics?)

With respect to specific Christian traditions:

• What can be learned about morality by taking a look at a specific religious heritage—e.g., the Reformed tradition, evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, Methodism, the Baptist tradition, the Stone-Campbell Tradition, Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Orthodoxy,etc.?
• What are the limitations of those traditions?
• How do specific traditions shape our views of God, and hence our views about the relation between God and metaethics, normative moral theory, or applied ethics?
• Are there neglected or underexplored religious thinkers in the history of philosophy and theology—or in this or that specific religious tradition—with whom it would be helpful to think in sorting through issues in metaethics, normative moral theory, and applied ethics?

Prof. Dr. J. Caleb Clanton
Dr. Kraig Martin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• religion
• theism
• Christianity
• God
• tradition
• philosophy
• ethics
• morality
• metaethics
• moral psychology
• normative ethics
• applied ethics
• practical ethics
• virtue theory
• consequentialism
• deontology
• divine command theory
• natural law theory