Biennial Conference
2022 Conference: Ethics and Theism
(Postponed from 2020)
Fall 2022
This conference is part of a series of workshops that have been organized by Chris Tucker (W&M), Mark Murphy (Georgetown), and Christian Miller (Wake Forest) to promote more sustained reflection on the intersection of mainstream ethics and philosophy of religion. Contemporary philosophy of religion has been richly informed by important work in metaphysics and epistemology. Yet current philosophy of religion is, to some extent, insulated from mainstream ethical theory (broadly construed). The moral theories at play in discussions of theism are often crude and piecemeal, with no deep theoretical grounding. In mainstream ethical theory, theism’s connection to ethics is often dismissed with a passing reference to Euthyphro’s dilemma. This conference aims to address this problem.
The theme is to be understood broadly to include such topics as divine command and divine will theories; God and natural law; ethics and the problem of evil; moral arguments for a theistic being; infused and acquired virtues; the harms and benefits of theistic religions; what mainstream moral theories imply about divine action; specific ethical issues in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam; and many other topics as well.
Draft Program
All conference events take place at the Kingsmill Resort.
Thursday, September 1
7:00 p.m. - Riverview Room
“Turning the Tables: Using Science to Help Refine the Doctrine of Original Sin”
Speaker: Christian B. Miller (Wake Forest University)
Chair: TBA
8:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m - Riverview Room
Reception
Friday, September 2
9:00 a.m. - Randolph Conference Room
‘“They Have Eyes but Cannot See”: A Jewish Account of Idolatry’
Speaker: Sam Fleischacker (University of Illinois-Chicago)
Chair: TBA
10:30 a.m. - Randolph Conference Room
“The Normative Significance of God’s Self”
Speaker: Troy Seagraves (Purdue University)
Chair: TBA
Lunch Break
Time TBA - Randolph Conference Room
“Loving Your Hateful Enemy”
Speaker: Austen McDougal (Stanford University)
Chair: TBA
Time TBA - Randolph Conference Room
“Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself: The Psychology of Feeling at One with all of Humanity”
Speaker: Helen De Cruz (St. Louis University)
Chair: TBA
Saturday, September 3
9:00 a.m. - Randolph Conference Room
“Affliction and Abandonment: Divine Absence as Divine Grace”
Speaker: Megan Fritts (University of Arkansas-Little Rock)
Chair: TBA
10:30 a.m. - Randolph Conference Room
“Anger and Flourishing in Light of Systemic Injustice”
Speaker: Kevin Timpe (Calvin University)
Chair: TBA
Lunch Break
Time TBA - Randolph Conference Room
“Finite and Infinite Values”
Speaker: Dan Kemp (Baylor University)
Chair: Anne Jeffrey (Baylor University)
Time TBA - Randolph Conference Room
“Congregating Under the Banner of Virtue: Moral Progress and Kant’s Visible Church”
Speaker: Karen Stohr (Georgetown University)
Chair: TBA
Local Organizer: Chris Tucker, [[cstucker]].
Past Conferences
Applied Neo-pragmatism (2018)
Epistemology and Cognition (2016)
The Authority of Tradition (2014)
Responsibility & Relationships: 50 Years of Strawson's 'Freedom and Resentment' (2012)
Study of the Human Self (2008)
The Future of Democracy (2006)
The Department of Philosophy is grateful to Teresa Thompson ('67) and Michael Foradas ('78)
for their generous support.
