Fourth Theistic Ethics Workshop

Wake Forest University
October 4-6, 2018

Speakers:

William J. FitzPatrick (University of Rochester)
Kristen Irwin (Loyola University Chicago)
Connie S. Rosati (University of Arizona)
Neal Tognazzini (Western Washington University)
Michelle Panchuk (Murray State University)
Abigail Bruxvoort (Northwestern University)
Mike Ashfield (USC)
Alexander Pruss (Baylor University)
Trenton Merricks (University of Virginia)

Goal: Contemporary philosophy of religion has been richly informed by important work in metaphysics and epistemology. At the same time, there has not been nearly as much work done at the intersection of philosophy of religion and meta-ethics or normative theory. To help inspire more good work in this area, Christian Miller (Wake Forest), Mark Murphy (Georgetown), and Chris Tucker (William and Mary) have been organizing a series of annual workshops on theistic ethics for the past three years.

Logistics: The fourth workshop was held at the Graylyn Conference Center at Wake Forest University (www.graylyn.com), one of the nicest conference facilities in the country. We began with dinner and the first paper on Thursday, October 4 and concluded at the end of the day on Saturday, October 6, 2018. There were five invited papers and four spots for submitted papers. All papers had 40 minutes for presentation and at least 40 minutes for discussion.

Themes: “Theistic ethics” 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, specific ethical issues in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, and many other topics as well.

Applying [NOTE: the submission deadline has passed and the workshop has already happened]: Those interested in participating should submit an abstract of up to 750 words and a current C.V. to Christian Miller at millerc@wfu.edu by May 1, 2018. Word or PDF file formats only. Please prepare abstracts for anonymous review.  For although the organizers seek to have a balanced program both in terms of topics and presenters, the initial stage of review will be done anonymously. Submitters to a previous year’s workshop, whether successful or unsuccessful, are welcome to apply to this year’s workshop.

Questions about the workshop should be sent to millerc@wfu.edu. Notification will be made by June 1, 2018. If your abstract is selected, we will cover all of your expenses for the workshop, including travel (this includes international travel). Co-authors are welcome, but only one author’s expenses can be covered. You do not have to send your paper in advance of the workshop, and it certainly can be a work in progress.