Comparative Religious Ethics |
Call for ProposalsThis Group encourages submissions of panels and individual papers on comparative religious ethics, including those that address the following themes:
MissionComparative religious ethics includes three main aspects:
Ideally, each of these aspects enriches the others, so that, for example, comparison across traditions helps generate more insightful interpretations of particular figures and themes. This self-conscious sophistication about differing ethical vocabularies and the analytical practices necessary to grapple with them is what makes comparative ethics distinctive within broader conversations in religious and philosophical ethics. In this way, comparative ethics can be methodologically sophisticated and self-reflexive while productively engaging significant ethical issues at the same time. Such questioning and theory-creation can take various forms. Scholars may focus on particular practical topics, such as war, political order, economic relations, environmental stewardship, or sexual behavior as a way to elicit varying formulations and pursue comparison. Or they may examine more abstract issues, such as the characteristics of the various genres in which ethical reflection occurs in different eras and traditions. Other pregnant abstractions that might be studied comparatively include the general “nature” or “condition” of human beings, practices of personal formation, various moral psychological topics such as emotions, intentions, or the “will,” divergent modes of justification proffered for particular ethics, human rights, and other sorts of international instruments of critique and cooperation. The scope of comparative ethics ranges from the developed ethical systems created by representatives of “high traditions” within (e.g., Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism) to the sometimes less polished theories and practices for governing human life to be found in almost any religious group, however these might be articulated by interpreters. Comparative ethics as envisioned here induces conversation across typical area studies boundaries by involving scholars of different religions, and all sessions in this Group are constructed with this goal in mind, so that data from multiple traditions will be brought to bear on any comparative theme. Anonymity of Review ProcessProposals are anonymous to Chairs and Steering Committee Members until after final acceptance or rejection. Questions?Elizabeth Bucar Irene Oh Method of Submission |