Welcome to Dr. Peter J. Paris- Visiting Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics

ParisThe Boston University School of Theology welcomes Peter J. Paris as the Visiting Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics for the academic year, 2013-2014. Dr. Paris is a world renowned scholar, honored most recently by a collection in his honor, Ethics That Matters: African, Caribbean, and African American Sources. Indeed, he is known for his teaching and research in “ethics that matters.” He is the Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor Emeritus of Christian Social Ethics, of Princeton Theological Seminary, having worked closely also with the Princeton University African American Studies Program. He has also been Fellow at Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, in 2008-2009, and has been Visiting Professor in Harvard University Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary (New York), and Trinity Theological College (Legon, Ghana). Formerly, Dr. Paris taught on the faculties of Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Howard University School of Divinity.
Dr. Paris is widely published, and his books include Religion and Poverty: Pan-African Perspectives; Virtues and Values:The African and African American Experience; The Spirituality of African Peoples: The Search for a Common Moral Discourse, and Black Religious Leaders: Conflict in Unity. In other publications, he has focused on: ethical formation; preaching and social justice; globalization; public theology; Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy; and the interaction of race, gender, and religion. He is currently the General Editor of the series on Religion, Race, and Ethnicity with the New York University Press, and he continues to lecture and teach widely throughout the United States, Canada, Jamaica, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, India and Brazil.
A native of Nova Scotia, Dr. Paris completed two degrees in Acadia University, where he was named Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2012. He completed his MA and PhD degrees in the University of Chicago, and was named Alumnus of the Year by the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1995. He has also received honorary doctoral degrees from Lafayette College and Lehigh University, both in Pennsylvania, and from Acadia and McGill Universities, both in Canada. Dr. Paris has been an outstanding academic leader in religion, society, and ethics, having served as President of the American Theological Society, the Society for the Study of Black Religion, the American Academy of Religion, and the Society of Christian Ethics. In an interesting connection with Boston University, he was awarded the Ray Hart Distinguished Service Award from the American Academy of Religion. In addition, Dr. Paris has been a church leader, having been ordained in the African United Baptist Association of the Atlantic Baptist Convention of Canada, and having served churches in various roles in addition to his present role on the Freedom and Justice Advisory Committee of the Baptist World Alliance.