Ethics

• STH TS 875: Comparative Religious Ethics
  Comparative religious ethics, as a burgeoning academic field, strives to pursue moral wisdom across religious boundaries. In this course, we first juxtapose the ethical teaching of Christianity with another tradition to probe some perennial moral questions: ultimate end, exemplary virtue, social hierarchy, sexuality and marriage, war and peace, as well as political liberation. We then examine some contemporary issues comparatively in feminist, environmental, and postcolonial ethics. Finally, we study the moral significance of religious traditions as "spiritual exercises" (in the senses given by St. Ignatius and Pierre Hadot). There, we explore how bodily practices such as yogic movements, breathing exercises, Benedictine liturgical prayers, meditation of the cosmos, and contemplation of divine love might have far-reaching ethical consequences. (Cluster 1 & 2)
• STH TS 877: Restorative Justice
  A study of the fundamental principles and practices of restorative justice. The course outlines the basic principles and values of restorative justice, introduces some of the primary models of practice, and identifies challenges to restorative justice and strategies to respond to them. The course is organized around three key themes: the role of religious ethics and Indigenous traditions in the development of restorative justice, the major models of restorative justice practice, and the relationship of restorative justice to racial justice. Attention is given to restorative justice as practiced in criminal legal settings, in contexts of political transition and historical trauma, and in racial justice organizing.
• STH TS 881: Environmental Justice
  This course explores the ways in which injustices are mediated through our physical environment, and how academics, artists, ordinary citizens, organizers, and religious leaders are addressing those injustices. Through articles, case studies, discussion, writing, and excursions to encounter the the work of the environmental justice movement in Boston, we will explore how communities engage (or avoid engaging) the connection between environmental and public health. We will explore how environmental justice activists navigate the complex webs of different stakeholders and analyze the ways that power and voice relate to environmental health. By the end of this course, you will have developed your own creative response to an instance of environmental injustice and have joined the other academics and activists at work in this vital field. (Cluster 2 or 3)