David Decosimo Joins STH as Assistant Professor of Theology
David Decosimo has joined Boston University School of Theology as Assistant Professor of Theology. Dr. Decosimo brings to the school an expertise in Christian ethics, comparative theology, and scholarship in the moral theology of Thomas Aquinas. His recent book, Ethics as a Work of Charity: Thomas Aquinas and Pagan Virtue (Stanford University Press, 2014), argues that Aquinas synthesized Augustinian and Aristotelian elements to construct an ethic that does justice—in love—to insiders and outsiders alike.
“We are thrilled to welcome David Decosimo to our faculty,” said Mary Elizabeth Moore, Dean of Boston University School of Theology. “He comes to us from Loyola University, where he was known as an outstanding teacher, and his scholarship at the intersection of theology, philosophy, and ethics probes deeply into ancient and contemporary questions of import. His study of comparative theology, particularly his focus on Christianity and Islam, will expand our students’ ability to learn from a diverse range of faith thinkers.”
Dr. Decosimo earned a B.A. with Distinction from University of Virginia, an M.A. from University of Chicago Divinity School, and both an M.A. and a PhD in Religion, Ethics and Politics from Princeton University. Prior to joining Boston University, he was Assistant Professor of Theology at Loyola University Maryland.
Dr. Decosimo’s research has focused on religious ethics and comparative theology in a pluralist and globalized world and on the theological thought of giants such as Aquinas, Augustine, and the Muslim thinker al-Ghazālī, whom he believes can help us navigate today’s challenging political and ethical issues.
Dr. Decosimo first became interested in Aquinas’ ethics of pagan virtue because he observed that people in the church often feel caught between equally unattractive options. “Almost all of us have had the experience of encountering someone who disagrees with us about some of the most important things – things like God, the body, religion, which politics are just – and then seeing in the life of that person excellences and beauty and virtue that might even surpass the best our own tradition seems to offer,” he says. People often feel that they have to choose between calling the virtue counterfeit, or decentering God and faith from the picture.
Navigating this challenge is what motivated his research, Dr. Decosimo says: “How do we make sense of goodness and beauty in the lives of people who disagree with us about these fundamental things, and at the same time how do we keep believing that these fundamental things actually matter?” It is a challenge relevant not just to Christians but to people of other faiths and people of no faith as well. A review in Living Church magazine called Ethics of Charity “a landmark book of lasting importance.”
Dr. Decosimo’s second book, Four Tasks of Christian Ethics, is nearing completion. It offers a new way of understanding the history and work of Christian ethics and an account of how and why that work so often goes awry. He has also published articles in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Studies in Christian Ethics, and the Journal of Religious Ethics.
Dr. Decosimo works to unite a careful attention to the tradition of Christian thought from centuries past, with a concern for today’s pressing issues of justice, liberation and of overcoming oppression. He is looking forward to helping students see that their passions for justice are shared by figures down through the centuries in the Christian tradition.
The intersection of Christianity, Islam and comparative theology will be another central focus of Dr. Decosimo’s scholarship and teaching at STH. His latest projects draw on both the Islamic and Christian traditions to articulate a new vision of political freedom and to find resources for deeper equity and fairness in the ways that Muslims and Christians regard one another and also the religious minorities in their midst.
“A very central facet of my work is striving to help Christians, Muslims, and other religious believers and nonbelievers better understand and cooperate with one another,” Dr. Decosimo says, “and helping them see the ways in which fidelity and commitment to their own tradition need not be an obstacle to deep friendships across those lines. Instead it can impel those friendships. Real friendship isn’t about discarding differences; it’s about finding unity and common ground amidst them.”