Students admitted to the Ph.D. program in Ethics are expected to possess or quickly acquire proficiency in two scholarly languages, normally German and French. Students may propose to substitute another language for one of these, e.g., Spanish, if their particular scholarly interests warrant this step. Language requirements must be completed prior to the third year in order to remain in good academic standing. For further description of policy and procedure, see the departmental information.

Ph.D. students in Ethics are expected to demonstrate competency across a range of literature, thinkers, and problems in three major areas: theological ethics (Christian, and another religious tradition if desired); philosophical ethics (historical and contemporary); and social ethics (religious social teachings, political theology, and/or specific areas of contemporary concern). Faculty and individual students will determine precise constellations of appropriate competencies.

Students are required to take a minimum of twelve courses, and this is normally done during the first two years of study. A minimum quality requirement, set by the Graduate School, must be met. This stipulates that a student must earn a grade of Honors in two graduate courses. The purpose of course work is to acquire comprehensive knowledge of the field and prepare for the qualifying examinations. In addition to taking regular courses offered by the Department of Religious Studies and other departments, students may remedy gaps in knowledge through directed readings or by auditing appropriate courses. Students in Ethics usually take courses at the Divinity School and in the Department of Religious Studies, Philosophy, and in other departments and schools in the University such as Political Science, Sociology, the Bioethics Center, the Law School, Medical School, School of the Environment, etc., according to their particular interests. The Department of Religious Studies also has a joint degree program with the Department of African American Studies.

Some Course Possibilities within the Field:

• Eco-Theology, Environmental Ethics, and Fiction (Darr)
• Environmental and Multispecies Justice (Darr)
• Religion and Ecology (Darr)
• Love, Prophecy and Social Criticism (Granby)
• Experience in Ethics (Granby)
• Du Bois and Black Radicalism (Granby)
• Ethics, Imagination, and the Art of Living (Granby)
• Ecological Ethics and Environmental Justice (Granby
• Creaturely Agency and the Contestation of the Human (Herdt)
• AI Ethics and Theology (Herdt and Tanner)
• Moral Revolutions and Social Change (Herdt)
• Social Practices and Ethical Formation (Herdt)
• Political Theology (Herdt)
  Imago Dei and Human Dignity (Herdt)
  Natural Law and Christian Ethics (Herdt)
  Biomedical Ethics in Theological Perspective (Herdt)
  Virtue Ethics (Herdt)
• Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism (Tanner)
• Christianity and Social Power (Tanner)
• Work, Debt, and Christian Witness (Tanner)
• Womanist Theology and Ethics (Turman)
• Black Feminist Theory, Black Womanist Ethics (Turman)
• Theology and Ethics of Paul Tillich (Turman)
• James Cone (Turman)
• Theology and Ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Turman)

Faculty and doctoral students in Religious Ethics gather on a monthly basis times a semester to discuss work in progress. The Colloquium features work in progress and recent books, both of students and faculty in the program and of guest presenters. Typically, a brief (25-page) reading is distributed in advance to the group, and the colloquium meets for an hour and a half discussion over refreshments. Doctoral students in Religious Ethics are required to participate in the Colloquium and to present to the group at least once during the third year of residency; multiple presentations are anticipated and encouraged over a student’s course of study. The Colloquium offers a regular occasion for all doctoral students and faculty in the field of Religious Ethics to come together for scholarly work. It has proved a valuable asset of our doctoral program for both students and professors.

All doctoral students in religious studies are required to serve as teaching fellows during years three and four in exchange for their stipends. Students are not allowed to serve as teaching fellows during years one and two. Normally, students will receive a dissertation fellowship during the fifth year and not therefore serve as teaching fellows during that year. The dissertation fellowship, however, may be taken later than the fifth year, in which case students may apply to serve as teaching fellows even after the fourth year.

Most teaching fellowships require the fellow to attend lectures by the instructing professor and lead one or two discussion sections per week. Some fellowships require less teaching and sometimes only assistance in grading. Teaching fellowships offer an opportunity to gain fluency with the subject matter of the program and to develop pedagogical and lecturing skills under the supervision of an experienced teacher, in addition to providing financial resources.

Nature and Purpose

The qualifying examinations in Ethics are taken after the conclusion of required course work and must be completed before admission to candidacy. In order to remain in good academic standing, students must complete their examinations and have an accepted dissertation proposal prior to the start of their seventh semester in the program. Hence, students should plan to take their examinations during their third year (see timeline below). Preparation for the qualifying examinations is comprised of a combination of course work and supplementary individual readings. As a general rule, the student should strive for the level of knowledge and expertise required to construct and teach a graduate-level course on the subject. The examinations are not meant to test the students’ ability as a research scholar. Course work, research papers, and the dissertation will do that.

Descriptions and Procedures

The qualifying examinations include written field examinations in three areas (theological ethics, philosophical ethics, and social ethics), followed by an oral review.

The field exams are meant to allow students to exhibit mastery of a range of core literature, thinkers, and problems in each of the three areas.

Students will submit to the faculty in the teaching group in Ethics a list of six questions, two for each of the three field examinations, with at least one question in theological and one question in philosophical ethics engaging substantially with historical texts and thinkers. The scope and focus of each question is a matter of discussion and negotiation with the faculty. The questions will be comprised of a paragraph stating the problem to be explored, together with a bibliography of texts for which the student will take responsibility. Bibliographies should indicate specific pages and page number totals; an average of 1000 pages per exam is considered normal. Responsibility for formulating the final version of the questions rests with the faculty. They will attempt to do justice to the questions submitted to them, though they may rework and add to the questions. Every effort will be made to assure comprehensiveness without surprise or misunderstanding.

Writing of the exams is done over a single 14-day period. While students may not take their examinations prior to the completion of coursework, they may opt to prepare one or more questions/bibliographies in concert with directed reading courses or other courses, as long as the examination bibliography goes significantly beyond the reading list for the course. The student may opt for writing in either of two modes:

a) After the questions are distributed to the student, he or she will have a 14-day period to prepare answers. He or she may consult whatever books and articles are deemed most helpful. Students are intended to be able to complete this option during an ordinary two-week period that includes their regular commitments, caregiving responsibilities, and sufficient time for rest. Students are not expected to completely rearrange their lives to write all day for two weeks. The answers finally submitted will compromise in toto no more than 90 typewritten double-spaced pages.

b) Questions will be distributed to the student, half on the first day of the 14-day period, the other half on the 8th day of the same period. In preparing answers, the student may, again, consult whatever books and articles are deemed most helpful. On the 7th day, and on the 14th, the student will appear at the departmental office and write the answers. The student may write for six hours on each of these two days, and will submit his or her answers by the end of each of the two days. During these six-hour exams the student may not consult books, articles or notes.

Within six weeks, and if at all possible within two weeks, an oral examination will be conducted by the faculty examiners. Normally, the examination board will include at least three members, at least two of whom are members of the ethics teaching group. This oral exam is given in order to provide the student with an opportunity to clarify obscurities in what he or she may have written, to expand on what he or she would have liked to have written but lacked time to elucidate adequately, and to permit faculty members to consider areas inadequately covered in the written exams.

The dissertation proposal is prepared following the completion of the qualifying exams. It is worked out in consultation with the faculty, and submitted to the teaching group in the field, who meet with the student for a one and a half hour colloquium to assess the scope, significance, and feasibility of the topic and the student’s preparation to accomplish it in a reasonable time. After approval of the proposal, a two-page, single spaced summary of the proposal is submitted to the entire graduate faculty in Religious Studies and thence, if none object, to the Dean of the Graduate School. The proposal itself ordinarily should include a statement of the precise nature of the topic, its significance, its relationship to previous work, and the method and sources to be employed. It should also include an outline of chapters to be written. The proposal should be no more than 20 pp. in length, plus bibliography. After acceptance of the prospectus, the student is admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. Students must be admitted to candidacy by the beginning of their seventh semester in the program.

Students normally begin writing their dissertation in the fourth year and normally will have finished by the end of the sixth. The completed dissertation is evaluated in writing and approved by a committee of at least three readers. There is no oral examination on the dissertation.

Recent and current dissertation topics in Ethics include: The Ethics of Grief and Despair in Theology and Medicine; On Disenchantment; Crowned with Glory and Honor: The Virtue of Magnanimity, and its Discontents; Natural Equality and Modern Liberty; God and Utility: The Theological Origins of Utilitarianism; Common Law and Natural Law: From Bracton to Blackstone; Theological Voluntarism and the Natural Law; Our Mothers ‘Made Do’: Constructing an EcoWomanist Ethic at the Panama Canal; Rethinking Christian Realism in the 21^st Century.

The Ph.D. in Religious Ethics is designed to be completed in five to six years, corresponding to the years of funding given to each student admitted to the program.

A typical course toward the degree is as follows:

Years 1 and 2: Three to four courses each semester, taken within the Religious Studies Department and in other departments and schools throughout the university as appropriate; optional preparation of one or more questions and bibliographies for qualifying examinations; regular participation in the Religious Ethics Colloquium.

Note: It should be remembered that all language requirements not already met must be completed during the first two years of course work but no later than the beginning of the third year of the program. By rule of the Graduate School, students must be certified in German and French (or other approved language(s)) before being allowed to register for the fall semester of the third year (i.e., term 5).

Year 3: Preparation and completion of the qualifying examinations; participation in and presentation to the Religious Ethics Colloquium; teaching fellowship; preparation of the dissertation prospectus.

     - End of the second week of the Fall semester: Preliminary examination topics/bibliographies due to faculty examination board.
     - Eighth week of the Fall semester: Final examination topics/bibliographies due
     - Two weeks prior to written examinations: Faculty examiners formulate questions, which are compiled by the ADGS
     - Spring break or early May: Written qualifying examinations
     - April/May: Oral qualifying examination
     - Summer: Preparation of dissertation prospectus

Note: By rule of the Graduate School, the dissertation prospectus must be approved by the department before registering for term 8 (i.e., before the beginning of the spring semester of the fourth year). Thus the dissertation colloquium and approval of the dissertation prospectus are to be completed no later than the start of the fall semester of the fourth year (term 7).

Year 4:  Research and writing of the dissertation; regular participation in the Religious Ethics Colloquium; teaching fellowship.

Year 5 (and 6): Research and writing of the dissertation; regular participation in the Religious Ethics Colloquium; dissertation fellowship.