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 (history of western moral philosophy and either Franco-German existentialism and phenomenology or Anglo-American moral philosophy); and social ethics (religious social teachings, sociopolitical writings, biomedical issues, environmental issues, or another area of contemporary concern). Faculty and individual students will determine precise constellations of appropriate competencies.