A comprehensive, innovative, and authoritative view of moral inquiry engaged with the resources of the world’s religions
Encompassing three comprehensive volumes, the Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics introduces fundamental issues in moral inquiry, explores the world’s major moral traditions, and surveys specific moral issues across a wide range of human experiences. This landmark work defines the meaning, task, and various forms of religious ethics to guide readers through critical inquiry of religious and moral life across historical periods, geography, and cultural traditions. The Encyclopedia features contributions by an extraordinary panel of ethicists, historians, theologians, philosophers, political theorists, and other experts that draw from and revise religious sources to explore basic themes in moral theory and address contemporary ethical and political problems.
Each volume is devoted to a particular element of religious ethics. Volume I - Moral Inquiry helps readers understand diverse religious and moral traditions, the social practices and institutions used for their transmission, and the methods and approaches used for their comparison. Volume II – Moral Tradition describes the established historical traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Indian religions, Chinese religions, African religions, and religions of the Americas. Volume III – Moral Issues provides the conceptual resources for understanding the structures, conditions, and challenges of a wide range of moral issues that religious ethicists have engaged, and for appreciating the contributions of different scholars in the field. Unique in its topical depth and scope, the Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics:
- Provides diverse historical, contemporary, theoretical, and cultural perspectives on numerous religious and moral traditions
- Represents the richness of thought of a vast range of renowned scholars from various disciplines, traditions, and cultures
- Examines some of the most significant theories, approaches, and concepts that have been used to compare traditions of religious ethics
- Discusses recent developments in religious and moral life and new approaches to the study of religious ethics
- Introduces practices in current religious communities that address the various dimensions of the moral life
Dedicated to understanding and addressing moral challenges and possibilities in our global times, the Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the relation between religion and ethics in the modern world, including those involved in general and comparative religious studies, religious and comparative ethics, and moral theory.
William Schweiker is Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics, University of Chicago Divinity School, USA. He is the author of several books including Mimetic Reflections; Responsibility and Christian Ethics; Religious Ethics: Meaning and Method (with David Clairmont). He is the chief editor and contributor to A Companion to Religious Ethics.
Maria Antonaccio is Professor of Religious Studies and Director, Bucknell Humanities Center, Bucknell University, USA. She is the author of Picturing the Human: The Moral Thought of Iris Murdoch, A Philosophy to Live By: Engaging Iris Murdoch, Iris Murdoch and the Search for Human Goodness (with William Schweiker).
Elizabeth Bucar is Professor of Religion, Northeastern University, USA. She is the author of three books, including Pious Fashion: How Muslim Women Dress and Religious Ethics in a Time of Globalism: Shaping a Third Wave of Comparative Analysis.
David Clairmont is Associate Professor of Moral Theology and Christian Ethics, University of Notre Dame, USA. He is the co-editor of American Religions and the Family: How Faith Traditions Cope with Modernization and the author of Moral Struggle and Religious Ethics: On the Person as Classic in Comparative Theological Contexts.
