Publications

Church, State, and Virtue in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo (2020)

Religions Feb 2023

Abstract: To curb the spread of COVID-19, houses of worship in the State of New York were legally required to limit attendance at religious ceremonies. Two religious communities—the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and the Orthodox Jewish organization, Agudath Israel of America—asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

2023

Should we admire the shrewd steward (Luke 16.1–9)? Moral exemplarism and Christian ethics

Theology Thumbnail

Abstract: The parable of the shrewd steward (Luke 16.1–9) is notoriously difficult to interpret. We encounter a figure who, when threatened with dismissal, dishonestly erases the debts of his master’s debtors. Yet, surprisingly, the master commends the steward. So, what exactly are we meant to admire in the steward?

2023

Annual Report 2022 - 2023

Annual Report

This document contains details of the McDonald Centre's activities and achievements over the 2022/2023 academic year. It includes a farewell from the Centre's founding director, Professor Nigel Biggar. 

2023

Annual Report 2021 - 2022

Annual Report

This document contains details of the McDonald Centre's activities and achievements over the 2021/2022 academic year.

 

2022

Religious Deviance and Psychological Medicine in the Second Great Awakening: The Asylum Narratives of Elizabeth T. Stone (b. 1811)

JCS

Abstract: In 1842, after her release from McLean Asylum in Boston, Elizabeth T. Stone (b.

2022

Annual Report 2021

This document contains details of the McDonald Centre's activities and achievements over the 2020/2021 academic year.

2021

Studies in Christian Ethics Special Issue: Is Religious Freedom under Threat? Transatlantic Perspectives

Studies in Christian Ethics 33/2 (May 2020), Special Issue edited by Nigel Biggar and Matthew Lee Anderson: “Is Religious Freedom under Threat? Transatlantic Perspectives”. This comprises most of the proceedings of a conference held in 2018 under the auspices of the McDonald Centre.

2020

Annual Report 2020

This document contains details of the McDonald Centre's activities and achievements over the 2019/2020 academic year.

 

2020

Everyday Ethics: Moral Theology and the Practices of Ordinary Life

Michael Lamb and Brian A. Williams edited a collection of essays that comprises the proceedings of a conference held in 2016 under the auspices of the McDonald Centre. The book, Everyday Ethics: Moral Theology and the Practices of Ordinary Life, is published with Georgetown University Press.

The abstract reads as follows:

2019

Treating the Body in Medicine and Religion

Ashley Moyse with co-editor John Fitzgerald (St Johns University, NY) have published Treating the Body in Medicine and Religion. It is an edited collection of essays that emerged from the Third Annual Conference in Medicine and Religions (2014).

The abstract reads as follow:

2019

Annual Report 2019

This document contains details of the McDonald Centre's activities and achievements over the 2018/2019 academic year.

2019

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics Special Issue: Reflections on modern medicine at the centenary of Max Weber's "Science as a vocation" (1917)

The December 2018 special issue of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics features essays reflecting on modern medicine at the centenary of Max Weber's "Science as vocation" (1917). The volume, edited by Matthew Vest (Ohio State University) and Ashley Moyse, includes contributions that emerged from the 2017 Annual Conference in Medicine and Religion.

 

2018

Annual Report 2018

This document contains details of the McDonald Centre's activities and achievements over the 2017/2018 academic year. 

2018

Annual Report 2017

This document contains details of the McDonald Centre's activities and achievements over the 2016/2017 academic year. 

2017

Annual Report 2016

This document contains details of the McDonald Centre's activities and achievements over the 2015/2016 academic year. 

2016

Studies in Christian Ethics Special Issue: 'New Conversations in Islamic and Christian Political Thought'

The May 2016 issue of Studies in Christian Ethics features contributions to a project undertaken focusing on the ‘pre-modern’ or ‘long’ traditions of political thought in Islam and Christianity.

2016

The Muslim World Special Issue: 'New Conversations in Islamic and Christian Political Thought'

The April 2016 issue of The Muslim World contains a selection of proceedings from a conference on Christian and Islamic political theology organised at the University of Cambridge in May 2014 by Prof Joshua Hordern and Dr Afifi al-Akiti.  

2016

The Intolerable God: Kant's Theological Journey

The thought of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is often regarded as having caused a crisis for theology and religion because it sets the limits of knowledge to what can be derived from experience. In The Intolerable God, Christopher Insole challenges that assumption and argues that Kant believed in God but struggled intensely with theological questions.

2016

Parliamentary Briefing on Military Intervention in Syria

On November 30, the McDonald Centre distributed a parliamentary briefing by Nigel Biggar to a number of MPs in advance of the anticipated vote by the House of Commons on whether or not Britain should participate in military action against ISIL in Syria.

2015

Studies in Christian Ethics Special Issue: 'In Defence of War'

A Special Issue of Studies in Christian Ethics gathers together contributions to the 2014 McDonald Centre conference on Nigel's Biggar's In Defence of War.  It also features a set of responses from the author.   

2015

Annual Report 2015

This document sets out the main activities of the McDonald Centre over the 2014/2015 academic year.  

2015

Why Religion Deserves a Place in Secular Medicine

As a science and practice transcending metaphysical and ethical disagreements, ‘secular’ medicine should not exist. ‘Secularity’ should be understood in an Augustinian sense, not a secularist one: not as a space that is universally rational because it is religion-free, but as a forum for the negotiation of rival reasonings.

2015

Annual Report 2014

The attached report features activities undertaken by the Centre over the 2013/2014 academic year. 

2014

God, the Good, and Utilitarianism: Perspectives on Peter Singer

Is ethics about happiness? Aristotle thought so and for centuries Christians agreed, until utilitarianism raised worries about where this would lead. In this volume, Peter Singer, leading utilitarian philosopher and controversial defender of infanticide and euthanasia, addresses this question in conversation with Christian ethicists and secular utilitarians.

2014

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