Preface

According to Edward LeRoy Long Jr., a motion was made on January 27, 1961, during the business session of American Society of Christian Social Ethics, as the SCE was called then, to “undertake the publication of a journal of Christian ethics exhibiting a quality and depth comparable to that of Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik . . . from leading figures in the field of Christian ethics in this country and abroad.”¹ This undertaking did not happen overnight. Indeed, Long, writing in 1984, wrote that “a great deal of dedicated service has gone into efforts to bring about some form of regular publication under the Society’s sponsorship,” but that none “brought forth the kind of journal envisioned by the resolution. . . .”² We—Mark J. Allman and Tobias L. Winright—believe the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics fulfills that vision. All members of the Society are indebted to the editors, coeditors, editorial board members, and contributors who, for over three decades, have established and maintained a positive trajectory, bending toward quality and respectability. In 1981, the Selected Papers of the Society of Christian Ethics became The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics, edited by Thomas Ogletree, who was assisted by Alan Anderson and Lisa Sowle Cahill, two members of the four-person editorial board (David Hollenbach, SJ, and Peter Paris were the other initial editorial board members). It contained Douglas Sturm’s presidential address, along with a handful of articles by George W. Forell; Dennis P. McCann; Ronald M. Green; James F. Bresnahan, SJ; William M. Longsworth; Wilson Yates; Charles L. Kammer III; Donald G. Jones; and Warren R. Copeland. The Annual continued to improve under the editorship of Larry L. Rasmussen, Alan B. Anderson, Diane M. Yeager, Harlan Beckley, John Kelsay, and Sumner B. Twiss. In 2002, the Annual became the Journal, with its present cover, and in 2003, began to publish two issues per year under the coeditorship of Christine E. Gudorf and Paul Lauritzen. Book reviews also were included beginning in 2004.

Under the watch of our immediate predecessors, Mary Jo Iozzio and Patricia Beattie Jung, beginning with the Fall/Winter 2006 issue, the Journal has, in our view, become one of the most respected academic journals in theological and religious ethics—bringing greater visibility not only to the SCE but also to the Society of Jewish Ethics and the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics. As coeditors, Mary Jo and Patti initiated the collection of demographic information about article authors, expanded the editorial board, and achieved their expressed hope “that by the end of [their] tenure as coeditors of the Journal, there will be many works in and multiple references to the full range of voices that should characterize our moral deliberations in the twenty-first century.”³ A quick glance at recent issues’ table of contents, compared with those from thirty—or even just several—years ago, shows the remarkable transformation that Mary Jo and Patti helped to make happen. They set the bar high, and to paraphrase the Methodist hymnist Charles Wesley, a charge to keep we have as coeditors of the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. We are very grateful to them for their generous mentoring and guidance over the past several months during this transition period. We are also thankful to Lois Malcolm for all of her service as book review editor and for her help in passing on this responsibility to Kathryn D. Blanchard, who is associate professor at Alma College and who kindly accepted our invitation to work with us. One final note of thanks is due to Richard Brown and the staff of Georgetown University Press for their many years of patient and steadfast stewardship of the Journal.

We are humbled and honored to be entrusted by the board of directors and the membership of the Society of Christian Ethics to serve as coeditors of the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. Over the years we have collaborated on a number of projects, coauthored articles and a book, and served on the editorial board of the Journal. We hope to do our part to continue the Journal’s arc of...