Preface

THE ARTICLES IN THIS VOLUME were presented at the 2020 meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics in Washington, D.C. There was no theme to the conference and the papers presented in this issue cover a diverse range of subjects. There were a number of cross-thematic elements that emerged in the selection of articles however, and readers may identify similar issues arising in several of the papers selected for this issue.

Patricia Beattie Jung's article, "Celebrate Suffrage," as the name suggests, reflects on the struggles that contributed to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. Acknowledging both the successes and failures of the suffrage movement, Jung seeks both to honor those who sacrificed to win recognition of the full citizenship of women in the United States, as well as to draw attention to the threats to democracy represented by current efforts at voter suppression, encouraging readers to continue to fight for the right to participate fully in democratic life, and to stand against efforts to restrict those rights.

James Keenen reflects on the realities facing university faculty in "Vulnerable to Contingency." Relying on survey data collected by the Society of Christian Ethics Taskforce on Contingency, he argues that current university practices regarding contingent faculty members represent endemic injustice, and makes the case that, in the current environment, all faculty are vulnerable to those same forces. He then makes the case for an ethic of solidarity among faculty, calling in particular on professional ethicists to make the concerns of justice for contingent faculty their own.

Korean ethicist Myung Su Yang takes stock of the influence of Martin Luther's theology in the Korean church setting in "Luther's Reformation and His Political and Social Idea for Korean Church and Society." He argues that Luther's thought provides resources for change within the Korean context. In particular, he utilizes Luther's Two Kingdom doctrine in order to make the case for detaching the Korean church from the conflict between North and South Korea. He also argues for Luther's account of spiritual subjectivity as a resource for the development of an ethic of autonomous self-determination in Korean society. Finally, he utilizes Luther's ethic of love as a resource for deepening ethical reflection on human rights and the doctrine of vocation. Together, these themes in Luther's thought, he argues, can aid Korean society in transcending the individualistic trends that have accompanied South Korea's economic expansion.

In "A Womanist Consideration of Architecture and the Common Good," Elise Edwards considers the way in which architecture and urban planning are related to questions of the common good and civic virtue. Drawing on resources within womanist thought, she argues in favor of an approach to spirituality which takes account of the participation of ordinary people within civic life, and makes the case for an ethic of urban development that takes the interests of those whom it is intended to serve into account.

Matt Jantzen makes the case in "Neither Ally, Nor Accomplice: James Cone and the Theological Ethics of White Conversion," that current discussions about white anti-racism need to move beyond the language of "allyship." The idea of being "accomplices" rather than allies offer an alternative way of conceiving of white anti-racism, however Jantzen argues that the failures of the current discourse run deeper. Drawing on the work of James Cone, he utilizes the language of "conversion" as an alternative, arguing that it offers tools for the creation of a more constructive approach to the problems endemic to white anti-racism.

Joe Pettit brings several of these threads into conversation in his article, "Blessing Oppression: The Role of the Churches in Housing Apartheid." In this piece he analyzes the ways in which white Christian churches took part in and benefitted from racial segregation in housing over a period of decades. This housing apartheid, he argues, denied opportunities to and contributed to the oppression of non-white communities. By "blessing oppression," he argues, the churches salved the consciences of their congregation members while benefitting from that segregation. He makes the case for reparations...