Doing Christian Ethics on the Ground Polycentrically: Cross-Cultural Moral Deliberation on Ethical and Social Issues

This article argues that congregations should be seen as grassroots public moral agents, on the ground working to bring what they discern as God’s preferred future into being. Deliberations among congregations of all social backgrounds are a way of doing ethics “polycentrically,” without a dominant center. Because cultural and social boundaries are permeable and people in various social groups can imaginatively enter the worlds of people unlike themselves, they can engage those perspectives morally on an equal footing. The essay addresses ethicists’ participation in congregations’ moral deliberation and action, and concludes with a plea for theological ethicists to consider congregations in their work.