The Evasion of Ethics: Peter Paris Feels the Spirituals

This paper provides not only a systematic account of the theology and ethics of Peter Paris, but also a critical interpretation of his thought. It identifies racism as the major problem that has engaged his academic career and the theological-ethical methodology he has developed to understand and explain it. He is been able to do all this in ways that evade and challenge the American theological enterprise.

The primary theme of Paris's work is evading epistemology-centred ethics, exposing racism and injustice, and accenting the transformation of the structures of domination and subordination in the light of an ethical ideal, which is usually the thwarting of evil or actualization of human potentialities. In doing this, he converts ethics into a positive science of social critique and cultural investigation of the social crises of the United States.

The importance of this paper goes beyond interpreting Paris's thought, as it will be useful to scholars teaching ethics in general and African-American ethics in particular. Paris's evasion of ethics is rooted in the black religious tradition of ethical critique of American society in order to expose its moral limits and remind it of its blindnesses, as W.E.B. Du Bois informed us. The paper—in also locating the thought of Paris in the deep ethos that informed the spirituals—reveals another major dimension of African-American ethical scholarship. Most importantly, by carefully discussing the ethical methodology of Paris in particular, this paper clarifies that of African-American ethicists in general.