Centre for Religion and Public Life research clusters

Religion, Ethics and Practice

Centre for Religion and Public Life research examines how religious beliefs and practices are interrelated, and how these connect with ethical convictions that impact upon action in the world.

Research in this area can be philosophical, theological, ethnographic, or a combination of these approaches. Particular topics include the relation between beliefs in an afterlife and ethical or political engagement; religion, animal ethics and environmentalism; how certain religiously prescribed rituals can raise ethical issues in the public sphere; and whether religious commitments can ground distinctive modes of ethical involvement.

Researchers

Postgraduate research students

  • Anthea Colledge
  • Charity Hamilton

Key publications

Mikel Burley, Rebirth and the Stream of Life: A Philosophical Study of Reincarnation, Karma and Ethics (New York: Bloomsbury 2016).
Rachel Muers, “Creatures,” in Systematic Theology and Climate Change: Ecumenical Perspectives, edited by Michael S. Northcott and Peter M. Scott (Abingdon: Routledge 2014).

Mel Prideaux, “Ethics and Undergraduate Research in the Study of Religion: Place-Based Pedagogy and Reciprocal Research Relations”, Teaching Theology and Religion 19/4 (2016), 324-339.

Tasia Scrutton, “Is Depression a Sin or a Disease? A Critique of Moralizing and Medicalizing Models of Mental Illness”, Journal of Disability and Religion 19/4 (2015), 285-311.