I am interested in fostering intellectual solidarity and good-faith arguments between binary groups or across narratives which typically or sometimes find conversation difficult: Christian/non-Christian, theological/philosophical, theological/scientific, progressive/conservative, academic/non-academic. The Roman Catholic moral traditions from which my work flows are a powerful wedge for breaking these often polarized impasses because, often with one foot planted firmly in either camp, they can light they way toward finding common ground useful for beginning fruitful interaction.
In particular, I am interested in how a Roman Catholic ethic balances the dignity of the human person in her individual and social aspects—and the implications this has for bridging gaps between ‘moral status conservatives’ and ‘social justice liberals.’ My early work has focused especially on medical and clinical ethics with regard to stem cell research and treatment of critically ill newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit. More work is needed on how we can show unconditional respect for the individual patient while justly distributing finite healthcare resources—and my future research will leverage the considerable resources of Catholic Social Teaching in dealing with this thorny and urgent problem.
My new book project for Cambridge University Press, ‘Peter Singer and Christian Ethics,’ takes my focus on intellectual solidarity in a new direction. The ethic of Peter Singer and a Christian ethic are thought to be diametrically opposed, but the thesis of the book is that this polarized understanding is a mistake and that a close and charitable reading of the two traditions shows that (1) the disagreements between them are actually quite narrow, and (2) they are similar enough for both fruitful and mutually-critical correlation.
A growing personal interest is how my academic work in ethics translates into important questions of politics and public policy—especially as it calls into question US American red/blue state groupthink. I’m blogging on these questions at: nohiddenmagenta.wordpress.com