Ph.D. Program in Religious Ethics

Assistant Director of Graduate Studies: Gene Outka
Teaching Group in Religious Ethics: Margaret Farley, Thomas Ogletree, Gene Outka

Introduction
Language Requirements
Areas of Competence
Course Work
Courses
Nature and Purpose of Qualifying Examinations
Qualifying Examination Description and Procedures
Dissertation Proposal
Dissertation
Contact Information

Introduction

These guidelines are intended to provide information concerning the program in Ethics within the Department of Religious Studies: to identify norms and expectations that serve as points of reference from which a program of study can be developed, and also to explain the requirements for the degree in this particular field and the procedures for meeting them. All students must work with the faculty, the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies for Ethics (Gene Outka), and the Director of Graduate Studies (Phyllis Granoff) to define their own particular program. Students are strongly encouraged to meet with the Ethics faculty early in their academic program to define their needs and to design a course of study that will best prepare them for their qualifying examinations and for subsequent work on the dissertation.

Language Requirements

Students admitted to the Ph.D. program in Ethics are expected to possess or quickly acquire a proficiency in two scholarly languages, normally German and French.

Areas of Competence

Ph.D. students in Ethics are expected to demonstrate competency across a range of literature, thinkers, and problems in three major areas: theological ethics (Christian, and another religious tradition if desired); philosophical ethics (history of western moral philosophy and either Franco-German existentialism and phenomenology or Anglo-American moral philosophy); and social ethics (religious social teachings, sociopolitical writings, and an area of contemporary concern).

Course Work

Students are required to take twelve courses, and this is normally done during the first two years of study. A minimum quality requirement, set by the Graduate School, must be met. This stipulates that a student must earn a grade of Honors in two graduate courses. The purpose of course work is to acquire comprehensive knowledge of the field and prepare for the qualifying examinations. In Ethics, a series of four seminars, taken during the first four semesters in residence, is expected. These may include: Freedom and Action, Critical Social Theory and Constructive Inquiry in Religious Social Ethics, Religion and Morality, Protestant and Roman Catholic Ethics, Covenant, Federalism, and Public Ethics, Agape and Special Relations. In addition to taking regular courses offered by the Department of Religious Studies and other departments, students may remedy gaps in knowledge through directed readings or by auditing appropriate courses. Students in Ethics usually take courses at the Divinity School and in the Department of Philosophy, and in other departments and schools in the University such as Political Science, Sociology, the Law School, Medical School, School of Forestry, etc., according to their particular interests.

Courses

Environmental Ethics (YDS/FES) Farley and Stephen Kellert (FEX)

Advanced Medical Ethics (RS/YDS) Farley

Freedom and Action (RS/YDS) Farley

Feminist Theology and Ethics (YDS) Farley and Russell

History of Christian Theological Ethics (YDS) Farley

Medical Ethics (YDS) Farley

Contemporary Roman Catholic Ethics (RS/YDS) Farley

The Relation Between Christian Morality and the Spiritual Life (YDS) Farley

Sexual Ethics (YDS) Farley

Readings in the Writings of Ernst Troeltsch (YDS) Ogletree

Agape and Special Relations (RS/YDS) Outka

Contemporary Protestant and Roman Catholic Ethics (RS/YDS) Outka and Farley

Ethics and Human Nature (RS) Outka

Introduction to Christian Ethics (YDS) Outka

Love and Justice in Theological Ethics (RS) Outka

Religion and Morality (RS) Outka

Religious Ethics and Modern Moral Issues (RS) Outka

Seminar in Modern Religious Ethics (RS) Outka

Theories of Love (RS) Outka

Studies in Kierkegaard (RS) Outka

Theological Ethics (YDS) Ogletree

Christian Social Ethics (YDS) Ogletree

Ethics and the Economy (YDS) (RS) Ogletree

Covenant, Federalism, and Public Ethics (YDS) (RS) Ogletree

Moral Excellence in Jewish and Christian Perspectives (YDS) (RS) Ogletree

(Students in Ethics often take courses in the Department of Philosophy, in the Law School, and inother departments and schools according to their interests.)

Nature and Purpose of Qualifying Examinations

The qualifying examinations in Ethics are taken after the conclusion of required course work and must be completed before admission to candidacy. Ordinarily, students take the examinations in their third year of residence. Preparation for the qualifying examinations is comprised of a combination of course work and supplementary individual readings. As a general rule of thumb, the student should strive for a level of knowledge and expertise such as would be required to construct and teach a course on the subject. The examinations are not meant to test the students' ability as a research scholar. Course work, research papers, and the dissertation will do that.

Qualifying Examinations Descriptions and Procedures

The qualifying examinations include three written field examinations (with an oral review) and one "special" examination (also with an oral review) in a particular field of specialization.

The field exams are meant to be comprehensive, to allow students to exhibit a range of literature, thinkers, and problems in three major subjects:
The field examination in Theological Ethics normally includes the history and literature of Christian ethics, and modern writings, both Roman Catholic and Protestant. Students are encouraged to develop competence as well in the ethics of a tradition other than Christianity.

The field examination in Philosophical Ethics includes the history and literature of moral philosophy in the west, and at least one of the following from the modern period: Franco-German existentialism and phenomenology or Anglo-American moral philosophy.

The field examination in Social Ethics includes general materials in the social teachings of a religious tradition, sociopolitical writings in the West, and at least one of the following: ethics and sociology of religion; ethics and psychology; ethics and economics; selected issues in an area of contemporary societal concern, e.g., medical ethics.

Students will submit to the faculty in the teaching group in Ethics (M. Farley, T. Ogletree, G. Outka) a list of twelve questions, four for each of the three field examinations. The scope and focus of each question is a matter of discussion and negotiation with the faculty. The questions will often include a list of pertinent thinkers and texts. Responsibility for formulating the final version of the questions rests with the faculty. They will attempt to do justice to the questions submitted to them, though they may rework and add to the questions. Every effort will be made to assure comprehensiveness without surprise or misunderstanding.

The faculty will pair the questions, yielding two pairs for each field exam. When taking the exams, the student will select one question from each pair on which to write, thus writing on six questions altogether, two for each field. All the writing is done over a single 14-day period, and the student may opt for writing in either of two modes:

a) After the questions are distributed to the student, he or she will have a 14-day period to prepare answers. He or she may consult whatever books and articles are deemed most helpful. The answers finally submitted will compromise in toto no more than 90 typewritten double-spaced pages.

b) Questions will be distributed to the student, half on the first day of the 14-day period, the other half on the 8th day of the same period. In preparing answers, the student may, again, consult whatever books and articles are deemed most helpful. On the 7th day, and on the 14th, the student will appear at the departmental office and write the answers. The student may write for six hours on each of these two days, and will submit his or her answers by the end of each of the two days. During these six-hour exams the student may not consult books, articles or notes.
Within six weeks, an oral review will be conducted, with as many of the members of the teaching group present as possible. This oral exam is given in order to provide the student with an opportunity to clarify obscurities in what he or she may have written, to expand on what he or she would have liked to have written but lacked time to elucidate adequately, and to permit faculty members to consider areas inadequately covered in writing.

The Special Examination consists of a paper, typically 20 typewritten pages, which is examined in an oral review by the appropriate faculty members. This paper should concentrate, more narrowly and intensively than any of the field exams, on a problem, or a small set of figures, or a limited literature. The topic will be selected because of its importance as background for the student's probable dissertation topic.

Often, the oral review of the special exam is given at the same time as the dissertation proposal colloquium (see below).

Dissertation Proposal

The dissertation proposal is prepared following the completion of the qualifying exams. It is worked out in consultation with the faculty, and submitted to the teaching group in Ethics, who meet with the student for a two-hour colloquium to assess the scope, significance, and feasibility of the topic and the student's preparation to accomplish it in a reasonable time. After approval by the teaching group, a two-page, single spaced summary of the proposal is submitted to the entire graduate faculty in Religious Studies and thence, if none object, to the Dean of the Graduate School. The proposal itself ordinarily should include a statement of the precise nature of the topic, its significance, its relationship to previous work, and the method and sources to be employed. It should also include an outline of chapters to be written. After acceptance of the prospectus, the student is admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. Students must be admitted to candidacy by the beginning of the fourth year of study.

Dissertation

Students normally begin writing their dissertation in the fourth year and normally will have finished by the end of the sixth. The completed dissertation is evaluated in writing and approved by a committee of three readers and the departmental faculty. There is no oral examination on the dissertation.
Recent dissertation topics in Ethics include: The Religious and Moral Thought of Frederick Douglass: A Narrative Approach; Foucault and Augustine: Reconsidering Power and Love; Procreative Liberty and "Designer Children": A Christian Feminist Analysis; Kierkegaard's Religious Poetics and the Refiguration of the Ethical; Ethics in Krisis: The Significance of Der Römerbrief for the Interpretation of Karl Barth's Ethics; Treacherous Intimacy: Fallen and Faithful Engagements in Kierkegaard's Works of Love; The Ethical Thought of Hans Urs von Balthasar; The Trinitarian Ethics of Jonathan Edwards; Love and Citizenship: Augustine and the Ethics of Liberalism; Retrieving Luther's Ethic: Christian Identity and Action; Trauma, Relationality, and Freedom Before God.

Contact Information

The Department of Religious Studies
451 College Street
P.O. Box 208287
New Haven, CT 06520-8287
Phone: (203) 432-0828
emilie.townes@yale.edu (Fall 2009)