John Wall, PhD (B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago), is an Associate Professor of Religion at Rutgers-Camden. His research focuses on the relation of religion to ethics, Continental phenomenology and hermeneutics, morality and poetics, and the social ethics of childhood. He has written on the creative dimensions of moral life, the ethics and poetics of Paul Ricoeur and other contemporary European thinkers, myths of Creation, ethics and tragedy, images and idols, families and marriage, children's rights, and social responsibility toward children. He is currently writing a book on how considerations of childhood should transform contemporary moral culture and thought. Dr. Wall was awarded a 2006 Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence and a 2005 Provost's Award for Teaching Excellence at Rutgers University. He teaches courses in Evil, Comparative Religious Ethics, Religion and Culture, The Bible, Biomedical Ethics, and Family Ethics. > visit John Wall's website

Books

Ethics in Light of Childhood. Book manuscript. Anticipated publication in 2009.

The Child in World Religions, subeditor with Marcia Bunge of section on “Christianity,” ed. Don Browning and Marcia Bunge (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009).

Moral Creativity: Paul Ricoeur and the Poetics of Possibility (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Paul Ricoeur and Contemporary Moral Thought, ed. John Wall, William Schweiker, and David Hall (New York: Routledge, 2002).

Marriage, Health, and the Professions: If Marriage is Good for You, What Does this Mean for Law, Medicine, Ministry, Therapy, and Business?, ed. John Wall, Don Browning, Stephen Post, and William Doherty (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002).

Series co-editor, nine books constituting the “Religion, Marriage, and Family Series,” ed. Don Browning and John Wall (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000 to 2002).

Articles

“Human Rights in Light of Childhood,” International Journal of Children’s Rights 16.4 (November 2008) (forthcoming)

“Human Rights in Light of Children: A Christian Childist Perspective,” Journal of Pastoral Theology 17.1 (Spring 2007), pp. 54-67.

“Fatherhood, Childism, and the Creation of Society” and “Response to Wilcox,” in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 75.1 (March 2007), pp. 52-76 and 85-86.

“Imitatio Creatoris: The Hermeneutical Primordiality of Creativity in Moral Life,” Journal of Religion 87.1 (January 2007), pp. 21-42.

“Childhood Studies, Hermeneutics, and Theological Ethics,” Journal of Religion 86.4 (October 2006), pp. 523-548.

“Phronesis as Poetic: Moral Creativity in Contemporary Aristotelianism,” The Review of Metaphysics 59.2 (December 2005), pp. 313-331.

“The Creative Imperative: Ethics and the Formation of Life in Common,” Journal of Religious Ethics 33.1 (Spring 2005), pp. 45-64.

“Fallen Angels: A Contemporary Christian Ethical Ontology of Childhood,” International Journal of Practical Theology 8.2 (Fall 2004), pp. 160-184.

“‘Let the Little Children Come’: Child Rearing as Challenge to Contemporary Christian Ethics,” Horizons 31.1 (Spring 2004), pp. 64-87.

“The Christian Ethics of Children: Emerging Questions and Possibilities,” Journal of Lutheran Ethics (online journal) 4.1 (January 2004), approximately 8 pages.

“Phronesis, Poetics, and Moral Creativity,” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 6.3 (September 2003), pp. 317-341.

“Animals and Innocents: Theological Reflections on the Meaning and Purpose of Child-Rearing,” Theology Today 59.4 (January 2003), pp. 559-582.

“The Marriage Education Movement: A Theological Analysis,” International Journal of Practical Theology 6.1 (Spring 2002), pp. 85-104.

“Marital Therapy Caught Between Person and Public: A Conversation with Christian Traditions on Marriage,” primary author, with Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Pastoral Psychology 50.4 (March 2002), pp. 259-280.

“The Economy of the Gift: Paul Ricoeur’s Significance for Theological Ethics,” Journal of Religious Ethics 29.2 (Summer 2001), pp. 235-260.

“The Ethics of Relationality: The Moral Views of Therapists Engaged in Marital and Family Therapy,” primary author, with Don Browning, Thomas Needham, and Susan James, Journal of Family Relations 48.2 (April 1999), pp. 139-149.

Book Chapters

“Childism and the Ethics of Responsibility.” In Annemie Dillen and Didier Pollefeyt, eds., Children’s Voices. Children’s Perspectives in Ethics, Theology, and Religious Education (Leuven, Belgium: BETL, Peeters-Publishing, 2008).

“Creating Responsibility: Method and Morality in Light of Childhood.” In Marcia Bunge, ed., Children, Community, and Faith Formation: Perspectives from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008).

“Child: Religious and Philosophical Perspectives.” In The Chicago Companion to the Child, ed. Richard A. Shweder (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008).

“John Locke.” In The Chicago Companion to the Child, ed. Richard A. Shweder (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008).

“Childhood Studies, Hermeneutics, and Theological Ethics.” In John Witte, Jr., M. Christian Green, and Amy Wheeler, eds., The Equal Regard Family and its Friendly Critics: Don Browning and the Practical Theological Ethics of the Family (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2007).

“Ricoeur, Poetics, and Religious Ethics.” In The Life and Work of Paul Ricoeur, ed. Farhang Erfani (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield, 2007).

“Rethinking Human Rights in Light of Children.” In Trygve Wyller and Usha S. Nayar, eds., The Given Child: The Religious Contribution to Children’s Citizenship (Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2007), pp. 105-24.

“Children’s Voices: Children’s Perspectives in Ethics, Theology, and Religious Education.” Expert Seminar at Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, January 11-13, 2007.

“Human Rights in Light of Children: A Christian Childist Perspective.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Washington, DC, November 2006.

Lead co-organizer and director of conference titled “The Future of Childhood Studies in the United States,” Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey, September 29 to October 1, 2006.

“A Childist Christian Ethics of Responsibility.” Seminar on “The Child in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,” The Child in Religion and Ethics Project, Valparaiso University, held in Chicago, Illinois, March 2006.

“Fatherhood and the Creation of Society: A Christian Ethical Response to W. Bradford Wilcox’s Soft Patriarchs, New Men.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 2005.

“A New Social Ethics of Childhood in a Globalizing World.” International Conference, “Childhoods 2005: Children and Youth in Emerging and Transforming Societies.” Oslo, Norway, June to July, 2005.

“Childhood and the Transformation of Christianity: A Response.” Invited response paper to panel of four papers on “Children as Agents of Good and Evil.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, Texas, November 2004.

“Animals and Innocents: Theological Perspectives on the Meaning and Purpose of Child Rearing.” Annual Meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics, Chicago, Illinois, January 2001.

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