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Research Statement
As a scholar, my intellectual home is in the small but growing field of comparative religious ethics. Primarily (but not exclusively) housed in departments of religion or religious studies, this relatively young discipline remains somewhat amorphous in both content and methodology. In my mind, however, comparative religious ethics is at its best when it operates as a space for research that lies at the intersection of moral philosophy and the history of religions.
At the most general level, then, my research compares moral arguments that arise in the context of historically situated religious communities. I am especially interested in theoretical questions about the way in which religious patterns of practical reasoning differ from what one might find in secular (usually western) moral philosophy. As a result, there is an important sense in which my interests in religious ethics are not limited to a particular tradition, period of history, geographical location, or even substantive issue. 20th century Jewish meta-ethics and 14th century Buddhist commentary on abortion are equally relevant to my overall project.
That said, my areas of competency and specialty are significantly more refined. With respect to religious traditions, my competency is in both Christianity and Islam, weighted slightly toward their Catholic and Sunni manifestations. Though my dissertation has allowed me to acquire a degree of expertise in the latter, my coursework and exam preparation were not without significant forays into the Protestant and Shi‘ah traditions.
My areas of historical competency hover around the formative, classical, and contemporary periods of each tradition. Though I specialize in contemporary responses to modernity, one cannot appreciate these responses without understanding the historical traditions out of which they grow. Indeed, part of what makes religious moral arguments unique is that there is almost always an imperative to make one’s case in terms of the arguments that have come before. Thus, it would be difficult to understand contemporary Catholic moral theology without, for example, a background in Thomistic thought. In Islam, a similar example would be trying to understand contemporary Muslim ethics without knowledge of al-Shaf‘i’s early development of Islamic law.
The nature of my work tends to limit the relevance of specific geographic emphases. Arguments that claim to be universal (as most moral arguments do) tend to have “feet” that move them across traditional borders. Nonetheless, in the interest of tracking this movement, I have focused my energies on the geographic origins of these arguments and their current locations abroad. In this way, I am able to write about the so-called heart lands of each tradition (Europe and Arabia) and have specialized in the specifically American context of arguments for reform.
Within these religious, historical, and geographic contexts, I have areas of substantive competency in both theoretical and applied ethics. In the theoretical domain of meta-ethics, my work has focused on issues of moral epistemology. That is, I’ve explored the ways in which religious individuals and communities have conceptualized the relationship between various sources of moral truth. This includes, but is not limited to, work on the role of reason in the context of natural law and work on emotion in the context of moral development and/or virtue ethics.
The applied issues I have tackled are diverse, but cluster around the moral problems of political and social ethics. Generally speaking, I have focused on two themes. The first involves the relationship between cultural norms governing gender and sexual behavior and the arguments of religious texts, institutions, and individuals. The second explores religious arguments about the nature and function of political authority in the context of debates about social justice, war, and human rights. These two themes are, of course, related. In fact, the political enforcement of religious norms surrounding sexuality and gender is often the most important issue in larger debates about the relationship between religion and politics.
My areas of substantive specialty are, unsurprisingly, captured in the topic of my dissertation. In short, this project seeks to challenge two popular theses about the relationship between religion and western political thought. The first asserts that there is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between religiously-grounded political thought and the foundations of liberal democracy. The second contends that Islam is “exceptional” in this regard and argues that liberal democracy has not (and presumably, will not) take root in the Middle East because Islamic theology suffers from various moral and political “deficits.” I challenge these claims by describing and comparing the arguments of contemporary Catholic and Muslim reformers. These two cases reveal that it is possible to make religious arguments in support of liberal democracy and that Islamic struggles to do so are in no way exceptional.
This project has led to various areas of substantive specialty. I am now well versed in debates about the relationship between religion and democracy, with specific emphasis on the legal issues surrounding arguments for disestablishment and religious liberty. At the theoretical level of meta-ethics, I focus on the ways moral epistemology shapes religious attempts to achieve these goals. The broader project also requires a degree of expertise in western political philosophy, and I have focused on the works of John Rawls in that regard. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this project has allowed me to specialize in the works of four primary figures: John Courtney Murray, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im, Abdulaziz Sachedina, and Khaled Abou El Fadl.
Working on this and other projects over the last five years has also led to a growing interest in theoretical and methodological issues in the study of religion and religious ethics. Before we can begin to study any of the issues and/or areas described above, we must be clear about the nature and function of our work. Thus, analyses of our discipline’s relationship to theology, philosophy, history, and social science are particularly important. Moreover, as a comparativist, I’m acutely interested in critiques of comparative methodology. Exploring questions of whether, why, and how comparison should proceed has become an important component of my overall project.
Publications
Refereed Journal Articles:
Barre, Elizabeth A. "Within Reason: The Epistemic Foundations of Catholic and Muslim Arguments for Political Liberalism." The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 29, no. 1 (2009): 219-241. [Link to Full Text Coming Soon]
Book Reviews:
Barre, Elizabeth A. "Review of Mohammed Abu-Nimer and David Augsburger, Eds. Peace-Building by, between, and beyond Muslims and Evangelical Christians." Journal of Law and Religion (forthcoming).
—. "Review of Khaled Abou El Fadl, Islam and the Challenge of Democracy." Political Theology 9, no. 1 (2008): 121-123. [Full Text]
—. "Review of Zachary Shore, Breeding Bin Ladens: America, Islam, and the Future of Europe." H-Net Reviews: American Studies (2007). [Full Text]
—. "Review of Ghazi-Walid Falah and Caroline Nagel, Eds. Geographies of Muslim Women: Gender, Religion, and Space." Geographies of Religions and Belief Systems 1, no. 1 (2007): 78-80. [Full Text]
Encyclopedia Entries:
Barre, Elizabeth A. "John Courtney Murray." In The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization edited by G.T. Kurian. Boston: Blackwell, 2008.
—. "Reinhold Niebuhr." In The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization edited by G.T. Kurian. Boston: Blackwell, 2008.
Doctoral Dissertation
Barre, Elizabeth A. "Reconciled to Liberty: Catholics, Muslims, and the Possibility of Overlapping Consensus." (PhD Dissertation, Florida Sate University, 2009). [Full Text]
Abstract: The right to religious liberty and the tolerance of difference that this right engenders are central components of the American national identity. As a result, many in the United States are perplexed by current events in the Middle East. Rising sectarian violence and the imposition of Islamic law throughout the region have made it clear that the values associated with liberalism are not gaining traction in this part of the world. This dissertation uses the tools of comparative religious ethics to challenge two popular explanations of this phenomenon. The first contends that liberalism is not gaining traction because it is incompatible with certain “exceptional” features of Islamic history and theology. The second explains the phenomenon in terms of a general incompatibility between liberalism and all religions that seek a public role for religion. To challenge these theses, I compare the arguments of John Rawls, John Courtney Murray, and three contemporary Muslim reformers: Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na‘im, Khaled Abou El Fadl, and Abdulaziz Sachedina. In so doing, I show that it is possible to make religious arguments in support of liberal democracy and that Islamic struggles to do so are in no way exceptional.
Chapter Outline:
1 Introduction
1.0 Problems
1.1 Purposes
1.2 Methods
1.3 Chapters
2 Rawlsian Liberalism
2.0 Introduction
2.1 The First Principle and Its Priority
2.2 The Right and the Good in a Limited Government
2.3 Popular Sovereignty
2.4 Reflective Equilibrium and the Original Position
2.5 Early Criticism and Response
2.6 Conclusion
3 The Problem of Pluralism
3.0 Introduction
3.1 The Political Turn
3.2 Overlapping Consensus
3.3 Public Reason and Its Critics
3.4 The Rational and The Reasonable
3.5 The Problem of International Justice
3.6 Conclusion
4 Religious Liberty and Popular Sovereignty
4.0 Introduction
4.1 A Catholic Argument for Religious Liberty
4.2 Muslim Arguments for Religious Liberty
4.3 Muslim Arguments for Popular Sovereignty
4.4 A Catholic Argument for Popular Sovereignty
4.5 Conclusion
5 Limited Government
5.0 Introduction
5.1 A Catholic Argument for Limited Government
5.2 Muslim Arguments for Limited Government
5.3 Conclusion
6 The Reasonable: Public, Plural, and Constructed
6.0 Introduction
6.1 Muslim Arguments for Public Reason
6.2 A Catholic Argument for Public Reason
6.3 A Catholic Argument for Reasonable Pluralism
6.4 Muslim Arguments for Reasonable Pluralism
6.5 Muslim Discussions of Universal Practical Reason and Constructivism
6.6 A Catholic Discussion of Universal Practical Reason and Constructivism
6.7 Conclusion
7 Conclusion
7.0 Looking Backward
7.1 History, Reason, Tradition, and Reform
7.2 Looking Forward
Confrence Presentations
Barre, Elizabeth A. "A Student of Islamic Ethics Reflects
on Charles Taylor's A Secular Age." Paper to be
presented at the Society of Christian Ethics Annual Meeting,
San Jose, CA, January 2010.
—."A Rawls by Any Other Name: Religious Pluralism and Public Reason in the Political Vision of Barack Obama." Paper to be presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, November 2009.
—. "Categorizing Liberalism(s): Catholics, Muslims, and the Possibility of Overlapping Consensus." Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, August 2008. [Full Text]
—. "Within Reason: The Epistemic Foundations of Catholic and Muslim Arguments for Political Liberalism." Paper presented at the Society of Christian Ethics Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, January 2008. [Link to Full Text Coming Soon]
—. "The Possibility of Religious Liberalism: The Common Good and Civil Society in Catholic and Islamic Political Thought." Paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, November 2007. [Full Text]
—. "A Heart That Flees from Evil: The Moral Emotion of Hayaa in Islamic Thought." Paper presented at the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, March 2006. [Full Text]
—. "When Disaster Looms: Terrorism and Supreme Emergency in the Arguments of Michael Walzer and Usama Bin Ladin." Paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, November 2005. [Full Text]
—. "The Shaykh of Islam: The Legacy of Ibn Taymiyya in 20th Century Political Islam." Paper presented at the Florida State University Department of Religion Graduate Symposium, April 2005. [Full Text]
—. "How Adam Knew Eve: Pleasures of the Body and Pleasures of Knowledge in the Sexual Ethic of Thomas Aquinas." Paper presented at the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion Annual Meeting, Winston Salem, NC, March 2005. [Full Text]
Working Papers
Barre, Elizabeth A. "Apocalyptic Messiah or Fundamentalist Revolutionary? The Place of Al-Mahdi in Islamic History." (March 2006) [Full Text]
—."Finding Freedom in God and God in Freedom: The Place of the Divine in the Political Theology of John Courtney Murray." (December 2005) [Full Text]
—."Human Rights and the Problem of 'Decent Peoples' in The Law of Peoples." (December 2005) [Full Text]
—."Natural or Virtuous? Practical Reason in the Moral Theory of Thomas Aquinas." (April 2005) [Full Text]
—."Ethics Beyond the Borders of Philosophy: Karl Barth’s Theological Complement to Kantian Ethics." (August 2004) [Full Text]
—."Bridging Methodologies: Yearley, Stalnaker, and the Future of Comparative Religious Ethics." (April 2004) [Full Text]
—."The Enemy Within: Islam in the Voices of American Evangelicals." (April 2004) [Full Text]
—."Religion and Rescue: A Reinterpretation of Current Research." (December 2003) [Full Text]
Undergraduate Honors Thesis
Barre, Elizabeth A. "Compassion as a Bridge to Justice: Martha Nussbaum and the Historical Jesus." (BA Honors Thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2002). [Full Text]