Abstract

The author considers the achievements of the Journal of Religious Ethics against a larger history of philosophical theology and comparative religious studies, suggesting the wisdom of modesty and raising the possibility that contemporary academic inquiry in religious ethics is actually less rich and less supple than is suggested in Green's review. Of particular concern are unproductive nondialogues between philosophical secularists and confessional "narrativists," present tendencies toward anti-institutional ab- straction, the contemporary overvaluation of suspicion and critique, and a pervasive anti theological bias.