Willis J. Jenkins
Associate Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Environment
Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Religious Studies
PO Box 400126
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4126
Education
University of Virginia, M.A., Ph.D. Religious Studies, May 2006
Wheaton College, B.A., May 1997
Academic Appointments
2013- University of Virginia
Associate Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Environment
2012-3 Yale Divinity School
Margaret Farley Associate Professor of Social Ethics
Secondary appointment, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
2006-12 Yale Divinity School
Margaret Farley Assistant Professor of Social Ethics
Secondary appointment, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Books
The Future of Ethics: Sustainability, Social Justice, and Religious Creativity, Washington, DC: Georgetown
University Press, 2013.
Received 2014 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence
Reviewed in: Catholic Books Review,Themelios, Journal of Lutheran Ethics, Theological Studies,
Religious Studies News, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Ecologies of Grace: Environmental Ethics and Christian Theology, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Received 2009 Templeton Award for Theological Promise (selected by Forschungszentrum
Internationale, University of Heidelberg)
Reviewed in: Choice, Biblical Theology Bulletin, Anglican Theological Review, First Things,
Louvain Studies, Worldviews, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Interpretation, Reviews in Science and Religion, Studies in Christian Ethics, Review & Expositor, Sewanee Theological Review, Theology, Scottish Journal of Theology, Theological Studies
Edited Books & Journal Volumes
Co-editor (with Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim), Routledge Handbook to Religion and Ecology (under contract, due January 2016).
Guest editor of special issue of Religious Studies Reviewguest editor of special issue on Religion & Climate Change, due winter 2015]
Co-editor (with Jennifer McBride), Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King: Receiving Their Legacies and Import for Christian Social Thought, Fortress Press, 2010.
Editor, The Spirit of Sustainability: Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy, vol. 1 of The Encyclopedia of Sustainability, Berkshire Publishers, October 2009.
Reprinted in abridged form (new organization and introduction) as
Religion and Sustainability special issue of Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology (co-edited with Ernst Conradie), vol. 12 no.s 2-3 (2008).
Ecology and Christian Soteriology special issue of Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology vol. 14 no.s 2-3 (2010).
Section editor, “North American Perspectives from the Margins,” in Creation and Salvation, Vol. 2., ed. Ernst Conradie (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2012): 267-86.
Articles
“Atmospheric Powers, Moral Incompetence, and Global Injustice,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 34.1 (2014).
“Environmental Pragmatism, Adaptive Management, and Cultural Reform,” Ethics and the Environment 16.1: 51-74 (2011).
“Ecological Management, Cultural Reform, and Religious Creativity” Union Seminary Quarterly Review, 63.1-2: 1-17 (2011).
“A Theology of Marriage Including Same-Sex Couples” (co-authored with Deirdre Good, Cynthia Kittredge, and Eugene Rogers), Anglican Theological Review, 93.1 (2011): 51-88.
“Neighborhood Ethics: Christianity, Urbanism, and Homelessness,” Anglican Theological Review, 91.4 (Fall 2009).
“After Lynn White: Religious Ethics and Environmental Problems,” Journal of Religious Ethics, 37.2: 283-309 (2009).
“Global Ethics, Christian Theology, and Sustainability,” Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 12.2-3: 197-217 (2008).
“Missiology in Environmental Context: Tasks for an Ecology of Mission,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 32.4: 176-84 (October 2008).
“Islamic Law and Environmental Ethics: How Jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) Mobilizes Practical Reform,” Worldviews: Environment, Culture, and Religion, 9.3: 338-64 (2005).
(Reprinted in Religion and the Environment, ed. Roger Gottlieb, vol. 2, Routledge Publishers, 2010.)
“Assessing Metaphors of Agency: Intervention, Perfection, and Care as Models of Environmental Practice,” Environmental Ethics, 27.2: 135-54 (Summer 2005).
“Kenosis and Resistance: Protest Ecclesiology in Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King,” Journal of Lutheran Ethics, 5.1 (January 2005).
“Episcopalians, Homosexuality, and World Mission,” Anglican Theological Review, 86.2: 293-316 (Spring 2004).
“Biodiversity and Salvation: Thomistic Roots for Environmental Ethics,”Journal of Religion, 83.3: 401-20 (July 2003).
“Ethnohomophobia?” Anglican Theological Review, 82.3: 551-63 (Summer 2000).
Review Essays
“Religion and Environment,” Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 36 (2011): 441-63.
(Reviews 150 recent texts in the field of religion and ecology, co-authored with C. Chapple)
“Religion and Ecology: A Review Essay on the Field,” in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 77.1 (March 2009): 187-97.
(Reviews The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature edited by Bron Taylor; the “Religions of the World and Ecology” series edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, including Christianity and Ecology edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether & Dieter Hessel; The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology edited by Roger Gottlieb; and Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth edited by Laurel Kearns & Catherine Keller.)
“Global Ethics and the Global Market,” Christian Reflection, v. 24: 88-93 (2007).
“Writing Home: Books on Home and Exile”, The Hedgehog Review, Fall 2005, 79-84.
Book Chapters and Volume Entries
“Evolutionary Cosmology and Ecological Ethics,” in Living Cosmology, ed.s Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim, Orbis Press, [submitted, forthcoming]
“Environment” in The Oxford Handbook of Political Theology, ed. Shaun Casey, [submitted, forthcoming]
“North American Environmental Liberation Theologies” in Creation and Salvation, Vol. 2, ed. Ernst Conradie (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2012): 273-8.
“Karl Barth” in Creation and Salvation, Vol 2. ed. Ernst Conradie (Berlin, LIT Verlag, 2012): 126-31.
“Religion and Environmental Rights” in The Oxford Handbook to Religion and Human Rights, ed.s John Witte and M. Christian Green (OUP 2011): 330-45.
“Sustainability,” in Grounding Religion: Re-Thinking Nature: A Field Guide to the Study of Religion and Ecology, ed.s Whitney Bauman, Kevin O’Brien, and Richard Bohannon, Routledge Publishers, 2010: 96-112.
“Christian Social Ethics After Bonhoeffer and King,” in Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King: Receiving Their Legacies for Christian Social Thought, ed.s Willis Jenkins and Jennifer McBride, Fortress Press, 2010: 243-57.
“Searching for Salvation as Public Theological Exercise: Directions for Further Research,” response in Ecology and Christian Soteriology, Worldviews, 14:2-3 (2010): 258-65.
“Theological Ethics and Environmental Studies: Teaching Sustainability” in Sustainability and Ethics ed.s James Keenan and T. Frank Kennedy. [forthcoming].
“Dietrich Bonhoeffer” in The Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology, ed. Ian McFarland, Cambridge University Press.
“The Moral Assignment of Our Time: Reclaiming Nature and Grace for Theological Ethics,” in God’s Earth is Sacred: Essays on Eco-Justice, ed. Ann Riggs (Washington, DC: National Council of Churches, 2011).
Entries in The WestminsterDictionary of Christian Ethics, James Childress (ed.), Westminster John Knox Press [accepted, forthcoming]:
“Agriculture,” “Anthropocentrism,” “Environmental Ethics,” “Energy,” “Nature,” “Stewardship,” and “Sustainability.”
Theological Perspective essays in Feasting on the Word: Lectionary Commentary Series volume VII, Westminster John Knox Press:
Proper 10 Amos 7.7-17
Proper 11 Amos 8.1-12
Proper 12 Hosea 1.2-10
“Changing the Religious Discourse” in The Coming Transformation: Creating a Society in Harmony with Nature, ed.s James Gustave Speth and Stephen Kellert (New Haven: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies), 2009.
Entries in The Spirit of Sustainability, ed. Willis Jenkins, vol. 1 of The Encyclopedia of Sustainability, Berkshire Publishers, 2009:
“Introduction,” “Anthropocentrism,” “Ecocentrism,” “Nature,”
and “Sustainability Theories.”
Book Reviews
Review of Veldman, Szazs, and Haluza-Delay (ed.s), How The World’s Religions Are Responding to Climate Change: Social Scientific Investigations, in Human Ecology [insert date]*.
Review of Without Nature? A New Condition for Theology, ed.s David Albertson and Cabell King, in Theology Today [insert date].*
Review of James Martin-Schramm, Climate Justice: Ethics, Energy, and Public Policy, in Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 32.2 (2012): 198-200.
Review of Nature, Space and the Sacred: Transdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Sigurd Bergmann, Maria Jansdotter Samuelsson, Peter Scott, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm in Sophia 49(2010): 641-3
Review of Ben Minteer, The Landscape of Reform in Environmental Ethics, 29.4 (Winter 2007): 427-30.
Review of Deotis Roberts, Bonhoeffer and King: Speaking Truth to Power, in The Christian Century, December 11, 2007, 47-8.
Review of Roger Gottlieb, A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet’s Future, in The Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 75.1: 188-91 (March 2007).
Review of Stanley Hauerwas, Performing the Faith, in The Scottish Journal of Theology, 59.3: 372-4 (October 2006).
Review of David Bentley Hart, The Doors of the Sea, in The Christian Century, October 5, 2005.
Conference Presentations
Keynote address, “Feast of the Anthropocene,” American Academy of Religion – Rocky Mountains/Great Plains Regional Meeting, Omaha, March 20, 2015.
“Religious Studies and Climate Change,” plenary panel, American Academy of Religion, San Diego, Nov 22, 2014.
Keynote, “Confronting Impoverishment: Religious Inquiries Amidst Economic Realities,” Wealth and Poverty graduate student conference,Princeton Theological School, March 21, 2014.
“The Methodological Significance of Environmental Justice Movements,” American Academy of Religion, Baltimore, Nov 25, 2013.
“Atmospheric Powers, Moral Incompetence, and Global Injustice,” Society of Christian Ethics, Chicago, Jan 5, 2013.
“Assessing To Change the World,” respondent to panel on James Hunter, American Academy of Religion, San Francisco, Nov 20, 2011.
“Confessing Uncertainty,” keynote, Confessional Commitments in Pluralist Publics, University of Virginia, April 15, 2011.
“Teaching Theological Ethics as Pragmatic Analogical Reasoning,” Sustainability and Ethics Conference, The Jesuit Institute, Boston College, Feb 28, 2009.
“Environmental Racism and Sustainable Communities: The Problem of Place for Christian Social Thought,” Society of Christian Ethics, Chicago, Jan 9, 2009.
Convener, “Receiving Bonhoeffer and King,” joint meeting of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Group and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Consultation, American Academy of Religion, Chicago, Nov 1, 2008.
“Theology and New Urbanisms,” plenary lecture for the Society of Anglican and Lutheran Theologians at the American Academy of Religion, Chicago, Oct 31, 2008.
“Local and Global: the Problem of Place for Christian Ethics,” plenary lecture, Theological Society of South Africa Annual Conference, Grahamstown, South Africa, June 2008.
“Christian Environmental Ethics Forty Years after Lynn White: The Historic Roots of a Theological Crisis,” American Academy of Religion, San Diego, November, 2007.
“Kenosis and Resistance: Protest Ecclesiology in Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King”, American Academy of Religion, Atlanta, November, 2003.
“Missiology and Ecology,” Boston Theological Institute Consultation in Global Mission, Harvard Divinity School, February 2003.
“Excess and Kenosis: Sergei Bulgakov and the Humanization of the World”, Illumination: Theology and Revelation,Oxford University, June 2002
“Biodiversity and Salvation: Notes for an Eco-Thomism”, Ecology and Theology: Judeo-Christian Environmental Ethics, University of Notre Dame, April 2002
Invited Lectures and Papers
“What Can Universities Do About Climate Change?” Jefferson Society Distinguished Speakers Series, Univ. Virginia, Feb 9, 2015.
“How Could Theological Discourse Make a Difference to Extreme Economic Inequality?” Trinity-Wall St. Symposium on Inequality, New York, Jan 21, 2015.
“Ethics of Eating?” Theological Horizons salon, Charlottesville, Dec 4, 2014.
“Ethics in the Anthropocene: Models of Integrating Ethics and Environmental Science,” presentation for Environmental Sciences faculty, UVa, Nov 13, 2014.
“Worrying About the Food Movement,” Reflections, Yale Divinity School, Fall 2014.
Panel respondent to “Land Grabbing or Land to Investors?,” Univ. Virginia, Oct 24, 2014.
“How Religion May Matter for Environmental Management,” Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute, June 4, 2014.
“The Future of Love: Christianity & Climate Change,” Washington & Lee University, May 14, 2014.
“Religion & Environment,” Charlottesville Green Building Council, May 13, 2014.
“Sustainability Science and the Ethics of Wicked Problems,” faculty seminar for Institute of Practical Ethics, Univ. Virginia, May 2, 2014.
“Wicked Problems and Religious Ethics,” UVa School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Oct 25, 2013.
“Fishing the Future,” Commencement Communion homily, Yale Divinity School, May 19, 2013.
“The Future of Love: the ethics of intergenerational risk,” University of the South, April 5, 2013.
“Religion, Culture, and the Politics of Sustainability,” Sawyer Seminar Series, Univ. California – Berkeley, March 14, 2013.
Response to Noah Toly, “Macondoization of the World,” Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion, Religion and Culture Web Forum, March 2013.
“The Future of Love,” National Cathedral, Washington D. C., February 6, 2013.
“Contextualizing Professional Ethics,” Forestry Science Professional Ethics Workshop, Yale FES, March 22, 2012.
“A Pragmatic Proposal for Ecotheology,” Ecotheology Methods Consultation (paper read in absentia), San Francisco, Nov 16, 2011.
“Competing Legacies of Aldo Leopold,” response to Fierce Green Fire film, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Oct 25, 2011.
“Climate Change and the Future of Christianity,” YDS Convocation Alumni lecture, Oct 11, 2011.
“How Social Problems Drive Theological Creativity,” Spring Institute on Lived Theology, Univ. Virginia, May 25, 2011.
“Divinity and Forestry: Graduate Religious Education for Environmental Problems,” Religious Studies News, Spotlight on Teaching, May 2011 ( ).
“Environmental Sciences and Religious Communities,” Michigan State Univ., Mar 14, 2011.
“Civic Service by Public Enemies,” homily, Marquand Chapel, YDS, Feb 25, 2011.
“Christian Ethics and Climate Change,” Boisi Center for Religion and American Life, Boston College, Feb 23, 2011.
“Dimensions of a Maladjusted Life: Remembering Martin Luther King,” Yale University Church, Jan 16, 2011.
“Climate Justice and Christian Theology,” Centro des Estudios Teologicos, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Dec 8, 2010.
Hans Tiefel Lecture in Religious Ethics: “Saving Nature: Theology and Environmental Ethics,” College of William & Mary, Nov 19, 2010.
“Christian Ethics and Social Problems,” graduate/faculty workshop, Department of Religious Studies, Univ. Virginia, Nov 18, 2010.
Cochran Lecture: “City and Environment in Christian Thought,”First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, Oct 11, 2010.
“The Sustaining Economy: Overcoming Poverty and Protecting Biodiversity,” Reflections, Fall 2010.Accompanying panel presentation at U.N. Church Center, Sept 22, 2010.
“Reading the Bible in an Environmental Era.” Report to the North America group of “The Bible in the Life of the Church” project (an Anglican Communion Office initiative), Sewanee, TN, June 13-15, 2010.
“Linking Medical Ethics and Environmental Ethics,” Yale Bioethics Summer Program, Bioethics Center, June 7, 2010.
“Why the Church Should Bless Same-Sex Marriages.” Address to the Episcopal House of Bishops, March 20, 2010, Camp Allen, Texas.
“Sustainability Ethics: Religion, Environmental Science, and Cultural Change,” University of Montana, March 15, 2010.
“Sustainability Ethics: Religion, Environmental Science, and Cultural Change,” Pacific Lutheran University, March 9, 2010.
“Sustainability Ethics: Religion, Environmental Science, and Cultural Change,” Oregon State University, March 3, 2010.
Pfautch Lectures: “Protecting Biodiversity as Friendship with God: Theology and Conservation” (Oct 19), “Neighborhood Ethics: Building Just and Sustainable Cities” (Oct 20); sponsored by 2nd Presbyterian Church and the Missouri Botanical Gardens, St. Louis, Oct 19-20, 2009.
“Sustainability and Theological Ethics,” Templeton Award Lecture, Internationale Wissenschaftforum, University of Heidelberg, Germany, May 24, 2009.
“Neighborhood Ethics: Churches Rediscover their Place,” The Clergy Journal, vol. 85, no. 6 (July/August 2009): 3-5.
“Creative Religious Strategies for an Ecological Era,” Harvard Divinity School, Ministry and Ecology conference, Apr 24, 2009.
“Ethical Analyses in Climate Choice Deliberations,” formal comment submitted to National Committee on American Climate Choices, April 17, 2009.
“Same-Sex Marriage: An Initial Proposal,” Episcopal House of Bishops Theology Panel, Pasadena, May 3, 2009.
“Wilderness and WonderBread,” reflection, Marquand Chapel, Mar 30, 2009.
“Religion and Ecology: Inheriting the Field,” Inherited Land Colloquium, Florida International University (my paper read and discussed in absentia), Mar 1, 2009.
“Radiation Exposures and Nuclear Risks: Response to Kristen Shrader-Frechette,” Golden Faith and Science Fellowship, St. Thomas More Center, Yale University, Feb 19, 2009.
“Bioethics and Environmental Ethics,” Yale Bioethics Society, January 27, 2009.
“Remembering Martin Luther King,” Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, Jan 18, 2009.
“Breakfast with an Author” [small group discussion of Jenkins, Ecologies of Grace], Society of Christian Ethics, Chicago, Jan 10, 2009.
Convener, “Environmental Theology Colloquium,” (participants: Ernst Conradie, Norman Wirzba, Paul Santmire, Elizabeth Theokritoff, and Bella Mukonyora), Yale Divinity School, Dec 10-11, 2008.
“Christian Ethics and Environmental Problems,” Suter Science Seminar, Eastern Mennonite University, Nov 21, 2008.
“Christian Ethics and Environmental Problems,” University of Virginia, Nov 20, 2008.
“Sustainability and Religious Change,” Forum on Religion and Ecology Ten Year Anniversary, Yale Club, New York City, Nov 18th, 2008.
“Repentance and Reparations for Slavery,” homily for The Episcopal Church’s Day of Repentance, St. Luke’s Chapel, Berkeley Divinity School, Oct 3, 2008.
Moderator, “Are We Safe Yet?” dialogue between Jonathan Schell and Jonathan Granoff, Sarah Smith Memorial Conference, Yale Divinity School, Sept 19, 2008.
“Bioethics: Connections of Medical Ethics and Environmental Ethics,” Yale Bioethics Center summer internship program, July 16, 2008.
“Environmental Justice,” Diakonia Council of Churches, Durban, South Africa, June 10, 2008.
“Inconvenient Ethics,” workshop discussion for YDS Interfaith Solidarity on Climate Change, April 25, 2008.
“Religion and Environmental Politics,” YDS Student Faith and Politics Group, April 16, 2008.
“Covenant and Communion,” faculty panel on The Virginia Report, Berkeley Divinity School, March 28, 2008.
Respondent to Renewal documentary; Renewing Hope conference, Yale Divinity School, March 1, 2008.
“Ecologies of Grace for the Neighborhood Church,” Annual Conference of Endowed Episcopal Parishes, St. Louis, February 22, 2008.
NPR talk-show guest; Where We Live, WNPR, February 21, 2008.
“Ecological Missiology” OMSC Winter Conference, Mercy Center, Madison, CT, Jan 17, 2008.
“Nature and Grace: Making Environmental Issues Matter for Christian Life,” Reflections, Spring 2007: 19-24 (adapted excerpt from Ecologies of Grace).
“Sustainable Living and the Sustaining Covenant” sermon at Rhinebeck Reformed Church, April 29, 2007. [Podcasted by “Yale Religion” on iTunes, as “Civic Restlessness, Sustainable Communities, and the Land.”]
Black History Month panel participant, Yale Divinity School, Feb 19, 2007
“The Environment and Human Dignity” Presentation at Slifka Center, Yale University, Feb 6, 2007
“Environmental Letters and Environmental Law: Introduction,” in Virginia Environmental Law Journal, Fall 2005 (with Jon Cannon).
“Stewardship and Reconciliation: Environment and Justice in Christian Theology,” Memphis Theological Seminary, March 15, 2006.
“Environment and Theology;” Response to Jurgen Moltmann, Spring Institute on Lived Theology, Charlottesville, April 27, 2005