Dr John Perry
Qualifications
BA (University of Minnesota); MDiv (Fuller Theological Seminary); PhD (University of Notre Dame)
Role or Position
McDonald Post-Doctoral Fellow for Christian Ethics and Public Life
Email address
Academic Background
After studying political science at the University Minnesota and theology at Fuller Seminary, John Perry completed a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics at the University of Notre Dame. Upon graduation, he was appointed Edward Sorin Fellow, teaching and researching in Notre Dame’s Theology Department. In January 2009, he moved to Oxford to become McDonald Post-Doctoral Fellow for Christian Ethics and Public Life at Christ Church.
Undergraduate Teaching
Christian Ethics; Topics in Medical, Sexual, and Political Ethics.
Research Interests
John Perry’s current research explores how Christian ethics have been shaped by political liberalism. How do the two interact and how ought they to interact? This leads to topics such as the Christian’s loyalty or allegiance to the nation-state, the fate of natural law in modernity, and the use of biblical ethics in religiously pluralistic contexts. He also teaches medical ethics, with a special focus on looking for convergence and contention among Christian, liberal, and utilitarian approaches to medical ethics.
Publications include
The Pretenses of Loyalty: Locke, Liberal Theory, and American Political Theology. Oxford University Press, 2011 - link
"May Alzheimer’s Patients Morally Refuse Tube Feeding? Yet More Questions on the Papal Allocution—and Perhaps an Answer", in Christian Bioethics, forthcoming.
"Are Christians the 'Aliens Who Live in Your Midst'?: Torah and the Origins of Christian Ethics in Acts 10-15", in Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 29/2 (2009).
"John Locke’s America: Christian Political Arguments and the Character of Liberal Democracy", in Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 27/2 (2007).
"The Weight of Community: Alasdair MacIntyre, Abraham Kuyper, and the Problem of Public Theology in a Liberal Society", in Calvin Theological Journal, 39/2
(November 2004).
"Not Pledging as Liturgy: Lessons from Karl Barth and American Mennonites on Refusing National Oaths", in Mennonite Quarterly Review, 76/4 (October 2002).
Hobbies
Travel, tennis, Notre Dame football; playing Nintendo Wii with son and cooking with daughter.
Links