Ethics Initiative at Baylor University

This past week, Baylor was well-represented by both faculty members and students at the 2026 Conference on Medicine and Religion in Houston. Co-hosted by the Ethics Center at Baylor University, the conference brought together health professionals and scholars from across the country for the purpose of cultivating a deeper understanding of how religion relates to the practice of medicine.

This month's faculty book recommendations from Dr. Carlos Cardoza-Orlandi center on the significance of relationships in both neuroscience and theology. 📚

First, 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘕𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, by Ben Rein, is an insightful book that investigates the complexities and benefits of relationships as understood by neuroscience. Second is 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴: 𝘌𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘴, by Peter Casarella and Gabriel Said Reynolds. In this book, the authors illuminate the rich theological and ministerial trajectory of Pope Francis in relation to interreligious and ecumenical interactions.

This month, we are highlighting Dr. Leah Lomotey‑Nakon! Dr. Lomotey-Nakon advances innovative, justice‑centered bioethics scholarship. Her recent work reflects a growing national and international footprint in both academic and community‑engaged bioethics, and her new publication, "Visionary Bioethics", explores how speculative fiction can expand bioethical imagination and moral inquiry.

We’re honored to recognize Dr. Lomotey‑Nakon’s leadership and her commitment to ethical scholarship!

We’re thrilled to share that Dr. Marlene Neill has been appointed to the PRSA Board of Ethics & Professional Standards for a three‑year term. The Public Relations Society of America provides year-round educational opportunities to explore ethics within public relations. Dr. Neill's commitment to strengthening ethical communication continues to shape our community.

We are happy to highlight Dr. Elise Edwards for this month's faculty feature! Dr. Edwards is spending the 2025-26 academic year as a Research Fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) in Princeton, New Jersey. As part of an interdisciplinary cohort exploring the theme “From Despair to Hope: Interdisciplinary Theology in the Service of Building Spiritual Capital,” her focus lies at the intersection of theology, ethics, and technology. Alongside her theological research, Dr. Edwards has been collaborating with Dr. Jo-Ann Tsang and Dr. Hiroki Matsuo in Baylor's Department of Psychology and Neuroscience on a project supported by a Cross-Training Grant from the John Templeton Foundation, secured by Dr. Devan Stahl.

Over the next several months, Dr. Edwards is developing a proposal for her second monograph, which examines race, architecture, and lived experience. The book explores how we can “read” buildings and neighborhoods through the lenses of racial, gender, and class justice. Beyond academic circles, she will participate in CTI’s Theology Matters podcast and a global webinar for journalists and technology professionals to discuss the ethical implications of her research.

Join us in celebrating Dr. Edwards and her impactful scholarship!

We are proud to announce that we are a conference host of the 2026 Conference on Medicine and Religion in Houston, TX! The 2026 Conference on Medicine and Religion invites participants to explore how the expressions of religious traditions have the capacity to critique and to creatively reimagine medicine and the pursuit of healing. This year, the conference creates space for experience: to hear sacred music, to share meals, to dwell in ritual, and to witness one another's traditions.

Learn more at medicineandreligion.com

This month, Dr. Neil Messer shares two thought-provoking reads.

The first book is The Digitalised Image of God: Artificial Intelligence, Liturgy, and Ethics by Ximian Xu. With the dizzying pace of new advances in AI comes a growing list of ethical concerns about its impact on individuals and society. For Christians, more profound questions lie beneath these practical concerns: will AI entities ever be responsible selves? Could AI bear the image of God? Could an AI sin, and should it be baptized? Xu’s recent book offers a helpful pathway through this maze of questions, drawing on the author’s training in both computer science and theology.

Second, a biography titled Theologian of Resistance: The Life and Thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Christiane Tietz offers a scholarly, well-informed, and accessible introduction to this remarkable Christian and theologian.

We are proud to celebrate the Ethics Bowl Team for representing Baylor University at the Texas Regional Ethics Bowl! The dedication of the entire team and the coaches was evident as they joined 8 other Texas universities to compete for 2 qualifying slots for the National Ethics Bowl. Unfortunately, the team tied with several other teams and the tie-breaker did not fall our way!

Team members included Shajee Khan, Holden George, Logan Spencer, Blessy Bellamkonda, and Iris Willoughby - very well done!👏 The team will now regroup and pivot as they begin to prepare for the National Bioethics Bowl in spring. Sic 'em Ethics Bowl Team!

This month, we are excited to feature Dr. Thomas Hibbs. Dr. Hibbs is the J. Newton Rayzor Sr. Professor of Philosophy and Dean Emeritus of the Honors College. He is an exceptional and nationally recognized scholar and teacher, frequently teaching upper-level moral philosophy courses and graduate seminars. His teaching is, as one would expect, fueled by his diverse research interests, interests stretching from medieval philosophy to contemporary virtue theory, aesthetics, and the environment.

Currently, Dr. Hibbs has an essay at press on Catherine of Siena, a 14th century saint, whose writings are, he argues, a neglected resource for Christian virtue ethics. Further, he is working on a book entitled Inescapable Moral Horizons: Ethics in and Through Film that examines ethical dimensions in the films of Bergman, Kieslowski, and Malick.

Finally, Dr. Hibbs regularly directs the Baylor program in Religion and Social Life in Washington, D.C., where he continues to work on questions of ethics, faith and public policy while teaching and mentoring a cohort of undergraduate students.

We celebrate Dr. Hibbs’ contributions and look forward to his ongoing influence.

Each summer Dr. Hibbs leads a Baylor program on Religion and Social Life in Washington, D.C. It includes internships, seminars on the main theme, and spiritual and professional formation. In preparation for the next iteration of that program, Dr. Hibbs has been reading about leadership and focusing on the work of Barbara Kellerman.

Kellerman's most recent book is Leadership: From Bad to Worse, a series of case studies in bad leadership, examples of which proliferate in all our major institutions. Kellerman, who holds a chair in leadership at Harvard, seeks to discover early warning signs and makes suggestion on how to counter or temper bad leadership, which operates like a social contagion once it is unleashed in institutions. As one might suspect, she is building here upon her earlier study, The End of Leadership, in which she tried to make sense of the fact that during the same period in which leadership training became pervasive, the quality of leadership itself by every objective measure was in steep decline. These are important studies for anyone concerned with the widespread credibility crisis of our institutions (and their leaders), and especially for us at Baylor as we seek to fulfill our mission to prepare students for global leadership.