FOCUS AREAS

Beyond whatever we offer in the way of conferences, lectures or seminars in any given semester, New College Madison is part of a larger conversation in our society of certain "problem areas" which need to be addressed if our society is to survive and flourish. Some (though not all) of these "problem areas" are outlined below, and will give you some idea of our programming in future years.

Biblical, Theological, Ethical and Church-historical Illiteracy of the Church

• The Biblical illiteracy of today's students and faculty
• The return of the spiritual and ethical themes and problems of the early Roman Empire on today's campus
• Two popular apologists for the Christian faith: G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis and their relevance for our time
• The need to ground our society again in its Biblical roots and convictions

Sexual, Marital and Family Ethics:

• How the sexual revolution has damaged us as a society (particularly, women and children)
• Programs, spiritual, Biblical, and secular, for sexual healing
• Getting, and keeping, the love you want, and need
• Christian sexual ethics: revisionist and traditional
• The University of Chicago-based study of the dynamics and ethics of the family
• Homosexuality and Christian ethics

Politics and Ethical Reform

• Analysis of the Global War on Terror: A New Way Between Mere Politics and Militarism
• Just War and "Just Peacemaking": A New Paradigm for our relationship with the rest of the world
• Why Imperfect Democracy is Better Than "Perfect Authoritarianism"
  
• The Inter-relationship of Justice and Mercy, Peacemaking and Christian Spirituality
  
• Right Wing, Left Wing and Third Way Politics
  
• Why Caring for the Poor and Marginalized is as Important as Homeland Security
  
• The corruption of our political system: Its Causes and Solutions

Global Bioethics: Present and Future Possibilities

• Since the invention of the term by UW-Madison professor Van Potter in the mid-seventies, the term "bioethics" has been narrowed to mean "medical ethics." Why has this narrowing of meaning happened, and how can the larger meaning of the term be renewed?
  
• If we are to maintain democratic control over bioethics, it would seem that citizens need to develop an accurate and profound bioethical consciousness. How might such a consciousness be developed and maintained in the midst of the powerful scientific, technical and economic forces pushing the development of biotechnology?

Ethics of Medicine

• Do Christians too easily sin against the body by the way they participate in the typical American diet and way of life?
  
• "Body Wisdom": False Diagnoses and Quackery Versus True Folk Medicine
  Alternative Medicine: Analyses and Ethical Pathways

Technology, Ethics and Consumption:

• Technology and its Limitations: A Discussion of Wendell Berry, Luddites, and a Third Way
  
• Affluenza: Over consumption, Its Roots in A False Worldview, and How to Live Wisely
  
• The theology and ethics of technology, generally
  
• The Ethics of the Internet in particular: the Growth of Power to do Good and do Evil

Economics and Ethical Reform:

• The growing gap between rich and poor, at home and around the world
  Just Global Economic Development in Relation to Sustainable Business Practices
  
• Analysis of Global Corporate Power and Its Impact on Daily Life
  
• Analysis of Labor, Capitalism and Global Promotion of Fair Trade Policies
  
• Authoritarianism, Libertinism, True Spirituality and Political/Corporate Structural Reform
  
• Food Production, Its History, Future, and Analysis of Organic Farming

The Degradation of the Environment:

• Basic Christian environmental ethics
  
• Contested issues in contemporary Christian environmental ethics, at home and abroad
  
• The anti-evangelical environmental movement
  
• Environmental responsibility at the level of the the local parish church

Spirituality, Ethics, and Jesus Christ

• Why What You Believe Matters: Frauds, Authoritarianism, and Distractions from the Good
  
• Extreme Churches, Cults, and Classic Christian Thinking and practice

The Arts and Ethical Reform:

• The Arts, Sensuality, and Genuine Humanity: What Makes for Beauty in A Distorted World
  
• Music Creation and Consumption in the Development of the Human Consciousness
  
• Sustainable Architectural Planning in Relation to Solving Common Urban Problems