In January, I spoke at the annual meeting of the Society for Christian Ethics by the invitation of my friend and colleague Grace Y. Kao. I’m not an ethicist. I’m a philosophical theologian. I specialize in thinking and writing about what people believe. I’m particularly interested in how our beliefs mesh the ways we understand the world. I think that what we believe affects what we do and so I have some thoughts about that. Which is why the ethicists let me in their meeting.

​Grace invited me...