Frederick Simmons

Frederick Simmons is a religious ethicist whose teaching and research explore questions at the intersections of religious and philosophical ethics, the religious significance of various natural sciences and technologies, environmental ethics, and philosophy of religion.  He has taught at Princeton Theological Seminary, Yale University, Amherst College, the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, and the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana.  He has held research appointments at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Cambridge, Boston University School of Theology, and the Center of Theological Inquiry. 

Education

• Ph.D., Yale University
• M.Div., Yale Divinity School
• B.A., Carleton College

Research Interests

• Religious and philosophical ethics
• Religion and the natural sciences
• Philosophy of religion

Recent Courses

• Introduction to Ethics
• Environmental Ethics
• Artificial Intelligence, Morals, and Meaning
• Climate Science and Religious Hope

Fellowships and Grants

• Templeton World Charity Foundation
• John Templeton Foundation
• Leverhulme Trust
• NASA

Selected Publications

• “Anthropogenic Climate Change, Artificial Intelligence, and Christian Hope,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 1 (Spring/Summer 2027). Forthcoming.
• “Discerning the Implications of Astrobiology: A Question of Scale,” in Astrobiology, Religion, and Society: Considering Life on a Planetary Scale, edited by Frederick Simmons, William Storrar, and Edwin Turner (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2027). Forthcoming.
• “Astrobiology and Christian Salvation History: Options and Implications,” in Astrobiology, Religion, and Society: Considering Life on a Planetary Scale, edited by Frederick Simmons, William Storrar, and Edwin Turner (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2027). Forthcoming.
• “Life on a Planetary Scale, the Anthropocene Ironies, and Ethics for the Holocene Biosphere,” in Astrobiology, Religion, and Society: Considering Life on a Planetary Scale, edited by Frederick Simmons, William Storrar, and Edwin Turner (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2027). Forthcoming.
• “Exploring Complexity in the Anthropocene: Astrobiology and Learning How to Shape the World Well,” with Rika Preiser, in Astrobiology, Religion, and Society: Considering Life on a Planetary Scale, edited by Frederick Simmons, William Storrar, and Edwin Turner (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2027). Forthcoming. 
• “Varieties of Bias for Life’s Emergence and the Rationality of Origins of Life Research,” Faith and Philosophy 2 (April 2026): 238-253.
• “Augustinianism and the Book of Nature: Protestant Perils and Promise,” in God and the Book of Nature: Experiments in Theology of Science, edited by Mark Harris (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2024), 78-96.
• “Climate Change, Christian Ethics, and Christian Theology: Ecumenical Imperatives,” in Legal Thought and Eastern Orthodox Christianity: The Addresses of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, edited by Norman Doe and Aetios Nikiforos (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2024), 118-128.
• “Environmental Ethics and Christian Realism: Reckoning With and Hope Beyond an Era of Witting Ecological Ruin,” in The Future of Christian Realism: International Political Decay and the Crisis of Democracy, edited by Dallas Gingles, Joshua Mauldin, and Rebekah Miles (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2023), 135-160.
• “Life in this World and For the Life of the World: Natural Science and the Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church,” Theology Today 4 (January 2022): 385-395.
• “Love,” in The Oxford Handbook of Reinhold Niebuhr, edited by Robin Lovin and Joshua Mauldin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 263-280.
• “What Christian Environmental Ethics Can Learn from Stewardship’s Critics and Competitors,” Studies in Christian Ethics 4 (November 2020): 529-548.
• “Christianity and Eudaimonia, Luck and Eudaimonism,” Journal of Religious Ethics 1 (March 2019): 43-67.
• “How Theological Is Political Theology? The Case of Twentieth-Century American Protestantism,” Political Theology 8 (September 2018): 681-688.
• “A Conjunctive Approach to Christian Love,” in Love and Christian Ethics: Engagements with Tradition, Theory, and Society, edited by Frederick Simmons with Brian Sorrells (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2016), 1-15.
• “Eudaimonism and Christian Love,” in Love and Christian Ethics: Engagements with Tradition, Theory, and Society, edited by Frederick Simmons with Brian Sorrells (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2016), 190-209.
• “The Nature and Limits of a Contemporary Evolutionary Cosmology’s Ethical Significance,” in Living Cosmology: Christian Responses to Journey of the Universe, edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2016), 162-170.