Ki Joo Choi

Biography

Ki Joo (KC) Choi’s research and teaching interests include Protestant and Catholic ethics/moral theology, the thought of Jonathan Edwards, art theory and theological aesthetics, peace studies, critical ethnic studies, nonprofit ethics, and Asian American theology. His publications include the monograph Disciplined by Race: Theological Ethics and the Problem of Asian American Identity (2019), the first sustained account of the racialized contours of Asian American life by a theologian. He is also the author of Art and Moral Change (2024), which challenges prevailing approaches to the relationship between aesthetics and ethics. He is coeditor of the volume Reimagining the Moral Life: On Lisa Sowle Cahill’s Contributions to Christian Ethics (2020) and is currently working on a political theology of freedom and nonviolence through the lens of Asian immigrant experience and settler colonial discourse. He has been interviewed by a number of media outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Sojourners Magazine, HigherEdJobs, and NJ 101.5 FM.

Choi is an active member of the Society of Christian Ethics, having served on the Board of Directors and as co-convener of the Asian/Asian American Working Group. He currently serves as coeditor of the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. He also served on the grants jury for the American Academy of Religion. His previous academic positions include serving as professor of theological ethics and chair of the Department of Religion at Seton Hall University. He has extensive experience with Middle States accreditation (mission and assessment), undergraduate core curriculum administration, interdisciplinary degree development, and academic policy governance. Choi received his B.A. and M.Div. from Yale and Ph.D. in theological ethics from Boston College.

Select Publications

• “Normative Human Nature and Racial Justice: A Rapprochement?,” in The Oxford Handbook of Theological Anthropology, ed. Jens Zimmermann, Ashley Moyse, and Michael Durdett (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
• “‘Neither Here nor There’ as Prophetic Witness: On Asian American Politics between Empires,” in Transpacific Political Theology: Perspectives, Paradigms, Proposals, ed. Kwok Pui Lan (Baylor University Press, forthcoming [August 2024]), 107-122.
• Art and Moral Change: A Reexamination (Georgetown University Press, forthcoming [September 2024]), https://press.georgetown.edu/Book/Art-and-Moral-Change.
• “Diversity or Option for the Poor?: Confronting the Contradictions Between our DEI Commitments and Enrollment Practices,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 43, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2023): 1-9.
• “Asian American Christianity,” in Handbook of Contemporary Christianity in the U.S.: Historical, Cultural, Theological, and Ethical Explorations, Volume One, ed. Mark A. Lamport (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), 293-305.
• ‘“Interrupting the Violence of Racial Identities: Lessons from Asian American Experience, the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and the Principle of Truth Force,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 42, no.1 (Spring/Summer 2022): 189-206.
• “Letter 47” (on politics and 1 Corinthians 12:20-23), Letter to President Biden and the 117^th Congress, in American Values, Religious Voices: 100 Days, 100 Letters Project (March 7, 2021), https://www.valuesandvoices.com/letters-2021/letter-47/.
• “Natural Law, Moral Reasoning, and Common Morality: Toward a Liberationist Paradigm,” in Reimagining the Moral Life: On Lisa Sowle Cahill’s Contributions to Christian Ethics, ed. Ki Joo Choi, Sarah Moses, and Andrea Vicini, S.J. (Orbis, 2020), 3-16.
• Reimagining the Moral Life: On Lisa Sowle Cahill’s Contributions to Christian Ethics, ed. with Sarah Moses and Andrea Vicini, S.J. (Orbis, 2020), https://orbisbooks.com/products/reimagining-the-moral-life.
• “Beyond Codes: Values, Virtues, and Nonprofit Ethics,” with Roseanne M. Mirabella, in Routledge Companion to Nonprofit Management, ed. Helmut Anheier and Stefan Toepler (Routledge, 2020), 165-176.
• “Where Have All the Asians Gone? A Response to the U.S.C.C.B.’s ‘Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love,’” Political Theology Network (March 15, 2019), https://politicaltheology.com/where-have-all-the-asians-gone/.
• Disciplined by Race: Theological Ethics and the Problem of Asian American Identity (Cascade, 2019), https://wipfandstock.com/9781532634727/disciplined-by-race/.
• “Asian American Christian Ethics: The State of the Discipline,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 38, no. 2 (Winter 2018): 33-44.
• “The Priority of the Affections over the Emotions: Gustafson, Aquinas, and an Edwardsean Critique,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics,” 38, no. 1 (Summer 2018): 113-130.
• “Mutuality, Equality, and Participation: Practicing Critical Ethics in Philanthropy,” with Roseanne M. Mirabella, in Reframing Nonprofit Organizations: Democracy, Inclusion, and Social Change, ed. Angela M. Eikenberry, Roseanne M. Mirabella, and Billie Sandberg (Irvine, CA: Melvin & Leigh, November 2018): 53-65
• “Pope Francis, Martin Luther King, J, and Social Justice: Why Laudato Si’ is Worth Reading,” NJ Art News/CivicStory (September 2015), https://www.civicstory.org/civicstory-blog/2015/9/5/pope-francis-martin-luther-king-jr-and-social-justice-why-laudato-si-is-worth-reading-9715.