Paul Scherz
- Visiting Fellow
- Associate Professor of Moral Theology and Ethics, the Catholic University of America
Paul Scherz is an Associate Professor of Moral Theology and Ethics at the Catholic University of America. His research examines the interrelationship between ethics, religion, science, and medicine. He is the author of Science and Christian Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which examined contemporary moral formation in science. He coedited with Joseph Davis The Evening of Life: The Challenges of Aging and Dying Well (the University of Notre Dame Press, 2020), based on papers from a conference held at the Insitute. His current research project analyzes how contemporary understandings of risk shape contemporary practical reasoning and governance in areas such as finance, genetics, and social media as well as daily life. Scherz has published widely on both science and theology in journals such as Science, Cell, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Theological Studies, the Journal of Religious Ethics, and the Journal of the Society for Christian Ethics. He holds a PhD in genetics from Harvard University and a PhD in moral theology from the University of Notre Dame.
Tomorrow's Troubles: Risk, Anxiety, and Prudence in an Age of Algorithmic Governance
Georgetown University Press published a new book by Paul Scherz titled, Tomorrow's Troubles: Risk, Anxiety, and Prudence in an Age of Algorithmic Governance.
Learn moreUntangling Twinning: What Science Tells Us about the Nature of Human Embryos
Paul Scherz published a review of Maureen L. Condic's Untangling Twinning: What Science Tells Us about the Nature of Human Embryos in Theological Studies September 9 2022.
Learn moreA Peaceful Death or a Perfect End: Visions of a Good Death in Contemporary and Traditional Arts of Dying
Institute Visiting Fellow Paul Scherz published an article considering what constitutes a good death in Nova et Vetera.
Learn moreRisk, Health, and Physical Enhancement: The Dangers of Health Care as Risk Reduction for Christian Bioethics
Institute Visiting Fellow Paul Scherz published an article in Christian Bioethics arguing that the vision of health care as risk reduction is dangerous for Christian bioethics, since risk can be infinitely reduced leading to a self-defeating spiral of iatrogenic effects.
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Recovering Old Age
Institute Research Director Joseph E. Davis and Institute Visiting Fellow Paul Scherz wrote an article for the New Atlantis on approaches to old age in bioethics, considered within the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
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What Our Covid-19 Response Tells Us about How We Treat the Elderly
Research Director Joseph Davis and Visiting Fellow Paul Scherz share observations in a post for Davis’s Psychology Today blog.
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The Evening of Life: The Challenges of Aging and Dying Well
Institute Research Director Joseph Davis and Visiting Fellow Paul Scherz are coeditors of The Evening of Life, an interdisciplicary exploration of growing older.
Learn moreExcerpt: The Evening of Life
The University of Notre Dame Press published an excerpt from The Evening of Life: The Challenges of Aging and Dying Well, coedited by Institute Research Director Joseph Davis and Visiting Fellow Paul Scherz.
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Algorithms II: Algorithms, AI, and the Reshaping of Ourselves (Full Issue of Social Research: An International Quarterly)
Papers presented at the Institute's “Persons without Qualities” Symposium comprise the Winter 2019 issue of Social Research: An International Quarterly.
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Science and Christian Ethics
Institute Visiting Fellow Paul Scherz seeks a remedy for the way scientific research today leads to poor results, fraud, lack of innovation, and burnout.
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Davis and Scherz Edit Special Issue of "Medicine, Culture, and Psychiatry"
Posted on April 14th, 2022
"Being Human in the Age of the Brain," a special issue of the journal Medicine, Culture, and Psychiatry edited by Joseph E. Davis and Paul Scherz, was published in March, 2022.
Read morePaul Scherz hosts "Virtue in the Loop: Designing Ethical Military AI Systems" at CUA
Posted on April 7th, 2022
Paul Scherz, Visiting Fellow and Associate Professor of Moral Theology/Ethics at The Catholic University of America, hosted a virtual conference, Virtue in the Loop: Designing Ethical Military AI Systems, at The Catholic University of America on April 5.
Read moreHastings Center Report praises Davis's and Scherz's 'The Evening of Life'
Posted on February 18th, 2022
Review says The Evening of Life "supports older persons' decision-making regarding ... what living and dying well might mean."
Read moreDavis and Scherz's book ‘The Evening of Life’ Wins Two Awards
Posted on June 15th, 2021
The Evening of Life: The Challenges of Aging and Dying Well, a volume of essays coedited by Institute Colloquy Chair Joseph E. Davis and Institute Visiting Fellow Paul Scherz, has received two book awards.
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Davis and Scherz Guest-Edit a Special Issue of Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry
Posted on May 18th, 2021
The journal is devoting an entire issue to “Being Human in the Age of the Brain: Models of Mind and Their Social Effects,” which was the theme of a two-day Institute symposium in 2020.
Read moreDavis and Scherz Interviewed for Publisher's Blog
Posted on September 30th, 2020
Institute Research Director Joseph Davis and Institute Visiting Fellow Paul Scherz talk about The Evening of Life: The Challenges of Aging and Dying Well.
Scherz Offers Remedy for Ethical Crisis in Research
Posted on May 31st, 2019
Science and Christian Ethics suggests an application of classical virtues to counter the competitive environment compromising the integrity of research.
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IASC Hosts "The Evening of Life"
Posted on March 2nd, 2018
IASC's Colloquy on Picturing the Human Hosts Symposium on Aging & Dying
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THR: “The Cultural Contradictions of Modern Science”
Posted on December 1st, 2016
The fall issue of The Hedgehog Review focuses on the cultural contradictions of modern science, particularly as they connect with ongoing debates over authority and truth in areas ranging from climate change to morality to the ends and purposes of science itself.
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