2022 Moral Apologetics Writing Contest

Submissions due December 1

Houston Christian University’s Center for the Foundations of Ethics is pleased to announce the 2022 Moral Apologetics Writing Contest. The topic is the moral argument(s) for God’s existence. All submissions must come from students enrolled at HCU in the Fall of 2022. In part this initiative is designed to help garner interest in a significant Moral Argument Academic Conference that will be held here at HCU on March 2nd and 3rd, 2023. (Prospective speakers include William Lane Craig, Paul Copan, Daniel Bonevac, Angus Menuge, and several others; it will be an event free to all HCU students, staff, and faculty.)

The writer of the best graduate student paper will receive $100. The runner-up in the graduate student category will receive $25 and a copy of Dave and Marybeth Baggett’s Morals of the Story: Good News about a Good God. The winner of the best undergraduate student paper will also receive $100, and the runner-up in that category $25 and a copy of the Baggetts’ book.

Graduate essays are not to exceed 1,500 words (inclusive of notes—no bibliography is needed), and Undergraduate essays are not to exceed 1,200 words (inclusive of notes—no bibliography needed). Submissions are due December 1, 2022. Winners will be declared at the March conference, and winning entries may be published online at MoralApologetics.com.

Topics can include anything germane to the moral argument, including but not limited to the Euthyphro Dilemma, the fertile history of the moral argument, arguments in favor of robust moral realism, a defense of theistic ethics against objections, positive reasons to think morality evidentially points to God’s existence, the sort of theology best suited for a philosophically rigorous theistic ethic, attempts to square a priori and biblical accounts of God’s goodness, and critiques of secular efforts to provide the foundations of morality.

Submissions are to be electronically sent to dbaggett@hbu.edu. Put “Moral Argument Essay Submission” in the Subject Box. Essays must be in Word, 12-point font, with footnotes rather than endnotes, and in Turabian format. Each essay must have a title and be identified as an entry in the Undergraduate category OR the Graduate category. And again, graduate student essays are not to exceed 1,500 words, and undergraduate essays are not to exceed 1,200 words, and all entries due by December 1, 2022.