Erin Dufault-Hunter
Associate Professor of Christian Ethics
AB, Occidental College
MA, Fuller Theological Seminary
PhD, University of Southern California
Courses Taught
ET501: Christian Ethics
ET521: Sexuality and Ethics
ET533: Christian Discipleship in a Secular Society
ET535: The Ethics of Life and Death
ET551: The Ethics of Diversity in Unity
IS502: The Practices of Christian Community
Areas of Expertise
Narrative theory and virtue ethics; sociology of religion; embodiment and its implications for theological ethics, particularly diversity, medical ethics, mental illness, PTSD, and sex/uality; juvenile delinquency and justice; care of creatures and creation
“In Christ, we are bound to one another, even to those whose views diverge from our own. . . . Such knowledge frees us to address difficult issues in the present with humility, trusting that by God’s grace, good will come of our desire to be faithful to God and to neighbor. Even out of our rivalries, Christ can create both a church and a society that embody more closely the coming kingdom of God.”
Erin Dufault-Hunter, in an essay on navigating complex political realities, available here.
Bio
Erin Dufault-Hunter joined the faculty of Fuller in 2006, after having served as adjunct assistant professor in ethics in the School of Theology for three years. Prior to coming to Fuller, she earned several awards for excellence in teaching as a teaching assistant at the University of Southern California.
Dr. Dufault-Hunter has written on narrative theory and the sociology of religion. Her book The Transformative Power of Faith: A Narrative Approach to Conversion (2012) integrates insights from the social sciences with narrative theory to offer a non-reductionistic understanding of conversion. In particular, she argues that a narrative lens provides insights into why strong faith practiced within a community facilitates personal transformation, even for those society considers “hopeless.”
Dufault-Hunter explores the intersection of humans as embodied creatures with racialization, technology, gender, and sexuality, as in her article in the Journal for the Society of Christian Ethics, “The Downside of Getting It Up: How Viagra Reveals the Persistence of Patriarchy and the Need for Sexual Character.” She has coedited a collection of essays on healthcare and mission and contributed entries to the Global Dictionary of Theology (2008) and the Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics (2011). Recent chapters in collections include “Chastity’s Helping Hand? How Masturbation Can Serve Virtue,” in Venus and Virtue (2017), and “‘Sex Is about God’: Sarah Coakley and the Transformation of Desire,” in Love Human and Divine: Contemporary Essays in Systematic and Philosophical Theology (2018). She also wrote an epilogue titled “A Letter from the Arch-Demon of Racialization to her Angels in the Churches of the United States: How Whiteness Secures Our Success in Overcoming the Enemy” for the collection Can “White” People Be Saved? Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission (2018).
She is currently writing Sex, Shame, and Salvation: How the Erotic Matters for Our Life with God (under contract with Baker Academic). She fosters dialogue about how to pursue virtue in ordinary life, such as considerations of faithful parenthood in a medicalized age and the nature of sexual fidelity within a “pornofied” and sexually anxious society.
She participates in the life and work of Mountainside Communion Church, including preaching there occasionally.
Download Dufault-Hunter’s CV, which includes a list of her current publications, here.