Welcome - by Lois Shepherd & Margaret E Mohrmann (Hardcover)

About the Book

An innovative approach to ethics, showing that welcoming other persons is the primary moral act. The use of stories and cases make the book an ideal text for students to explore ethical questions in the classroom and in their lives. The book also describes a variety of practices that help shape us into more welcoming persons.

Book Synopsis

Welcome: Patterns of the Moral Life proposes a transformative concept that places the act of welcoming at the core of ethical living and human flourishing. This radical approach asserts that welcome is not merely a virtue or an act of kindness, but the foundational practice from which all other ethical behaviors arise. Through this lens, welcome becomes the primary orientation through which individuals and communities can achieve a harmonious and just society.

The authors contend that being a welcoming person involves a deep, ongoing moral commitment that impacts every interaction and relationship. This obligation is mutual, extending to everyone in all settings, from healthcare environments to everyday social encounters. Welcome, they assert, is not only intertwined with responsibility but precedes it, providing the necessary openness to understand and fulfill our ethical obligations.

The book's structure reflects its content, offering a series of "patterns"-interconnected stories, reflections, and practical examples-rather than a linear argument. These patterns illustrate how welcome influences human interaction, showing both its positive effects when present and the harm that results from its absence. Through this exploration, the authors encourage readers to embrace welcome in all aspects of life, suggesting that this practice is essential for creating inclusive, thriving communities.

Drawing on rich personal experiences in law, medicine, and theology, the authors ground their discussion in real-world stories and case studies-including the case of an Australian couple living near a cliff who have saved over 500 suicidal people from jumping to their death-where the stakes of welcome are high. Welcome is both a practical guide and an introduction to a new way of understanding the world, inviting readers to engage in the ongoing, dynamic process of becoming more welcoming and, by extension, more ethical in their everyday lives.

Review Quotes

"With their new book Welcome, Lois Shepherd and Margaret Mohrmann provide an original and important contribution to the field of ethics, and indeed, to human relationships generally. Rather than a theory with examples, they describe welcoming with rich illustrations that make this experience come alive, even in difficult interactions. Altogether, a masterful work of exceptional value." --Larry R. Churchill, Stahlman Professor of Medical Ethics Emeritus, Vanderbilt University

"In Welcome, Shepherd and Mohrmann show convincingly how welcoming is a necessary-and difficult-obligation. It is not an emotional disposition but a call to engagement and action, both for individuals and for institutions. Welcome can show us ways for bioethics to recapture health and health policy, through the challenging work of openness in these difficult times." --Nancy M. P. King, JD, Emeritus Professor, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Co-author of Bioethics Reenvisioned: A Path toward Health Justice

"For centuries philosophers have been working through the fundamental question of what it is to be an ethical person. In this insightful and practical book, Shepherd and Mohrmann provide an answer that is at once deceptively simple and straightforward, and profoundly deep and complex. They argue that the starting point for ethics is attentive and intentional presence and openness to all others in all encounters. While they rely on ethical language familiar to all (responsibility, action, obligation, love, empathy, virtue), their insistence on the posture of welcome as the foundation of ethics is innovative. As is their demonstration of philosophical argument as non-linear, narrative, inclusive, and expansive. This primer on what it is to be a welcoming person is not just another abstract philosophical treatise; it will transform the way you organize your thoughts and actions about responsibility, love, and communal obligations." --Aline Kalbian, Professor of Religion, Florida State University

"Welcome: Patterns of the Moral Life weaves together moral philosophy, phenomenology, literature, and seasoned professional experience to make a powerful case for an "ethics of welcoming." Lois Shepherd and Margaret Mohrmann have produced an original and elegant work that will engage, challenge, and guide a wide reading audience. This is a book of practical wisdom of the highest order." --Richard B. Miller, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Emeritus Professor of Religion, Politics, and Ethics, University of Chicago

About the Author

Lois Shepherd, JD, is Wallenborn Professor of Biomedical Ethics and professor of Law and Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia. She is the co-author of Bioethics and the Law, now in its fifth edition, among other books.
Margaret Mohrmann, MD, PhD, is Professor Emerita of Pediatrics, Medical Education, and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. She is the author of Attending Children: A Doctor's Education among other books.