Christian Ethics And College Hookup Culture

What happens at college parties? Why do students dress and behave the way they do? Who has power, and what kind? And are college students happy overall with party and hookup culture? In response to undergraduates' skepticism of researchers' accounts of hookup culture, the author engaged 126 college students as ethnographers to observe and analyze this complex social reality at parties.

Today's Christian adolescents and young adults have grown up with fiercely competing narratives about sex, relationships, and fulfillment. Within a Christian world of church services and formal religious education, they have been warned repeatedly about the dangers (or sinfulness) of premarital sex. At the same time, popular culture has inundated them with a very different message: casual sex is fun, thrilling, expected, and no big deal. Jennifer Beste calls into question the widespread assumption that the media's narrative of sex is positively liberating, while a Christian theological account is repressive, sex-negative, and altogether irrelevant. Her argument is based on a qualitative analysis of college students' own accounts of their social and sexual culture. She draws on the reflections of 126 undergraduate students who set out as sober ethnographers to observe and analyze peers at college parties. Overwhelmingly, undergraduates' perspectives challenge a neutral or even benevolent view of hookup culture embraced by some sociologists, "sex-positive" feminists, and popular culture in general. Beste goes on to share her own and her students' theological and ethical reflections as they explored the intersection between their social reality, the Christian tradition, and other academic disciplines, and sought to discern more deeply: what it means to become fully human; what constitutes happiness and fulfillment; and how to envision and create more socially and sexually just communities.

What happens at college parties? Why do students dress and behave the way they do? Who has power, and what kind? And are college students happy overall with party and hookup culture? In response to undergraduates' skepticism of researchers' accounts of hookup culture, the author engaged 126 college students as ethnographers to observe and analyze this complex social reality at parties.

Hookup culture has taken over college campuses - even Catholic ones. Drawing on a survey of over 1000 students from 26 institutions, as well as follow-up interviews, Jason King argues that religious culture on Catholic campuses can, in fact, have an impact on the school's hookup culture - but it is not a straightforward one.

College students hook up and have sex. That is what many students expect to happen during their time at university—it is part of growing up and navigating the relationship scene on most American campuses today. But what do you do when you’re a student at an evangelical university? Students at these schools must negotiate a barrage of religiously imbued undercurrents that impact how they think about relationships, in addition to how they experience and evaluate them. As they work to form successful unions, students at evangelical colleges balance sacred ideologies of purity, holiness, and godliness, while also dealing with more mainstream notions of popularity, the online world, and the appeal of sexual intimacy. In From Single to Serious, Dana M. Malone shines a light on friendship, dating, and, sexuality, in both the ideals and the practical experiences of heterosexual students at U. S. evangelical colleges. She examines the struggles they have in balancing their gendered and religious presentations of self, the expectations of their campus community, and their desire to find meaningful romantic relationships.

Two renowned, award-winning authors in the field of virtue and sexual ethics introduce and then apply their ethical method to such topics as relativism, ecology, bioethics, sexual ethics, and liberation theology. The result is a foundational text for undergraduate courses in Catholic theological ethics.

University Ethics: The Status of the Field Matthew J. Gaudet A Crisis of Mistaken Identity: The Ethical Insufficiency of the Corporate University Model Conor M. Kelly Discipline is not Prevention: Transforming the Cultural Foundations of Campus Rape Culture Megan K. McCabe Navigating the Ethics of University-Based Medical Research Michael McCarthy Catholic Universities and Religious Liberty Laurie Johnston The System of Scholarly Communication through the Lens of Jesuit Values Lev Rickards and Shannon Kealey The Community Colleges: Giving Them the Ethical Recognition They Deserve James F. Keenan, S.J. The Data and Ethics of Contingent Faculty at Catholic Colleges and Universities Andrew Herr, Julia Cavallo, and Jason King The Ethics Program at Villanova University: A Story of Seed Sowing Mark J. Doorley A University Applied Ethics Center: The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University Brian Patrick Green, David DeCosse, Kirk Hanson, Don Heider, Margaret R. McLean, Irina Raicu, and Ann Skeet Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion —Doing the Work of Mission in the University Teresa A. Nance

Based on dozens of face-to-face interviews, Sex and the Soul explores the sexual and spiritual lives of today's college students. Donna Freitas crisscrossed the country, visiting a range of America's colleges and universities--from public to private, Catholic to evangelical--to find out what students had to say about these highly personal subjects. Their stories will not only engage readers, but, in many cases, move them with the painful struggles these candid young women and men face. Indeed, the book uncovers aspects of college life that may unsettle some readers, especially parents. Many campuses, for instance, are dominated by the pervasiveness of hook-up culture. Moreover, many students see little connection between sex and religion, even as they seek one between sex and spirituality. Indeed, these observations hold true even at Catholic schools. Only at evangelical colleges is religion an important factor when deciding whether or not to engage in sex. But Freitas's research also reveals that, even at secular schools, students are not comfortable with a culture of casual sex, and that they do want spirituality, at least, if not also religion, to speak about what they should do and who they should try to be--not just what they should avoid doing. Sex and the Soul will offer readers the chance to hear college students speaking honestly about extremely sensitive topics, in a book that will be of great interest to students, parents, clergy, teachers, and anyone who wants to know what's happening on today's college campuses. Named one of the Best Religion Books of 2008 by Publishers Weekly "Fascinating, disturbing...engaging...persuasive.... Freitas's work chronicles a poignant spiritual loss that students themselves articulate and mourn." --Publishers Weekly "Candid, disturbing, yet ultimately hopeful....Throughout this beautifully written book, Freitas presents students' feelings and experiences in an unflinching yet compassionate way. You care about these young people and their struggles. This book is a great service to students, parents, and those at colleges and universities who want to prepare young adults not just for the workplace but for healthy and fulfilling lives." --Christian Science Monitor