Notre Dame’s Jenkins Center for Virtue Ethics has received a $10 million grant for a study advancing a love-based ethical framework. Photo from the University of Notre Dame.

News Release

SOUTH BEND — The University of Notre Dame has received a $10 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to support a project titled Love and Social Transformation: Empowering Scholars and Social Innovators to Develop the Love Ethic.

Implementation of this grant, which is the largest Notre Dame has ever received from the Templeton Foundation, will be led by the Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics, the locus for research and moral formation within the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good.

“We are deeply grateful to the Templeton Foundation for its generous support of this important work. By emphasizing the ethics of abundant love, Notre Dame’s Jenkins Center for Virtue Ethics has a critical role to play in contributing to contemporary ethics,” said University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. “The Catholic tradition of virtue ethics, like those of other world religions, offers a richer, fuller understanding of hope to the world, and this is a most fitting topic for the Jenkins Center’s first major initiative.”

The Love and Social Transformation project will bring scholars, writers, nonprofit leaders and others together to advance a framework that captures the power, richness and applicability of the love ethic — a core component of many faith traditions throughout the world.

“In our fractious, uncertain time, there is an urgent need for serious reflection on an ethic of love,” said University President Emeritus Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. “Emerging from the great religious traditions, the call to love has been behind some of the most transformative and enduring advances in human history. I am grateful to the Templeton Foundation for giving Notre Dame this opportunity.”

Love-based ethical insights have powered some of the most important social movements of the past century, such as Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement in India and Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights leadership in the United States. But in the 21st century, the more common approaches to ethical decision-making — especially in policy realms — focus instead on cost-benefit analysis.

“These frameworks neglect the dimensions of life that fit into the rich tradition of virtue ethics — moral touchpoints such as love, dignity and awe,” said Meghan Sullivan, the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy, director of the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good and the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative, and principal investigator for the grant.

“In contrast, the love ethic has three components: It holds that a widespread, non-merit-based trait like dignity is what grounds moral significance for each one of us; it is built around principles that situate interpersonal love at the foundations of our ethical reasoning; and it suggests love-oriented policies on diverse social issues as well as a love-oriented way of life.”

With this funding, Notre Dame plans to build a durable, wide-reaching network that will include:

• Residential fellowships for faculty and graduate students developing the theoretical foundations for the love ethic.
• Fellowships and grants to nonprofit leaders and organizations putting this ethic into practice on pressing social issues.

• Intensive workshops and two global conferences designed to expand the reach of the love ethic.
• An integrated series of public engagement and storytelling programs that will inspire the broader public imagination about love and ethics.

Notre Dame will collaborate with up to 10 institutions as research partners on this work, including The Love Consortium at the University of North Carolina. Network members will apply the love ethic to a wide range of use cases, including issues of displacement and migration, disability, global philanthropy, political polarization and artificial intelligence.

“In a time where so much of our moral debate and decision-making is too often focused on suspicion, division and narrow cost-benefit analysis, we are thrilled to work to articulate the alternative: an approach to ethics that is hopeful, unifying and grounded in the fundamental virtue of love,” Sullivan said. “We are grateful to the Templeton Foundation and our many collaborators for helping us to build this network.”

Sullivan’s cross-disciplinary research is deeply concerned with philosophy, theology and virtue ethics, and includes a current book project on the love ethic, tentatively titled “Samaritanism: Moral Responsibility and Our Inner Lives.”

While Notre Dame has always been an institution that focuses on ethics in both research and formation, the University intensified its commitment to the field through the 2024 launch of the University-wide Ethics Initiative, one of the key priorities identified in its strategic framework. Virtue ethics, which emphasizes the development of character through the cultivation of virtues such as faith, hope, courage and charity, is at the heart of Catholic ethical doctrine.

The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Center for Virtue Ethics supports preeminent scholars whose research advances human flourishing in both moral and spiritual contexts, facilitates the development of undergraduate courses exploring topics such as justice and the common good, and deepens the ethical formation of Notre Dame students and faculty.

The center also plays a transformative role in public discussion, drawing citizens into meaningful dialogue informed by virtue ethics — one of the most powerful and enduring contributions of the Catholic philosophical tradition.

Founded in 1987, the John Templeton ​Foundation supports interdisciplinary research ​and catalyzes conversations that inspire awe ​and wonder. The Templeton Foundation is working to create a world ​where people are curious about the wonders ​of the universe, free to pursue lives of ​meaning and purpose, and motivated by great ​and selfless love.