Welcome: Patterns of the Moral Life - Hardcover

by Lois Shepherd (Author), Margaret E. Mohrmann (Author)

This book offers a striking reorientation of ethics by arguing that welcome is the foundational practice from which moral life begins. Rather than treating ethics as a matter of rules, principles, or isolated virtues, the authors propose welcome as the primary moral orientation that makes responsibility, care, and justice possible in the first place.
Drawing on their interdisciplinary expertise in law, medicine, and religious ethics, the authors present ethics as something lived and relational. Being welcoming, they argue, is not a momentary act of kindness but an ongoing moral commitment that shapes how we see, receive, and respond to others in every context-from clinical encounters and legal systems to everyday social interactions. Welcome precedes obligation, creating the openness necessary to understand what responsibility requires.
The book is structured around a series of interconnected "patterns" rather than a linear theoretical argument. These patterns-stories, reflections, and case studies-illustrate how welcome operates in practice and what is lost when it is absent. Examples drawn from healthcare, law, and ordinary life invite readers to reflect on high-stakes moral situations as well as quotidian encounters, making the book especially effective for classroom discussion.

Written in a clear, accessible style, this volume is well suited for undergraduate and graduate courses in ethics, medical humanities, biomedical ethics, law and ethics, and religious studies. It offers students a compelling framework for understanding moral formation and human flourishing, while inviting readers to reconsider ethics as a shared, dynamic practice rooted in how we receive one another.

Author Biography

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.