Ville Päivänsalo

Meritförteckning

Description of research and teaching

Ville Päivänsalo (born 1972 in Espoo, Finland), ThD

In his doctoral dissertation (2005), awarded by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Päivänsalo analyzed and developed American Philosopher John Rawls’s (1921–2002) conception of justice. Päivänsalo was granted a Title of Docent in Theological and Social Ethics, the University of Helsinki, in 2010. Since 2017, he has been Member of the International Advisory Board of Alternative Perspectives and Global Concern (APGC, Ottawa) and Senior Collaborator of The NNEdPro Global Centre for Nutrition and Health (Cambridge, UK).   

Päivänsalo has served as Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Legitimacy and Ethics research project (Åbo Akademi) and Scientific Secretary (History of Mind Centre of Excellence) in 2005–2006 and, in the University of Helsinki, as Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2007–2008, Acting University Lecturer in Theological and Social Ethics (in three periods, the latest one ending on 31 Dec 2017), Acting Professor of Social Ethics (August 2010 – June 2011), and as Assistant Professor in Global Theology, Worldviews and Ideologies (2012-2016) in the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Theology. Päivänsalo acted as a member of the Business Ethics Research Group (BERG) at the Aalto University Helsinki in 2009-2013 and as visiting scholar at the Research Center for International and Interdisciplinary Theology (FIIT), the University of Heidelberg, in 2014 (6 months).

From 2018 to 2020, Päivänsalo served as a part-time teacher e.g. at the University of Helsinki and, for the most of that time, as a part-time pastor in the Nurmijärvi Parish of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland. Since Jan 2021, he has served as Acting Lecturer in the Diaconia University of Applied Sciences (Diak), Helsinki.

Päivänsalo has authored three monographs (Balancing Reasonable Justice, Ashgate 2007, Maallinen Oikeudenmukaisuus [Earthly Justice], STKS 2011, and Justice with Health, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis 2020) and a number scientific articles (in Public Health Ethics, Human Rights Review, and Studia Theologica and in edited volumens) as well as articles directed at the general public (e.g. in Helsingin Sanomat), and he is the first editor of Tolerance (LIT 2017), Matters of Faith and Love (LAS 2018), and Faith-Based Health Justice (Fortress Press forthcoming/2021). Päivänsalo served as the Chair of the Planning Committee of The 18th Nordic Conference on Systematic Theology: Ecumenical and Interreligions Challenges (Helsinki, 7-10 Jan) and has served as the responsible Finnish organizer of several international mini-conferences (at the Centre for Bioethics and Nanoethics, Aarhus 2006; at the Centre for Applied Ethics, Linköping 2008; at the Faculty of Theology, Helsinki 2010 and 2013), presented peer-reviewed papers in more than twenty international conferences, chaired panels and served as a reviewer e.g. to Public Health Ethics, the Journal of Philosophical Research, International Health Policy and Management, and to Palgrave MacMillan.

He has been a member of several committees in the fields of research and teaching (mainly at the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki) and also of public life (e.g. the Committee for Diaconal and Societal Work, the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church, and as the chair of Religion and Development Cooperation Round Table discussions) and edited a pro gradu guide (Prosessia ja Rautalankaa [Process and Wire], 1997).

Päivänsalo’s research interests include centrally social contract theories, global justice (especially economic and health justice), Christianity and Western theories of justice, theories of responsibility (e.g. responsibilities of states, corporations and churches) and inter-religious dialogue.