Articles by Topic

Leadership and Character

• Sara E. Mendonça, Kate R. Allman, Michael Lamb, and Donovan Livingston, “Exemplars of Justice: Supporting College Students’ Critical Consciousness Development through Interinstitutional Engagement with Moral Exemplars,” Journal of Character Education (forthcoming June 2025).
• Michael Lamb, “The Moral Ecology of the University,” in The Necessity of Character: Moral Formation and Leadership in our Time, ed. James Mumford and Ryan S. Olson (Finstock & Tews Publishers, 2024), 203–212.
• Michael Lamb and Kenneth Townsend, “Wake Forest University’s Program for Leadership and Character: A Case Study,” in The Routledge International Handbook of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Character Development, Volume II, ed. Michael D. Matthews and Richard M. Lerner (Routledge, 2024), 369–389.
• Elise M. Dykhuis, *Sara E. Mendonça, Eranda Jayawickreme, and Michael Lamb, “The Moral Role Models Scale: Assessing Connections to and Functions of Moral Exemplars” Journal of Moral Education, 2024.
• Kate R. Allman, Heather M. Maranges, Elizabeth Whiting, Rebecca Park, and Michael Lamb, “Exploring Character in Community: Faculty Development in a University-Level Community of Practice,” Journal of College and Character, 25, no. 3 (2024), 221–238.
• Sara Etz Mendonça, Elise M. Dykhuis, and Michael Lamb, “Purposeful Change: The Positive Effects of a Course-Based Intervention on Character,” The Journal of Positive Psychology 19, no. 2 (2024), 323–336.
• Heather M. Maranges, Kate R. Allman, Sara E. Mendonça, and Michael Lamb, “Exemplars of Purpose: Reliance on Moral Exemplars Supports College Students’ Purpose in Life,” International Journal of Educational Research, 123 (2024), 102269.
• Dylan Brown and Michael Lamb, “Digital Temperance: Adapting an Ancient Virtue for Our Technological Age,” Ethics and Information Technology, 24, no. 50 (2022). (link)
• Michael Lamb, Elise M. Dykhuis, Sara E. Mendonça, and Eranda Jayawickreme, “Commencing Character: A Case Study of Character Development in College,” Journal of Moral Education, 51, no. 2 (2022): 238–260.
• Edward Brooks, Michael Lamb, and Jonathan Brant, “Should Universities Cultivate Virtue?: A Case for Character in Higher Education,” in Cultivating Virtue in the University, ed. Jonathan Brant, Edward Brooks, and Michael Lamb (Oxford University Press, 2022), 3–26.
• Michael Lamb, Edward Brooks, and Jonathan Brant, “Character Education in the University: Opportunities and Challenges,” in Cultivating Virtue in the University, ed. Jonathan Brant, Edward Brooks, and Michael Lamb (Oxford University Press, 2022), 253–277.
• Michael Gross, Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon, Michael Lamb, Olga Pierrakos, and Adetoun Yeaman, “The Virtues of Teamwork: A Course Module to Cultivate the Virtuous Team Worker” 2021 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (2021).
• Michael Lamb, Jonathan Brant, and Edward Brooks, “How Is Virtue Cultivated?: Seven Strategies for Postgraduate Character Development,” Journal of Character Education 17, no. 1 (2021):  81–108.
  • Adapted and published as Michael Lamb, Jonathan Brant, and Edward Brooks. “Seven Strategies for Cultivating Virtue in the University,” in Cultivating Virtue in the University, ed. Jonathan Brant, Edward Brooks, and Michael Lamb (Oxford University Press, 2022), 115–156.
• Jonathan Brant, Michael Lamb, Emily Burdett, and Edward Brooks, “Cultivating Virtues in Postgraduates: An Empirical Analysis of the Oxford Global Leadership Initiative,” Journal of Moral Education 49, no. 4 (2020): 415–435.
• Jessica Koehler, Olga Pierrakos, Michael Lamb, Alana Demaske, Carlos Santos, Michael D. Gross, and Dylan Franklin Brown, “What Can We Learn from Character Education? A Literature Review of Four Prominent Virtues in Engineering Education,” 2020 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (2020).
• Olga Pierrakos, Mike Prentice, Cameron Silverglate, Michael Lamb, Alana Demaske, and Ryan Smout, “Reimagining Engineering Ethics: From Ethics Education to Character Education,” 2019 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (2019), 1–9.
• Edward Brooks, Jonathan Brant, and Michael Lamb, “How Might Universities Cultivate Leaders of Character?: Insights from a Leadership and Character Development Program at the University of Oxford,” International Journal of Ethics Education, 4, no. 2 (2019): 167–182.
• Michael Lamb and Brian A. Williams, “Introduction: Contextualizing Everyday Ethics: Moral Theology Meets Anthropology and the Social Sciences,” in Everyday Ethics: Moral Theology and the Practices of Ordinary Life (Georgetown University Press, 2019), 1–15.
• Michael Lamb, Emma Taylor-Collins, and Cameron Silverglate, “Character Education for Social Action: A Conceptual Analysis of the #iwill Campaign,” Journal of Social Science Education, 18: 1 (2019): 125–152.

The Virtue of Hope

• Michael Lamb, “Difficult Hope: Wendell Berry and Climate Change,” in The Virtue of Hope, ed. Nancy E. Snow (Oxford University Press, 2024), 345–380.
• Michael Lamb, “Augustine on Hope and Politics,” Augustinian Studies, 53, no. 1 (2022): 29–45. 
  • Adapted and published as Michael Lamb, “Augustine on Hope and Politics,” Augustine and Frontiers of Pluralism, ed. Boleslaw Z. Kabala, Thomas P. Harmon, Ashleen Menchaca-Bagnulo (Routledge, 2025).
• Michael Lamb, “Between Presumption and Despair: Augustine’s Hope for the Commonwealth,” American Political Science Review, 112: 4 (2018): 1036–1049.
• Michael Lamb, “Aquinas and the Virtues of Hope: Theological and Democratic,” Focus on Aquinas and the Democratic Virtues, Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 44, No. 2 (June 2016): 300–332.
• Michael Lamb, “A Passion and Its Virtue: Aquinas on Hope and Magnanimity,” in Hope, ed., Ingolf U. Dalferth and Marlene A. Block (Mohr Siebeck, 2016), 67–88.

Augustine of Hippo

• Michael Lamb, “Augustine on Hope and Politics,” Augustinian Studies, 53, no. 1 (2022): 29–45. 
• Michael Lamb, “Augustine and Political Theory,” in T&T Clark Handbook of Political Theology, ed. Rubén Rosario Rodríguez (T&T Clark, 2020): 89–116.
  • Adapted and published as Michael Lamb, “Augustine and Contemporary Political Theory: Toward an Augustinian Republicanism,” in Augustine in a Time of Crisis: Politics and Religion Contested, ed. Boleslaw Z. Kabala, Ashleen Menchaca-Bagnulo, and Nathan Pinkoksi (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
• Michael Lamb, “Between Presumption and Despair: Augustine’s Hope for the Commonwealth,” American Political Science Review, 112: 4 (2018): 1036–1049.
• Michael Lamb, “Beyond Pessimism: A Structure of Encouragement in Augustine’s City of God,” Review of Politics, 80: 4 (2018): 591–624.
• Michael Lamb, “Augustine and Republican Liberty: Contextualizing Coercion,” Augustinian Studies, 48: 1/2 (2017): 119–159. 

Environmental Ethics

• Michael Lamb, “Ethics for Climate Change Communicators,” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication,  ed. Matthew C. Nisbet, Shirley S. Ho, Ezra Markowitz, Saffron O’Neill, Mike S. Schäfer, and Jagadish Thaker (Oxford University Press, 2018).
  • Reprinted in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science (Oxford University Press, 2017). 
• Michael Lamb and Melissa Lane, “Aristotle on the Ethics of Communicating Climate Change,” in Climate Justice in a Non-Ideal World, ed. Clare Heyward and Dominic Roser (Oxford University Press, 2016), 229_254.

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Additional Works

Book Reviews

• Michael Lamb, “Review of Veronica Roberts Ogle, Politics and the Earthly City in Augustine’s ‘City of God,’” Review of Politics 85, no. 2 (2023): 269–272.
• Michael Lamb, “Introduction,” Symposium on John Bowlin’s Tolerance among the Virtues, Syndicate (2019).

Op-Eds and Guest Essays

• Michael Lamb, “St. Augustine Was No Stranger to Culture Wars – and Has Something to Say about Today’s,” The Conversation (November 1, 2024) (link).
  • Republished in the Caledonian Record, The Daily Times, The Derrick, Longview News-Journal, Houston Chronicle, Owensboro Messenger and Inquirer, Religion News Service, Seattle PostIntelligencer, Sight, Times West Virginian.
• Michael Lamb, “How to Educate Hope,” Virtues & Vocations (Summer 2023).
• Michael Lamb, “Be What You Hope For,” Aeon (June 26, 2023).
• Michael Lamb, “Biden’s Augustinian Call for Concord,” Breaking Ground (January 27, 2021).
  • Reprinted in Anne Snyder and Susannah Black, eds., Breaking Ground: Charting Our Future in a Pandemic Year (Plough Publishing House, 2021).
• David Henreckson and Michael Lamb, “Character in Crisis: The Challenges of Moral Formation in Higher Education,” Comment (Spring 2021): 58–64.
• Michael Lamb, “Who Will Be Our Exemplar in Chief?” Winston-Salem Journal (October 30, 2020).

Creative Nonfiction

• Michael Lamb, “For Horace Lamb (1935-2012),” in Sharing Gratitude: Daily Reflections, ed. Mary M. Dalton (Library Partners Press, 2019), 275. (link)
• Michael Lamb, editor and contributor, Transformations: Stories of Service (Rhodes College, 2004). (link)

Poetry

• Michael Lamb, “the groom’s tears,” Wales Haiku Journal (forthcoming Summer 2025).
• Michael Lamb, “empty swing,” tsuri-dōrō, #28 (forthcoming July/August 2025).
• Michael Lamb, “after the break-up,” Akitsu Quarterly (forthcoming Fall/Winter 2025).
• Michael Lamb, “flame in the foam,” Akitsu Quarterly (forthcoming Fall/Winter 2025).
• Michael Lamb, “trouble,” Frogpond 48.2 (forthcoming 2025).
• Michael Lamb, “empty pint glass,” tsuri-dōrō, #27 (May/June 2025), 5. (link)
• Michael Lamb, “weighing,” tsuri-dōrō, #27 (May/June 2025), 2. (link)

Works in Progress

• Kenneth Townsend and Michael Lamb, eds., Character and the Professions (in progress), with contributions from Kate Allman (Wake Forest), Eric Beerbohm (Harvard), Taya Cohen (Carnegie Mellon), Stephanie Creary (Penn), Ryan Davis (BYU), Margaret Plews-Ogan (UVA), Shannon Vallor (Edinburgh), & Jonathan Lee Walton (Princeton Theological Seminary)
• Michael Lamb, “The Politics of Usufruct: Augustine on Using and Enjoying the Commonwealth and Creation” (under review)
• Rogan Kersh, Michael Lamb, and *Cameron Silverglate, “Millennials and Leadership: The Trust Gap” (in preparation)
• Dylan Brown and Michael Lamb, “Selecting Circumstances for Technological Temperance,” in Improving Character, ed. Robert Hartman (in preparation)