Influenced by the Jewish ethical tradition and the dissonance of Jewish life after the Holocaust, Professor Marc H. Ellis has sought to revive the Jewish ethical tradition in the face of the demands of the late-twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In his early career, he examined the ways Holocaust Theology and Liberation Theology facilitated Jewish and Christian ethical engagements with the violent political and economic crises emerging alongside international markets and forms of government. Over the course of his career, Professor Ellis has translated this broad engagement into his own understanding of the Jewish ethical tradition as tethered to and endangered by the increasing identification of Jewishness with politics in the United States and Israel.
Within this trajectory, Professor Ellis has developed further insight into the complex ways Jews, Christians, and Muslim relate in the contemporary period. Since then, he has used his position, influence, and writings to further examine these issues, and been welcomed by a wide variety of audiences, from university forums to faith-based groups seeking justice and peace in interfaith settings. He has given endowed and keynote lectures in the United States, Israel, Canada, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines.