Classes in the College of Arts & Letters are known for posing profound questions, from “How do I live a good life?” to “Do I have free will?”
But the course Space Ethics: Creation, Commerce, Colonization asks a question that some could argue is the most essential: “What’s the best science fiction franchise?”
If not academically imperative, the question is at least invigorating, and it helps students immediately begin considering the course’s deeper themes. Taught by David Clairmont, an associate professor of theology, and Heather Foucault-Camm, who directs the Science & Religion Initiative at the McGrath Institute for Church Life, Space Ethics explores issues stemming from the many facets of space exploration, including theological understandings of space’s origins and how and if space should be colonized.
By combining theology and science, the class takes students beyond traditional conceptions of outer space.
“Legal documents and other research are showing a progression in our potential use of space,” said Notre Dame senior Joseph Truluck. “So it’s especially important now that we can say why — morally, theologically — space is good.”
But its subject matter isn’t the only thing that makes Space Ethics special; it’s also who’s behind the scenes.
Truluck, a theology and Arts & Letters pre-health major with a minor in liturgical music ministry, played a crucial role in the development of the Space Ethics course. After aiding Clairmont with a research project in his sophomore year, Truluck was recruited to help organize the syllabus and the reading list for the new class. He’s also working with Clairmont and Foucault-Camm to co-author a paper on space ethics and Catholic social teaching, expanding on the concepts taught in the class.
Space ethics research doesn’t directly connect with Truluck’s prospective career in pediatrics, but for him, college isn’t just about his future job. It’s a place to explore all interests — and in his case, that’s meant singing in the Notre Dame Folk Choir, volunteering with children with special needs … and also Star Wars.
“It’s really important to pursue all of your passions,” he said. “Your extracurriculars should lead to your personal development, and if you’re not passionate about them, they won’t.”
Space as theology’s next frontier
The general topic of space ethics isn’t new territory; conversations about space exploration have been ongoing since the 1960s. But the resulting legal regulations and ethical frameworks have largely focused on the governance and commercialization of space.
“They’ve looked at it in a very consequentialist manner,” Truluck said. “There really haven’t been many theological, moral, and normative considerations.”
Truluck, Clairmont, and Foucault-Camm are now contemplating duty-based space ethics, considering the inherent goodness in space and asking why people might go to space without capitalistic motivations.
Their paper will tackle this complex topic in four parts, starting with an overview of the existing legal and ethical considerations coming from secular thinkers. The second part will illustrate the theological creation of space, and the third will examine human activity in space — especially commerce and colonization — through the lens of theology. The fourth will be a more hypothetical consideration of what the next steps may be.
“We’re in space — what now?” Truluck said.
Truluck is focusing on the third section, specifically the medical side of human space activity. This involves consideration of the human body’s capacity for long-term survival in space, as well as concerns around procreation.
Research has shown that low-gravity conditions can make conception difficult in space, which raises concerns about cryopreservation — freezing human embryos and transporting them to space. This is a potential solution to a significant barrier of space colonization, but with Catholicism and moral theology in the picture, it has many flaws.
Addressing the friction between secular science and theological principles is one of Truluck’s key responsibilities in co-authoring the paper. But he doesn’t see science and theology as in opposition to each other — he uses theology as a way to more deeply engage with science.
“Theology allows you to look at nature and investigate something deeper about the essence of God,” he said. “How can we look at space — something that we really haven’t touched yet in theology — and see God in it?”
‘Called to help others’
Truluck views his research experience as a major cornerstone of his continually maturing relationship with theology. Where he’s found the most fulfillment in his nearly four years at Notre Dame, though, has been in service, specifically to people with disabilities.
Since his sophomore year, Truluck has volunteered at A Rosie Place, a respite care home for medically fragile children, where he spends around two hours a week playing with nonverbal children. He also spent a summer as a counselor at Camp Millhouse, which provides a traditional summer camp experience for people of all ages with disabilities.
“I am called to help others, to show others that there’s a gift of love that’s given to each of us.”
This year, he became president of the Special Olympics of Notre Dame. The club partners Notre Dame students and people with disabilities to learn and compete in sports, often working with the University’s varsity athletic programs.
“Special Olympics has totally changed the way that I view the human person,” he said. “People with disabilities, though they might function differently from others, are still just as loved and deserve loving to reaffirm their dignity.”
This belief guides his journey toward a career as a pediatrician for children with disabilities, and it’s also why he’s in the College of Arts & Letters. Truluck started at Notre Dame on the science-heavy track of the neuroscience and behavior major, but he quickly realized that while that degree would lead him to the correct destination, it wasn’t the path he wanted to take.
In his second semester, Truluck took both Introductory Psychology and Faith and Human Flourishing, which provided two distinct portraits of humanity. The psychology class, while providing essential information, seemed disconnected from how he saw the human person, he said. On the other hand, the theology class helped him connect with the principles behind human flourishing — things he’d been exposed to in his Catholic childhood but didn’t fully understand.
“That class was just overwhelmingly like, ‘This is exactly the kind of person I want to be, and it’s the sort of ministry I want to have when I become a doctor,” he said.
For Truluck, incorporating theology with his career preparation is almost a matter of survival, as the medical field — especially pediatrics — has unusually high burnout rates. Watching children go through traumatic experiences is extremely difficult, but Truluck said he is determined to persevere by focusing on what he believes he is meant to do.
“I am called to help others, to show others that there’s a gift of love that’s given to each of us,” he said. “If I can contribute to that system, I feel that my heart is completely fulfilled.”
Originally published by at al.nd.edu on November 21, 2025.