The Institute of Social Ethics ISE, established by order of the Executive Council of the Canton of Lucerne on 1 January 1981, is affiliated with the Faculty of Theology. The ISE deals primarily with academic research and teaching in relation to various areas and levels of social ethics, which, by contrast with individual ethics, involves the ethical problems and questions of life in terms of how they relate and refer to aspects beyond the individual (politics, government, business, society, international affairs). Social Ethics as reflection theory relates to the level of institutions, structures, and systems (including international and global dimensions). Christian Social Ethics deals with this task in the context of Christian faith, which generates distinctive fundamental orientations on the basis of academic hermeneutic study of the biblical scriptures and tradition.