Professional Experience

Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Hope College, 2006-present

Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Hope College, 2004-2006

Teaching Assistant, Purdue University, 2000-2004

Education

            Ph.D., Purdue University, with honors, May 2004

            M.A., Purdue University, May 2003

            B.A. (Religion and Philosophy), Summa cum Laude, Hope College, May 2000

Areas of Research

History of Philosophy (esp. the thought of Søren Kierkegaard), Philosophy of Religion (narrowly and broadly construed), Catholic thought, and non-western philosophy. I am currently finishing a book on Kierkegaard and the Catholic tradition.

Publications

“Kierkegaard and Natural Reason: A Catholic Encounter,” Faith and Philosophy 26 (2009): 42-63 (forthcoming).

“Cyprian of Carthage: Kierkegaard, Cyprian, and the ‘urgent needs of the times,’” in Kierkegaard and the Patristic and Medieval Tradition, ed. Jon Stewart (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008).

“Bernard of Clairvaux: Kierkegaard’s Reception of the ‘Last of the Fathers,’” in Kierkegaard and the Patristic and Medieval Tradition, ed. Jon Stewart (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008).

Publications, continued

“On Being Afraid of Hell: Kierkegaard and Catholicism on Imperfect Contrition,” in Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 2007, ed. Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and Hermann Deuser (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007).

“The Catholic Moment?: The Apostle in Kierkegaard’s ‘The Difference Between a Genius and an Apostle,’” in International Kierkegaard Commentary: Without Authority, ed. Robert L. Perkins (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2006).

“Must All Be Saved? A Kierkegaardian Response to Theological Universalism,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 59 (2006): 1-24.

Mystical and Buddhist Elements in Kierkegaard’s Religious Thought (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2005).

“Alone with Myself (and Everyone Else): Kierkegaard and Nishida on Loneliness and Love,” Listening: A Journal of Religion and Culture 40 (2005): 170-181.

“Satori in Climacus? Christian Existence and the Zen Charge of Dualism,” in Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 2005, ed. Niels Jørgen Cappelørn and Hermann Deuser, pp. 294-313 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2005).

“Re-radicalizing Kierkegaard: An Alternative to Religiousness C in light of an Investigation into the Teleological Suspension of the Ethical,” Continental Philosophy Review 35 (2002): 303-324.

A response to this piece is published in Merold Westphal, “Kierkegaard’s Religiousness C: A Defense,” International Philosophical Quarterly 44 (2004): 535-548.

Recent professional activities

During the calendar year of 2007, I presented three papers:

· “The Sickness Unto Life: Justification in Kierkegaard and the Question of Purgatory,” presented at the symposium, “Kierkegaard and Death” December 7-8, 2007, St. Olaf College.

· “Nothingness and Religious Awakening: Points of Contact in Kierkegaard and Buddhism,” invited lecture, Ohio State University, co-sponsored by Department of Comparative Studies, Department of History, Institute for Chinese Studies, Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, Institute for Japanese Studies and the East Asian Studies Center, and New Diversity Initiatives with the Multicultural Center, March 8, 2007.

· “Is Abraham a Hero: Hope and the Natural Law in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, invited lecture, Ashland University, February 15, 2007.

During the summer of 2006, I presented “On Being Afraid of Hell: Kierkegaard and Catholicism on Imperfect Contrition,” at the Research Seminar on Kierkegaard’s Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits and Christian Discourses, Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 15-18, 2006.