Professional and Biographical Information
Degrees
Ph.D., Religious Studies and Philosophy, Yale University (2004)
M.A.R., Philosophy of Religion concentration, Yale Divinity School (1997)
B.A., Yale University (1989)
Teaching Interests
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century Christian thought
Philosophy of religion: Enlightenment, nineteenth-century, and contemporary analytic
The methodology of religious studies, particularly regarding questions of naturalism
Evolutionary psychology and cognitive science of religion
Selected Publications
Reframing the Masters of Suspicion: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
“Contra Penner, What’s Really Wrong with Functional Explanations”. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 86 (2018) pp. 665-90.
“Critical Theory, Conspiracy, and ‘Gullible Critique’”. Forthcoming in a collection of essays edited by M. David Eckel, for the Boston University Institute for Philosophy & Religion, Springer.
“What is ‘Religious Experience’ in Schleiermacher’s Dogmatics, and Why Does It Matter?” Journal of Analytic Theology 4 (2016) pp. 44-65.
“Is Skeptical Faith Adequate as a Religion?” Religious Studies 49 (2013) 239-48.
“Religion: Human Nature and Social Nurture.” In Interpreting Religion: The Significance of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Reden über die Religion for Religious Studies and Theology, edited by Dietrich Korsch and Amber L. Griffioen (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011) 125-45.
Schleiermacher on Religion and the Natural Order. Oxford University Press, 2010.
“Schleiermacher and Religious Naturalism.” In Schleiermacher, the Study of Religion, and the Future of Theology: a Transatlantic Dialogue (De Gruyter, 2010) 15-26.
“Schleiermacher's Theological Anti-Realism.” In Analytic Theology, edited by Michael Rae and Oliver Crisp (Oxford University Press, 2009), 136-54.
“The Case of the Disappearing Discourse: Schleiermacher's Fourth Speech and the Field of Religious Studies.” Journal of Religion 88:1 (January 2008) 1-28.
Co-edited with Andrew Chignell: God and the Ethics of Belief: New Essays in Philosophy of Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
“Schleiermacher and Otto on Religion.” Religious Studies 40 (2004) 389-413.
“Cognitive Faculties, Cognitive Processes, and the Holy Spirit in Plantinga's Warrant Series”. Faith and Philosophy 19 (2002), pp. 32-46.
Awards and Honors
Trustee Faculty Fellowship, 2007-08
Yale Prize Teaching Fellowship, May 2004
Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2002-03
See also: Research Interests