About

I am in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Ohio Northern University, in Ada, Ohio, USA.  I completed my dissertation in Modern Religious Thought at the University of Iowa in 2005. My teaching and research are both grounded in the study of historical sources as well as contemporary critical voices. My theological, ethical and philosophical work draws deeply from philosophical hermeneutics–particularly Paul Ricoeur–and religious thought, including the work of Paul Tillich.  At the same time, my work resonates with earlier figures from Bonaventure and Anselm to Schleiermacher and Hegel.

Currently I am working in two areas of research.  A large portion of my work centers on the issue of place in environmental thought. I have investigated how place (and even more, our emplacement, to echo Ricoeur’s view of emplotment) as a helpful point of orientation for theology, ethics, and philosophy.  To understand place in this way is to approach nature hermeneutically.  A “hermeneutics of place” seeks to understand how we interpret the built and natural surroundings, finding meaning in our location.  This does not simply allow us a framework for understanding natural and built environments, it also suggests a sense of self and community.  Because of the temporal dimensions of place, I have recently worked on the issue of memory, imagination, and place.  A hermeneutics of place has ethical and theological dimensions, especially when we attempt to uncover the depth dimension of our emplacement in the world.

As I conceive it, a hermeneutical approach to the environment has implications for public policy and ethics.  Nowhere is this more apparent than in the topic of climate change and religion.  I have become involved in exploring theological responses to climate change.  In particular, I have researched theological responses to climate engineering (otherwise known as geoengineering, or the large scale manipulation of the climate as an attempt to mitigate anthropogenic climate change—and the ongoing crisis of anthropogenic climate change).  The recent surge in interest in climate engineering is related to the question of whether the planet has entered the Anthropocene, which is not simply a scientific but also a hermeneutical concept for understanding the human relationship with the Earth.

A second area of research is the interconnection of religion, hermeneutics, and culture. This includes not only the visual arts, literature, and classical music, but also popular culture–television, film, etc.  Works of art and literature provide us with dialogue partners for understanding the richness and depth of human experience.  Not only does this engage environmental aesthetics and ethics, but it allows us to contribute to theological discussions of the meaning of being human.  Theological thinking oftentimes is thinking alongside works of culture, even in the cases that are on the surface identified with the more-than-human world.

While these two questions might appear separate, I am intrigued at the points of connection.  In both cases, the question is this: philosophically, what is our relationship with the world in which we live?  In the case of spiritual communities, we can further ask: how has religion exposed the depth of such a relationship?  Such questions are not simply intellectually interesting, but have real significance for the public sphere.  Thus I hope my scholarship and teaching clarifies these issues, and leads to deeper way of living in the world.