About

I teach courses on Faith & Culture at Stony Brook School, a college-preparatory school on Long Island, New York. This discussion-based seminar serves as the capstone of our Bible curriculum. It is designed to integrate with humanities coursework by examining human life within a broad historical and cultural context. In particular, Christian theology is investigated through an in-depth scriptural study of the Gospel of John and comparative study of the major religions of the world. This capstone class follows a “Great Conversation” format, where students engage the “Big Questions” of philosophy, including Socratic wisdom, knowledge, reality, mind, body, and freedom, human nature, ethics, God, religion, the problem of evil, and the meaning of life.

Previously, I served as Historian in Residence for the George L. Mosse Program in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Queensland and in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

My most recent book, co-written with David Hutchings, Of Popes and Unicorns: Science, Christianity, and How the ‘Conflict Thesis’ Fooled the World, debunks many of the myths of “conflict” between science and Christianity. This book is a more popular version of my previous book,  Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict, which reinterprets the origins, development, and popularization of the “conflict thesis,” the idea that science and religion are fundamentally and irrevocably at odds.

As an intellectual historian, my research interests ranges over the history of Christian thought, from antiquity to the present. I have a double B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the University of California-Davis. I completed my M.A. in the History of Christianity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Finally, I earned my PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Queensland, where I studied under distinguished early modern historian, Peter Harrison.

I have published articles in such journals as Notes and Records of the Royal Society of the History of Science, Notes and Queries, Zygon, Science & Christian Belief, Church History, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, and Fides et Historia. I also have more popular pieces in magazines such as Christian History, Christianity Today, and God and Nature, including blog posts for the Emerging Scholars Network and BioLogos. I am also an avid reader and reviewer of books, and my reviews have appeared in the online blogs Reading Religion of the American Academy of Religion, The British Society for Literature and Science, H-Net Reviews in the Humanities & Social Sciences Online, and journals Zygon, Journal of Religious History, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, and Fides et Historia.

As a trained philosopher, scholar of religion, and church historian, I have had the opportunity to teach courses in Early Christianity, Western Religious Thought, Western Civilization, World Religions, Science and Religion, in addition to many courses in Biblical Studies.

Follow me on Twitter
Topics
Adam Sedgwick Adrian Desmond Agnosticism Albert Camus Alchemy Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Russel Wallace Alison Winter Alvar Ellegård Alvin Plantinga Andrew Cunningham Andrew Dickson White Anthony Collins Anthony Grafton Anthropology Anti-Catholicism Aristotle Atheism Auguste Comte Beginnings Benjamin Whichcote Bernard Lightman Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs Bishop Samuel Wilberforce Bodleian Library Book History Brad S. Gregory Brent Nongbri Bridgewater Treatises British Association for the Advancement of Science C.P. Snow Cambridge Platonists Carolus Linnaeus Catholicism Charles Albert Watts Charles Babbage Charles Blount Charles Bradlaugh Charles Darwin Charles Dickens Charles Lyell Charles Taylor Charles W.J. Withers Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Sleigh Christianity Church Fathers Ciaran Toal Complexity Thesis Comte de Buffon Confict Thesis Contextualism Corpus Hermeticum Creationism Darwinism David C. Lindberg David Cahan David Friedrich Strauss David Hull David N. Livingstone Decadence Degeneration Deism Diarmid A. Finnegan Dortothy Ross Early Modern Early Modern Period Edgar Allen Poe Edward Gibbon Edward Grant Edward Larson Edward Livingstone Youmans Edward Stillingfleet Elizabeth A. Clark Emile Zola Emily Brontë Emmanuel Haldeman-Julius English Deism Enlightenment Studies Ernst Haeckel Ernst Mayr Evolution Francis Bacon Francis Galton Francis O'Gorman Frank Turner Frederic Harrison Frederick James Gould Friedrich Engels Gabriel Finkelstein Galileo Galilei Geoffrey Cantor Geographies of Science George Combe George Cuvier George Eliot George Jacob Holyoake George Levine George Lincoln Burr George Orwell George Rust George Sarton Gertrude Himmelfarb Gillian Beer Giordano Bruno Goals God Gowan Dawson Greek Philosophy Gregory Radick H. Floris Cohen H.G. Kippenberg H.G. Wells Hans Blumenberg Hayden White Henry Brougham Henry More Herbert Butterfield Herbert Spencer Heresy Hermetism Historicism Historiography of Science History of Reading History of Science Humphry Davy I. Bernard Cohen Ian Hesketh Idea of Progress International Scientific Series Isaac Newton Islam J. E. McGuire James A. Secord James Clerk Maxwell James Fitzjames Stephen James Hutton James R. Moore Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck Jeremy Bentham Jerome Hamilton Buckley Joanne Shattock John Christie John F.W. Herschel John Greene John Hedley Brooke John Henry John Henry Newman John Locke John Murray John Norris John Playfair John Ray John Smith John Stuart Mill John Tilloston John Toland John Tyndall John V. Pickstone John van Wyhe John Wilkins John William Draper John Wolffe John Woodward John Worthington Jonathan Hodge Jonathan R. Topham Jonathan Sheehan Jonathan Swift Jonathan Z. Smith Jon H. Roberts Jon Mee Joseph Glanvill Joseph McCabe Karl Löwith Karl Marx Karl Popper Lance St John Butler Laura Otis Law of Uniformity Lawrence M. Principe Lesile Howsam Life Loren Eiseley Magaret J. Osler Mark Francis Martin Fichman Martin Rudwick Mary Shelley Mary Somerville Materialsim Matthew Arnold Matthew Stanley Matthew Tindal May Kendall Mechanism Metaphysical Society Michael Hunter Michael Rectenwald Michael Ruse Michael S. Reidy Michael W. Taylor Middle Ages Narrative and History Nathaniel Culverwel Naturalism Natural Law Natural Philosophy Natural Theology Neal Gillespie Neo-platonism News Nicolaas Rupke Nineteenth-Century Nineteenth-Century Periodicals Noah Efron North American Review Oma Stanley Original Sin Orthodoxy Paul White Peter Dear Peter Harrison Peter J. Bowler Peter Sterry Philosophes Philosophy Phrenology Pierre Simon Laplace Plato Politics Poole's Index to Periodical Literature Progress Protestantism Publishing History Raplh Cudworth Rationalist Press Association Reformation Religious Studies René Descartes Research Richard Bithell Richard Cumberland Richard Dawkins Richard Hooker Richard J. Richards Richard Owen Richard S. Westfall Robert Boyle Robert Chambers Robert J. Richards Robert Young Romanticism Ron Numbers Royal Society Roy M. MacLeod Roy Porter Ruth Barton Sally Shuttleworth Samuel Laing Samuel Moyn Samuel Wilberforce Science and Literature Science and Periodicals Science and Religion Science and Technology Scientific Naturalists Scientific Revolution SciPer Scopes Trial Scriptural Geologists Secularism Sex Simon Newcomb Simon Patrick Simon Schaffer Social Constructivism Social Sciences Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Sociology of Religion Sociology of Science Stephen D. Snobelen Stephen Gaukroger Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Mulhall Steven Shapin Susan Griffin Sydney Ross Talal Asad Technology Theodicy Theodore M. Porter Thomas Aechtner Thomas Bodley Thomas Burnet Thomas Carlye Thomas Carlyle Thomas de Quincey Thomas Hardy Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Hobbes Thomas James Thomas Keymer Thomas Kuhn Thomas Malthus Thomas Nagel Thomas Woolston University of Oxford Victorian Britain Victorian Culture Victorian Doubt Victorian Irony and Satire Victorian Novels Wayne Hudson Wellesley Index of Victorian Periodicals Wilfred Cantwell Smith Wilfrid Philip Ward William Buckland William E. H. Lecky William James William Paley William Stewart Ross William Whewell William Whiston X-Club

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 393 other subscribers