Wheaton College Home Image of philosopher/theologian Aquinas Header graphic that tells you that you are in the philosophy site
 
  

 

Overview

Faculty

Majors

Courses

Conferences

Information & Resources

 

 

    

Dr. Mark Talbot
Associate Professor
On faculty since 1992

Phone: 630-752-5892
Fax: 630-752-7777
Email: Mark.Talbot@wheaton.edu

Education

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1993

Graduate study in philosophy, Saint Louis University, 1973-76

B.A., Seattle Pacific College, 1972 Major: English Literature

 
Professional and Personal Interests
My areas of academic expertise include philosophical theology, philosophical
psychology, the epistemologies of the early modern philosophers, and the works
of David Hume, St. Augustine, and Jonathan Edwards.  I am especially interested
in how Christian philosophers should think about the intersection between
philosophy and theology, with particular emphasis on exploring the similarities
and contrasts that are found in the thinking of the medieval Christian
philosophical theologians and the (still little-known) Protestant scholastics
about that intersection.


Courses Taught

  • Issues and World Views in Philosophy
  • Historical Seminar:  Augustine’s Earlier Writings
  • Philosophy of the Arts
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Nature of Persons
  • History of Philosophy:  Medieval, Early Modern, and Twentieth-century Analytic
  • Augustine’s Confessions
  • Historical Seminar:  Jonathan Edwards’s Religious Affections
  • Historical Seminar:  Locke’s Essay concerning Human Understanding
  • Contemporary Moral Problems
  • Historical Seminar: Hume’s Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
  • Historical Seminar: Augustine’s Later Writings
  • Historical Seminar:  Jonathan Edwards and the Enlightenment
  • Historical Seminar:  Locke and Hume—Epistemology

Membership in Professional Societies

  • Society of Christian Philosophers
  • Evangelical Philosophical Society
  • Society for Christian Psychology

Research

AREA OF SPECIALIZATION: Philosophical Psychology and Philosophical Theology

AREAS OF COMPETENCE: Epistemology, Early Modern Philosophy, and Medieval Philosophy

My current research includes investigating the nature of persons, integrating the latest findings in developmental psychology into epistemology, articulaing the interrelations between Christian grace and human freedom, and drawing out and defending some of the philosophical implications of Reformation and post-Reformation Reformed theology, such as the doctrine of everlasting punishment.

Papers Published and/or Presented (selected)

    Chapters in books
  • "Starting from Scripture," in Robert C. Roberts and Mark R. Talbot, eds., Limning the Psyche: Explorations in Christian Psychology (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), pp. 102-22.
  • "Faith and Reason: A Historical, Theological, and Conceptual Sketch," in Wheaton College's web book on faith and learning.
  • "Does God Reveal Who He Actually Is?," in Douglas S. Huffman and Eric L. Johnson, eds., God Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), pp. 43-70.
  • "True Freedom: The Liberty that Scripture Portrays as Worth Having," in John Piper, Justin Taylor, and Paul Helseth, eds., Beyond the Bounds: Open Theism and the Undermining of Biblical Christianity (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2003), pp. 77-109.
  • "Growing in the Grace and Knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," in Timothy George and Alister McGrath, eds., For all the saints: Christian spirituality and evangelical theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), pp.116-134.
  • "Godly Emotions," in John Piper and Justin Taylor, eds., A God-Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004), pp. 221-56.
  • "Learning from the Ruined Image: Moral Anthropology after the Fall," in Richard Lints, Michael S. Horton, and Mark R. Talbot, eds., Personal Identity in Theological Perspective (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006), pp. 159-77.
  • "'All the Good that is Ours in Christ': Seeing God's Gracious Hand in the Hurts that Others Do to Us," in John Piper and Justin Taylor, eds., Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (Wheaton: Crossway Books).

    • Articles, review essays, and discussions in refereed journals
  • "On Christian Philosophy" (a review article on Keith E. Yandell's Christianity and Philosophy), The Reformed Journal, September, 1984, pp. 18-22.
  • "Reply by Mark R. Talbot" (my response to David Basinger's "What Christian Philosophers May Do," which was, in turn, Basinger's response to my review article on Yandell), The Reformed Journal, February, 1985, pp. 19, 20.
  • "Is It Natural to Believe in God?," Faith and Philosophy, Volume 6, Number 2 (April, 1989), pp. 155-171.
  • "Schooling the mind: Nicholas Wolterstorff on John Locke and the birth of modern¬ity" (a review article on Nicholas Wolterstorff's John Locke and the Ethics of Belief), Christian Scholar's Review, Volume XXVIII, Number 1 (Fall, 1998), pp. 164-173.
  • "Bishop Butler's Moral Psychology," The Journal of Psychology and Christianity, Volume 17, Number 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 347-361.
  • "Edwards for His Time and Ours: A Philosopher's View," Fides et Historia, Volume XXXVI, Number 2 (Summer/Fall, 2004), pp. 121-125.
  • "Can You Hear It? Esther Meek's Longing to Know on Knowing as Skillful (and Joyful) Activity-A Review Essay," Christian Scholar's Review, Volume XXXIV, Number 3 (Spring 2005), pp. 363-75.

    Additional Publications