Previous Years' Philosophy Speakers

Spring 2022 Speakers

Martin Delany's Liberation Theology

February 23, 2022  |  Dr. Joshua Laurence Cohen '10, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow (Ph.D., Emory University) at Georgia Institute of Technology

Is Imagination Boundless?
Annual Kierkegaard Lecture

March 22, 2022  |  Dr. Eleanor Helms '02, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at California Polytechnic University

 

How and How Not to Be Happy

April 22, 2022  |  Dr. J. Budziszewski, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow (Ph.D., Yale University) at Georgia Institute of Technology

 

Fall 2021 Speakers

Navigating Science and Religion: From Conflict to Dialogue with Humility

September 28, 2021  |  Dr. Joseph Vukov, Professor of Government and Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at University of Texas at Austin

How Can Wonder Transform Us?

October 28, 2021 (Virtual Lecture)  |  Dr. Helen De Cruz, Danforth Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Groningen) at Saint Louis University

Spring 2021 Speakers

How to Sin Like a Wizard (or what Harry Potter can teach Christians about sin)

March 24, 2021 (Virtual Lecture)  |  Dr. Sarah Borden, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at Wheaton College

Eating as an Act of Justice: From Religious Food Ethics to Climate Action

April 21, 2021 (Virtual Lecture)  |  Dr. Matthew Halteman, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at Calvin University

Fall 2020 Speakers

Hell: Why It's There, and Who's in It: An Opinionated Philosophical Tour

October 1, 2020  |  Dr. Adam Wood, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at Wheaton College

Kierkegaard on Faith, Doubt, and Uncertainty
Annual Kierkegaard Lecture

October 14, 2020 (Virtual Lecture)  |  Dr. C. Stephen Evans, Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities (Ph.D., Yale University) at Baylor University

Grace, Predestination, and Free Will

November 11, 2020 (Virtual Lecture)  |  W. Matthews Grant, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at University of St. Thomas

 

Spring 2020 Speakers

Doing Nature: The Art of Real Places
2019-20 Aesthetics Lecture

February 13, 2020  |  Joel Sheesley ('72), Professor of Art Emeritus (M.F.A., University of Denver) at Wheaton College

An Optimistic Pessimism
2019-20 McManis Lecture

March 4, 2020  |  Dr. Hud Hudson, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Rochester) at Western Washington University

Law, Variation, and the Stamp of Thought: The Importance of Reason in Kierkegaard
Annual Kierkegaard Lecture

POSTPONED  |  Dr. Eleanor Helms, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at California Polytechnic State University

 

Fall 2019 Speakers

Puzzles of Petitionary Prayer

September 17, 2019  |  Dr. Scott Davison, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at Morehead State University

Transformative Religious Experience and Empathy for Future Selves
2019-20 McManis Lecture

October 24, 2019  |  Dr. L.A. Paul, Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science (Ph.D., Princeton University) at Yale University

Philosophizing by Listening to the Past

November 12, 2019  |  Dr. David Vessey, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at Grand Valley State University

 

Spring 2019 Speakers

Toward Clarity on Kierkegaard's Contributions to the Church
Annual Kierkegaard Lecture

February 7, 2019  |  Dr. Mark Tietjen, Chaplain and Grace Palmer Johnston Chair of the Bible (Ph.D., Baylor University) at The Stony Brook School

Suffering and Flourishing

March 21, 2019  |  Dr. Eleonore Stump, Robert J. Henle Chair in Philosophy (Ph.D., Cornell University) at St. Louis University

The Love Imperative: A Defense

April 11, 2019  |  Dr. Meghan Sullivan, Professor of Philosophy and the Rev. John A. O'Brien Collegiate Chair (Ph.D., Rutgers University) at University of Notre Dame

 

Fall 2018 Speakers

The Good Life

September 13, 2018  |  Dr. Dan Haybron, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Rutgers University) at St. Louis University

"Turn Us to You": Augustine's Confessions for the 21st Century
2018-19 Core Book Symposium

October 10, 2018  |  Dr. Joseph Clair, Dean of the College of Christian Studies, Liberal Arts, and Honors, and Associate Professor of Theology (Ph.D., Princeton University) at George Fox University
Co-sponsored by Core Studies; English, Modern and Classical Languages, and Philosophy Departments; and the Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies

Insane Emotions?

November 7, 2018  |  Dr. Agnes Callard, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) at The University of Chicago

 

Spring 2018 Speakers

Reason and Conscience: The Double Ground of Religious Toleration in Pierre Bayle

February 13, 2018  |  Dr. Kristen Irwin, Assistant Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of California, San Diego) at Loyola University

Aquinas on Omnipresence

March 20, 2018  |  Dr. Jeffrey Brower, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Iowa) at Purdue University

Gratitude: An Ancient Virtue for the Modern World

April 12, 2018  |  Dr. Jed Atkins, Assistant Professor of Classical Studies (Ph.D. University of Cambridge) at Duke University

 

Fall 2017 Speakers

A “Post-Racial America”? White Gazes and Black Bodies

September 14, 2017  |  Dr. George Yancy, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Duquesne University) at Emory University

Eternal Fulfillment? Some Thoughts on the Afterlife

October 4, 2017  |  Dr. Kevin Hector, Associate Professor of Theology and the Philosophy of Religions (Ph.D., Princeton Seminary) at The University of Chicago Divinity School

“Six or Seven Life Lessons That I Have Drawn from Kierkegaard”
Annual Kierkegaard Lecture

November 16, 2017 |  Dr. Gordon Marino, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Hong Kierkegaard Library (Ph.D., University of Chicago) at St. Olaf College

 

Spring 2017 Speakers

Pride - Both Good and Bad

February 16, 2017  |  Dr. Kevin Timpe, W. H. Jellema Chair in Christian Philosophy (Ph.D., Saint Louis University) at Calvin College 

The Return of the Natural Law

March 2, 2017  |  Dr. J. Budziszewski, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Yale University) at University of Texas at Austin

The Strange Uses of Political Religion

March 13, 2017 - McManis Lecture  |  Dr. Charles Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy (Ph.D., Oxford University) at McGill University

The Socratic Idea That Reason Should Rule the Whole Soul--and Its Freudian Fate

April 18, 2017  |  Dr. Jonathan Lear, the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor (Ph.D., Rockefeller University) at the Committee on Social Thought and at the Department of Philosophy at The University of Chicago


Fall 2016 Speakers

A Postmodern Saint? Augustine in France

August 31, 2016  |  Dr. James K.A. Smith, Professor of Philosophy and Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology & Worldview (Ph.D., Villanova University) at Calvin College

Can Christ be Kant's Rational Person?

September 28, 2016  |  Dr. Thomas McCall, Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology and the Director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding (Ph.D., Calvin Theological Seminary) at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Specifically Christian Sins: Thomas Aquinas on Malitia, Acedia, and the Sins against the Holy Spirit

November 15, 2016  |  Dr. Colleen McCluskey, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Iowa) at Saint Louis University

 

Spring 2016 Speakers

Rethinking Art

March 1, 2016  |  Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus Philosophical Theology Divinity School and Religious Studies (Ph.D., Harvard University) at Yale University

Is the Incarnation of God Impossible?

March 23, 2016  |  Dr. Tim Pawl, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Saint Louis University) at University of St. Thomas

Rethinking 'One Thought Too Many'

April 7, 2016  | Dr. Marcia Baron, Rudy Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of North Carolina) at Indiana University

 

Fall 2015 Speakers

Are We Harming the Global Poor?

September 16, 2015  |  Dr. Steven Daskal, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Michigan) at Northern Illinois University

Does Suffering Provide a Good Reason for Atheism? A Skeptical Theist’s Analysis

November 5, 2015  |  Dr. Michael Bergmann, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at Purdue University

Revisiting Thomas Aquinas on Human Creativity and the Environment

December 1, 2015  |  Dr. Therese Scarpelli-Cory, Assistant Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Catholic University of America) at University of Notre Dame

 

Spring 2015 Speakers

The Mercy-Justice Paradox in Historical Perspective

January 22, 2015  |  Dr. Alex Tuckness, Assistant Professor of Political Science (Ph.D., Princeton University) at Iowa State University

Turning to Aquinas in Moral Philosophy

February 24, 2015  | Dr. Candace Vogler, David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) at University of Chicago

Orientations to the Good: Beyond Consequentialist and Retributivist Theories of Blame

March 24, 2015  |  Dr. Christopher Franklin, Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of California-Riverside ) at Grove City College

 

Fall 2014 Speakers

Need As a Reason To Believe In God

September 17, 2014  |  Dr. Cliff Williams, Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College & Professor of Philosophy Emeritus (Ph.D., Indiana University) at Trinity International University

The Trouble With Talking About God

October 14, 2014  |  Dr. Jonathan Jacobs, Associate Professor of Classical and Medieval Philosophy (Ph.D., Indiana University) at Saint Louis University

Hope As a Christian Theological Virtue

November 19, 2014  |  Dr. Nancy Snow, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at Marquette University

 

Spring 2014 Speakers

Repentance in Human Experience: On Interpersonal and Historical Turning

January 23, 2014  |  Dr. Anthony Steinbock, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., SUNY Stony Brook) at Southern Illinois University

Morality and Blame

March 19, 2014  |  Dr. George Sher, Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Columbia University ) at Rice University

Fall 2013 Speakers

Kant, Hegel and the Fate of Reason

September 26, 2013  |  Dr. Merold Westphal, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus (Ph.D., Yale University) at Fordham University

To Be or Not To Be: The Avicennian Distinction between Essence and Existence and Its Repercussions in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas

October 16, 2013  |  Dr. Jon McGinnis, Professor of Classical and Medieval Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) at University of Missouri-St. Louis

Ibn Rushd Averroes and Aquinas on Ultimate Human Happiness

November 12, 2013 - McManis Lecture  |  Dr. Richard C. Taylor, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Toronto) at Marquette University

What Makes Our Actions Right or Wrong? Al-Ghazali's Islamic Virtue Ethics

December 3, 2013  |  Dr. Luke Yarbrough, Assistant Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Princeton University) at Saint Louis University


Spring 2013 Speakers

Edward, Bella, and Aquinas: Resurrected Bodies that Sparkle in the Sun

January 24, 2013  |  Dr. Christina Van Dyke, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Cornell University) at Calvin College  

The Stories of Our Lives: Personal Identity and Narrative

Dr. Marya Schechtman, Professor of Philosophy and Laboratory for Integrative Neuroscience (Ph.D., Harvard University) at University of Illinois at Chicago


Fall 2012 Speakers

God and Evil:  What NOT to Say?

September 6, 2012  |  Dr. Samuel Newlands, Director of the Center for Philosophy of Religion and Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Yale University) at the University of Notre Dame

Hell and How to Get There

October 9, 2012  |  Dr. Charles Taliaferro, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Brown University) at St Olaf University

Divine Hiddenness

November 27, 2012  |  Dr. Michael Rea, Co-Director of the Center for Philosophy of Religion and Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at University of Notre Dame

 

Spring 2012 Speakers

Divine Elusiveness, Reasonable Nonbelief, and the Existence of God

February 9, 2012  |  Dr. Chad Meister, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Marquette University) at Bethel College (Indiana)

The Dignity of the Human Person

March 20, 2012  |  Dr. Gilbert Meilaender, Professor of Theology (Ph.D., Princeton University) at Valparaiso University

Philosophical Hermeneutics as the Postmodern Turn

April 17, 2012  |  Dr. Merold Westphal, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus (Ph.D., Yale University) at Fordham University

 

Fall 2011 Speakers

What's Wrong with Lying?

September 21, 2011  |  Dr. Thomas Carson, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Brown University) at Loyola University Chicago

How to Abandon Hope

October 13, 2011  | Dr. Andrew Chignell, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Yale University) at Cornell University

Emotions & Moral Knowledge

Dr. Robert Roberts, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Yale University) at Baylor University

 

Spring 2011 Speakers

Kant on Morality, Religion, and Purpose in Life

Tuesday January 25, 2011  |  Dr. Kyla Ebels-Duggan, Assistant Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Harvard University) at Northwestern University

 

Is Buddhist Enlightenment Salvation?

Wednesday February 16, 2011  |  Dr. Keith Yandell, Professor of Philosophy of Religion (Ph.D., Ohio State University) at University of Wisconsin, Madison

Anselm on Free Will

Tuesday March 22, 2011 - McManis Lecture  |  Dr. Katherin Rogers, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at University of Delaware

 

Aquinas on Human Personhood and Death

Tuesday April 12, 2011 - McManis Lecture  |  Dr. Jeffrey Brower, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Iowa) at Purdue University

 

Fall 2010 Speakers

Explaining God Away?

Tuesday September 14, 2010  |  Dr. Kelly Clark, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at Calvin College

Disagreeing about the Weather, God, and Other Important Topics

Wednesday October 13, 2010  |  Dr. Ted A. Warfield, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Rutgers University) at University of Notre Dame

Exploring C. S. Lewis' Many Loves

Tuesday November 16, 2010  |  Dr. Caroline Simon, John and Jeanne Jacobson Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Washington) at Hope College

Medieval Philosophy and the Foundations of Christian Intellectualism: How Augustine Made it Safe for Smart People to be Christians

Thursday December 2, 2010 - McManis Lecture  |  Dr. Scott MacDonald, Professor of Philosophy, Chair of the Sage School of Philosophy, and Norma K. Regan Professor in Christian Studies (Ph.D., Cornell University) at Cornell University

Spring 2010 Speakers

Animal Welfare and Global Sustainability: Eating as an Act of Christian Discipleship

Thursday January 28, 2010  |  Dr. Matthew Halteman, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at Calvin College

 

What's So Bad about Stealing? Augustine and the Theft of the Pears

Thursday February 25, 2010  |  Dr. Susan Brower-Toland, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Cornell University) at St. Louis University

Can There Be a Complete Explanation of Everything?

Tuesday March 30, 2010  |  Dr. Timothy O'Connor, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Cornell University) at Indiana University Bloomington

 

Science and Religion: The Alleged Evolutionary Divide

Wednesday April 21, 2010  |  Dr. Del Ratzsch, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts) at Calvin College

 

Fall 2009 Speakers

Who's Afraid of Philosophical Realism: Taking the Emerging Church to Task

Tuesday, September 22, 2009  |  Dr. Kevin J. Corcoran, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Purdue University) at Calvin College

Edith Stein's Value Theory

Tuesday October 13, 2009 | Dr. Mette Lebech, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Copenhagen) at National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Moral Objectivity without God

Thursday November 5, 2009 | Dr. Russ Shafer-Landau, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Arizona) at University of Wisconsin