Faculty & Staff

James F. McGrath is Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature. His PhD from the University of Durham became the basis for his first book, John’s Apologetic Christology, published by Cambridge University Press in the SNTS Monograph Series. He has also written a “prequel” about the broader context of monotheism and Christology in ancient Judaism and Christianity, The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context, published by University of Illinois Press. More recently he has published What Jesus Learned from Women  which explores the topic of the historical figure of Jesus and the influence the women mentioned in the Gospels had on him. His book The A to Z of the New Testament is a fun and readable exploration of the things that New Testament scholars and those who’ve taken courses on the New Testament know, yet others typically do not, even if they have a profound interest in or even reverence for those texts. Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist is a biography of this fascinating yet underappreciated figure. This was followed soon after by a large monograph about John the Baptist titled John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptizer. While Christmaker is a biography written for a general audience, John of History, Baptist of Faith offers detailed studies of key questions of method and detail. The question of how biblical scholarship relates to the Christian faith is explored in Beyond Deconstruction: Building a More Expansive Faith.

In addition to his work on the New Testament and early Christianity, Dr. McGrath also researches the Mandaeans (the last surviving Gnostic group from the ancient world) and their literature. The critical edition, translation, and commentary on the Mandaean Book of John published by DeGruyter, which he produced together with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University, represents the first such academic edition of the complete work in English based on all known manuscripts. Another area of specialty is the intersection of religion and science fiction. On that subject, he is the author of Theology and Science Fiction and The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos (Black Archive #52), editor of Religion and Science Fiction and co-editor of Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who. He has co-authored Progressive Rock, Religion, and Theology with Frank Felice and Real Intelligence: Teaching in the Era of Generative AI with Ankur Gupta.

Dr. McGrath blogs at ReligionProf and can be found elsewhere on social media under the same handle.

Biography
Professor Bauman grew up in eastern Pennsylvania before going to Goshen College, in Northern Indiana, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree. After college, Professor Bauman went to Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) and earned both an M.Div. and Ph.D. degree, while teaching courses on Buddhism and Islam at PTS, Princeton University, and The College of New Jersey.

Contributions
Professor Bauman’s earliest research focused on the interaction of low-caste Christians and Hindus in colonial Chhattisgarh. His book on the topic, Christian Identity and Dalit Religion in Hindu India, 1868-1947 (Eerdmans Publishers, 2008) won the prize for Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies, 2006-2008, from the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. During this time period, Professor Bauman also conducted research on Sathya Sai Baba, a popular, miracle-working Indian guru with an international following that extends even to the city of Indianapolis. 

From 2008 to 2019, Professor Bauman conducted research on Hindu-Christian conflict. His most recent book, published by Cornell University Press, is Anti-Christian Violence in India, and earlier he published a book on the same topic with specific reference to Pentecostals and the public controversies surrounding conversion (called Pentecostals, Proselytization, and anti-Christian Violence in Contemporary India). Both this book and a volume he co-edited with Richard Fox Young (Constructing Indian Christianities) were named as prize finalists for the Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies (History/Ethnography), 2013-17, by the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. 

In 2020, he co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations with Michelle Voss Roberts, and in 2024, he co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Megachurches with Afe Adogame, Damaris Parsitau, and Jeaney Yip.

His future projects will likely focus on religion and the law in Asia, and on the experiences and treatment of Hindu minorities in predominantly Christian countries.

Butler Teaching Assignment 

Professor Bauman teaches introductory surveys of the world’s religions as well as upper-level courses on Hinduism and Buddhism. He has recently taught topical courses such as “Religion, ‘Cults,’ and (In)Tolerance in America,” “Religion, Politics and Conflict in South Asia,” “Religion, Gender, and the Goddess in Asia,” “Race and Religion in America,” and “Theory and Method in the Study of Religion.” 

 Matthew Boersma earned his PhD in Hebrew Bible and its Interpretation at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 2021. His dissertation examines the early Jewish and Christian communities read the Bible within the wider Roman culture. Matt focuses on how both the Rabbis evolved their interpretation of the sotah passage in Numbers 5 to be in line with Roman adultery law. Prior to Hebrew Union College, Matt graduated from Bethany Theological Seminary with an MA in 2011. Matt lives in Greensburg, Indiana, with his spouse Nykki and three children: Miriam (18, attending IU), Malachi (15), and Salome (10).  

Seamus is an adjunct instructor in the Philosophy and Religious Studies department. Seamus completed his BA in Philosophy at Butler University in 2022 and completed his MA in Philosophy at Indiana University Indianapolis in 2025. Seamus also completed a Graduate Certificate in Bioethics during his time at IU Indianapolis. Seamus is the current Program Manager for the Indiana University Center for Bioethics. His philosophical interests include applied ethics, philosophy of mind, and meaning in life.  

I work on philosophical issues that intersect with neuroscience, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary biology.  A central aspect of my work examines recent neuroscience research and imports these findings into various philosophical domains.  Additionally, my work engages with the metaphysical issues that underlie many scientific theories and concepts (e.g., reductionism, autonomy, realization, and emergence).

A significant area of my research includes exploring the philosophical questions that emerge out of a young branch of cognitive neuroscience, neuroaesthetics.  Neuroaesthetics is barely two decades old, yet within the last few years, it has produced fascinating results regarding how and why we respond to various stimuli.  Initially, neuroaesthetics was dedicated to the study of the neural underpinnings of responses to aesthetic objects (mostly art).  Currently, neuroaesthetics embodies a more mature science that has moved away from the exclusive study of the brain responding to art objects and into a science of sensory experiences and hedonics.

I am a 2025-26 Future Faculty Teaching Fellow at Butler University. I completed a BA in philosophy at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, and a MA in philosophy at Texas Tech University. I am currently writing my dissertation at Indiana University, Bloomington, the topic of which is the meaning of life. Roughly, I argue that contemporary philosophers’ have failed to understand important dimensions of meaningful living, including both purpose & belonging. I work to develop an understanding of both purpose & belonging that fits in with a broader, pluralistic understanding of meaning in life. 

 Stuart Glennan is the Harry Ice Professor of Philosophy, the Director of Butler University’s Science, Technology and Environmental Studies Program and the Faculty Director of Butler Overseas.  He also serves on the steering committee of Butler’s Neuroscience Program.

Professor Glennan has taught  courses in philosophy and in support of Butler’s interdisciplinary programs, and he has contributed to Butler’s Core Curriculum in the First-Year Seminar, Text and Ideas, Analytical Reasoning, and the Social World. In recent years, Glennan’s teaching assignment have included Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind, Introduction to Science and Technology Studies, and Logic.  

Professor Glennan’s research is the philosophy of science, with particular attention to biology, psychology and neuroscience.  He has written about causation, explanation, and model building. He is chiefly known for his work on the nature of mechanisms and the role of mechanistic models and explanations across the sciences.  He is author of The New Mechanical Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Causation: The Basics (Routledge,  2024) and he is the editor, with Phyllis Illari, of The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy (2018). He has also written on the topic of religion and science, and science education,and the philosophy of history.  Links to publications can be found on Google Scholar. 

Professor Glennan has a B.A. in philosophy and mathematics from Yale University, and a MA and PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago.  He has worked at Butler University since 1992. 

Biography

Born and raised in southcentral Pennsylvania in one of only two counties in the Commonwealth without a traffic light, Brent Hege earned his BA in Religion and History with a minor in Classics from Gettysburg College (PA) in 1998. He completed the Zentrale Mittelstufenprüfung Diplom (German Language Certificate) at the Goethe Institut in Dresden, Germany, in 2000 while completing his MA in Historical Theology with a minor in New Testament at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (PA). He earned his PhD in Theology with Distinction from Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, VA, in 2007. His dissertation was awarded the 2010 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise by the Forschungszentrum Internationale und Interdisziplinäre Theologie at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He was honored by his alma mater with the 2013 Gettysburg College Young Alumni Achievement Award and in 2015 he was elected an honorary member of Butler’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. In 2017 he received the Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching from Butler’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and in 2024 he received the Butler University First-Year Impact Award for his work teaching and mentoring first-year students at Butler. In 2017 he was appointed The Compass Center Scholar in Residence and in 2020 he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in Religion. He has taught at Butler since 2008. 

Teaching Duties

As a faculty member of Butler’s Religious Studies program, Hege teaches the yearlong First Year Seminar, “Faith, Doubt, and Reason,” the Texts & Ideas (TI) course, “Religions of the World,” online every summer, and the following 300-level Religious Studies courses: God, Theologies of Liberation, Evil, Religious Pluralism, and Ecotheology. Hege has directed several offerings of the Butler Series on Religion and Society, including “Religion, Race, and Culture” (2015-2016), “Sacred Spaces: Intersections of Religion and Ecology” (2018-2019), and “Faith and Activism” (2022-2023). Hege is also the Compass Center Scholar in Residence, where he works with a cohort of student Scholars on issues of interfaith engagement and vocational discernment. Hege holds affiliate faculty status in the programs of Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Science, Technology, and Environmental Studies, and the Center for Urban Ecology and Sustainability. In 2022, Hege successfully chartered Butler’s chapter of Theta Alpha Kappa, the national honors society for Religious Studies and Theology, for which he serves as faculty advisor. Hege is also the faculty advisor of Grace Unlimited, Butler’s Lutheran-Episcopal campus ministry. 

Scholarship

Hege’s research focuses on the history of Christian thought and contemporary Christian theology, with special focus on 19th- and 20th-century liberal Protestant theology, continental philosophy and philosophical theology, contemporary constructive theology, Lutheranism, and theology and culture. In addition to his award-winning first book, Faith at the Intersection of History and Experience: The Theology of Georg Wobbermin (Wipf and Stock, 2009), he has published articles and invited review essays in a number of European and American journals, including Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte/Journal for the History of Modern Theology, Theologische Zeitschrift, Theology and Science, Radical Philosophy Review, Politics and Religion, Teaching Theology and Religion, and Dialog: A Journal of Theology. He is also a frequent reviewer of books on historical and contemporary theology for Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology. He has presented papers at national and regional academic conferences, including The American Academy of Religion and The Southwest Popular Culture Association and The American Culture Association, as well as being a frequent guest lecturer and panel member for school, church, and community programs. His second book, Myth, History, and the Resurrection in German Protestant Theology, was published by Pickwick Press in 2017. His most recent book, based on the first semester of his popular Butler First Year Seminar, is Faith, Doubt, and Reason (Wipf and Stock 2020). In 2020 he was elected to the editorial council of Dialog: A Journal of Theology, the world’s premier journal of Lutheran theology. 

Joseph W. Long holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Purdue University (2005). He is the author of The Grad Students Guide to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (2016) and Two Existential Theories of Knowledge: Epistemic Pragmatism and Contextualism (2018). He also contributed the concluding chapter to Star Wars and Philosophy (2005) and has published articles on ethics and race, pragmatist epistemology, and faith.

joseph-long.weebly.com

Matthew Masko is an ordained ELCA Lutheran Pastor who serves as an intentional interim pastor in the Indiana-Kentucky Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In addition to his teaching responsibilities at Butler, he serves at the Interim Chaplain for Grace Unlimited, the ELCA/Episcopal campus ministry at Butler University, and the Interim Pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Matt has had a diverse career, from teaching piano to being a church musician and conductor. He felt a call to ministry and went to Wartburg Theological Seminary to get his Master of Divinity Degree. From there, he did post-graduate studies in systematic theology at Augustana Divinity School in Neuendettelsau, Germany. As a pastor, he’s served congregations in rural North Dakota and Indiana, and frequently traveles to Guyana, South America, to preach and teach in the congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana. Always up for an adventure, Matt has even been a mayor and worked in corporate America for Apple.

Matt resides in Avon, Indiana, with his wife, Dr. Meganne Masko, the director of the music therapy program and Associate Professor of Music and Arts Technology at Indiana University, Indianapolis. He shares his home with his son, Max, his loyal yellow lab, Luther, his adorable English Bulldog, Oaklee, and a clever black cat named Maddy. When he’s not busy with work (which is infrequent!), Matt enjoys storm chasing, binge-watching his favorite shows, and savoring a good cup of coffee, meal, or drink.

Lav McKittrick-Sweitzer is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy. Before arriving at Butler in Autumn 2021, they completed their PhD (philosophy, 2021) at Ohio State University, MA (philosophy, 2015) at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, and BA (philosophy, 2013) at the University of Missouri – Columbia. 

Their area of specialization is feminist social and political philosophy, with a focus on care, exploitation, public reason, and global justice. 

For more information about Lavender’s research, teaching, and CV, visit: www.lmsweitzer.com.

Matthew adjuncts in Butler’s Philosophy and Religion department. As a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, Matthew employes rhetorical critical, literary critical, and compositional critical methodologies to explore the meaning and interconnectedness of the Hebrew Bible. Matthew is an ordained minister, a musician, and foodie.

Corey Reed is the Katherine and Tracy McGregor Assistant Professor of Humanities and a member of the Philosophy faculty. He is one of three co-directors for the Hub on Black Affairs and Community Engagement and a steering committee member in the Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (RGSS) program at Butler University. 

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College, double majoring in English and Philosophy, his Master of Arts degree from the University of Louisville in Comparative Humanities, and his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Memphis with a graduate certificate in Women and Gender Studies.  He specializes in Africana Philosophy and the Critical Philosophy of Race and Racism, with nterests in Existentialism, Phenomenology, Feminism/Male Theories 20th Century French Continental Philosophy, and Aesthetics. 

More information can be found at https://www.coreynreed.com/ 

I grew up in a pastor’s home, where I learned the Christian life and faith through my parents.  I made a profession of faith at age nine at a Christian Youth Camp in Westport, Indiana. In my college years, I felt a sense of calling into ministry.  And since that time, I have sought to fulfill that calling as best as I can discern it, both as a pastor and professor.  I pursed a Master of Divinity (completed 1986) and then a PhD (1994), both from a Theological Seminary in Kentucky. During my tenure in seminary, I served as pastor of two Baptist churches—one in Shelbyville, Indiana (from 1983 to 1987) and another in Hanover, Indiana (from 1988 to 1995).  I was ordained into Christian ministry in September 1988.  In 1995, I joined the faculty of Cumberland College (now University of the Cumberlands) in Williamsburg, Kentucky, as an assistant and later associate professor of religious studies (teaching especially philosophy and theology). In 2009, I took a position at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, in Belton, Texas, as an associate and later senior professor of Christian Studies (again teaching philosophy and theology).  In May of 2023, I retired from Mary Hardin-Baylor, returning to our extended family in Indiana.  I have more than 28 years of fulltime teaching experience.  I find the the study and teaching of both philosophy and religion to be exhilarating.  And I see these activities as part of my life-mission/calling.   In 1980, I married the love of my life, Carol.  And together we have had the pleasure of rearing two wonderful children–Eric and Ariel.  We now are enjoying being grandparents of two wonderful grandchildren who live in Kentucky.  Most recently, I returned to the pastorate at a local congregation near Butler University.  

SYED A.H. ZAIDI, PhD, Emory University (2023) is a Core Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Butler University’s Philosophy & Religious Studies Department. He has published several book reviews and articles in the Journal of Iranian Studies, the Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies, the Kronos Philosophical Journal, and a chapter in A Guide  to Sufi Literature. He is currently working on two monographs. The first on the philosophy of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al-Safā’). The second is on the history of Hermetic thought from the late antique period to the tenth century. He has organized several panels on Shīʾism, Islamic Neoplatonism, and Esoteric Thought at the American Academy of Religion (AAR). He is in the process of creating a Shīʾite Studies Unit at the American Academy of Religion (AAR). He presented his findings over twenty times at various important venues such as the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), International Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA), The British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS), the American Academy of Religion and other major international conferences. He also works extensively on the Theology of Aristotle, the works of Ibn Sīnā, and Mīr Dāmād’s philosophy. He obtained an MA (2016) in Islamic Studies from the George Washington University, Washington, DC, and a BA (2012) in International Relations from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York.

Please find my professional/public calendar available here. 

Paul Valliere was McGregor Professor in the Humanities from 1993 to 2018 and is now Emeritus Professor of Religion at Butler and a fellow of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. His publications include Modern Russian Theology (T&T Clark, 2000), Conciliarism: A History of Decision-Making in the Church (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Law and the Christian Tradition in Modern Russia (co-edited with Randall A. Poole; Routledge, 2022), and many articles and book chapters on Russian Orthodoxy and Russian religious thought. He has presented his work at meetings of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies and at conferences of the Moscow Patriarchate. He lectured regularly at the Kiev Summer Theological Institute from 2003 to 2016. He holds a Ph.D. in religion from Columbia University and a B.A. in English from Williams College.

 Harry van der Linden was Professor of Philosophy at Butler University from 1990 to 2018 and is currently retired in San Diego County. He studied chemistry and philosophy in the Netherlands prior to receiving his PhD in philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis in 1985. He taught at Colgate University and the University of North Carolina (at Chapel Hill) before coming to Butler University.

Van der Linden served for six years as department chair and initiated the Ethics minor. He was the editor of the Radical Philosophy Review (2010-2021) and longtime treasurer of the Radical Philosophy Ass0ciation (until 2023).

He is the author of Kantian Ethics and Socialism, and co-edited (among other works) Rethinking the Just War Tradition. His most recent work is focused on climate change. Most of his publications can be found at http://works.bepress.com/harry_vanderlinden/.