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.
Another volume, The Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations (co-edited with Michelle Voss Roberts) was published at the end of 2020.
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.”
Stuart Glennan is the Harry T. Ice Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He received his BA in mathematics and philosophy from Yale University,and his MA and PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago before coming to Butler in 1992. He was the founding director of Butler’s Science, Technology Environmental Studies Program, a still serves on the program steering committee. He also has served as chair of Butler’s Department of Philosophy, Religion and Classics. He helped develop and teaches in Butler’s Neuroscience Minor.
Professor Glennan’s area of specialization is in the philosophy of science, with particular attention to biology and psychology. 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 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 has dabbled in the philosophy of history. Links to publications can be found on Butler’s archive and at Google scholar.
Professor Glennan regularly teaches courses in philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, philosophy of biology and logic. (He is the author, with Joe Bessie, of the textbook Elements of Deductive Inference. He also takes pleasure in teaching lower level courses, and has taught courses in the first year seminar that integrate philosophical, literary, and religious texts.
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. In 2017 he was appointed Center for Faith and Vocation 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," occasionally teaches the introductory course in world religions, and teaches the following upper-division courses: God, Theologies of Liberation, Evil, Religious Pluralism, Ecotheology, Philosophy of Religion, and Existentialism. In 2015-2016 he directed the Butler Seminar on Religion and World Civilization on the topic "Religion, Race, and Culture" and in 2018-2019 he directed the newly renamed Butler Seminar on Religion and Global Affairs on the topic "Sacred Spaces: Intersections of Religion and Ecology." In 2022-2023 he is again directing the Butler Seminar on Religion and Global Affairs on the topic of "Faith and Activism."" Hege is also the CFV Scholar in Residence, where he works with the CFV Scholars on issues of interfaith engagement and vocational discernment. He occasionally contributes to the CFV blog with reflections on his work as CFV Scholar in Residence. He also has a podcast, "Faith and Vocation," featuring interviews with CFV Scholars and Butler’s religious leaders. At Butler 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.
Scholarship
Hege’s research focuses on the history of Christian thought and contemporary Christian theology, with special attention to 19th- and early 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, and Teaching Theology and Religion. 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.
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
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 latest book is The A to Z of the New Testament, 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.
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 blogs at ReligionProf.
Lavender 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 political philosophy, with a focus on feminist perspectives, public reason, and global justice.
For more information about Lavender’s research, teaching, and CV, visit: www.lmsweitzer.com.
Corey Reed is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and affiliate faculty 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. His dissertation was entitled “Black-Male Imagos and Counternarrative Resistance: An Africana Existentialist Framework for Black-Male Analysis.” He specializes in Africana Philosophy and the Critical Philosophy of Race and Racism, with sub-interests in Existentialism, Phenomenology, Feminism/Male Theory, 20th Century French Continental Philosophy, and Aesthetics. His article publications include "Signifying the Sound: Criteria for Black Art Movements" (Journal of Aesthetic Education: Winter 2023) and "#ProtectBlackWomen and Other Hashtags: Using Amílcar Cabral’s Resistance and Decolonization Framework as an Ethic for Obligations Between Black Agents" (C.L.R. James Journal: Winter 2022). His book chapter publications include "Freedom Anchoring: Teaching Philosophy as a Dialogic Endeavor" and "Corresponding Contracts: The Intersectional Charles Mills." He also co-authored a Higher Education Ethics Case Study featured in the book Ethics in Higher Education: Promoting Equity and Inclusion Through Case-Based Inquiry (2021) with a corresponding podcast episode featured here: https://ethicsandeducation.wceruw.org/podcast/hbcus-present-and-future-ethics-in-higher-ed-2/ . Some of the courses he has taught include Feminist Theory, Biomedical Ethics, Contemporary Moral Problems, Philosophy of Race and Racism, and Africana Philosophy.
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.
Deborah Niederer Saxon did her bachelor of arts at Baylor University, a dual masters degree at Indiana University, and her PhD at the Iliff School of Theology/University of Denver. Her research involves early Christian texts from the first three centuries of the Common Era that came to light once again in the 19th and 20th centuries. Most recently, she has explored these texts using a framework provided by Michel Foucault in The Care of the Self in Early Christian Texts (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). She also focuses on women’s roles in religious communities and ecumenical and interfaith collaborations.
For more, see her profile on Linked In:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-niederer-saxon-phd-4b9b865/
Alexander Shepard is a PHD student at Indiana University, Bloomington in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures with a focus on the history of Shia Islam. He earned his MA in 2017 from the same institution. He earned his BA from Le Moyne College in 2013 with a double major in philosophy and religious studies with a minor in history. He has presented at conferences organized by Le Moyne College, Indiana University, University of Pennsylvania, Leiden University, Massey University, The Middle East Studies Association, and the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa.
https://indiana.academia.edu/AlexanderShepard
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 is Professor of Philosophy at Butler University. He studied chemistry at the University of Utrecht and philosophy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands prior to receiving his PhD in philosophy at Washington University, St. Louis, in 1985. He taught at Colgate University and the University of North Carolina (at Chapel Hill) before coming to Butler University in 1990. He served for six years as department chair and is currently the director of the Ethics minor.
Van der Linden is the editor of Radical Philosophy Review. He has co-edited several books, including Rethinking the Just War Tradition and Philosophy Against Empire. He is the author of Kantian Ethics and Socialism, and his most recent research and publications are focused on the morality of warfare,covering such topics as preventive war, asymmetric warfare, combatant’s privilege, humanitarian intervention, and targeted killing by drones. Many of his publications can be found at http://works.bepress.com/harry_vanderlinden/.
Van der Linden teaches courses in moral theory, applied ethics, international ethics, global justice, philosophy of law, the history of political philosophy,and contemporary social and political philosophy. His recent topical courses include “ Atrocity, Morality and Evil," "Expanding Circles of Responsibility," "The Ethics of Drone Warfare," and "Responsibility and Collective Harm."
Van der Linden has been the treasurer of the Radical Philosophy Association since 1998. He is interested in supporting progressive causes both on and off campus and served for several years as president of the Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center.