Who I Am
My formal education makes me a philosopher and a theologian. I hold a Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a B.A. in Philosophy from Harvard. A Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities supported my doctoral work. I also teach honors classes in history. Presently Senior Lecturer in Commonwealth Honors College at UMass Amherst, I have also served as Dean of Davenport College at Yale, Assistant Professor of Religion at Manchester University, and Assistant Director of Brethren Colleges Abroad. Core commitments include religious tolerance rooted in historical knowledge, opposition to religious sanctification of violence, and support of human rights for all. When I show students the delights of parallel form, concrete images, and sentence structure, that is icing on the cake.
Breadth of experience deepens my understanding of religious history. Teaching at a college affiliated with the Church of the Brethren (Manchester) acquainted me with the keen political insights of that small, quiet tradition, insights essential to understanding the early church. I’ve taught Religions of India on the shores of the Ganges, interviewed the last living colleagues of Gandhi, and admired the deep humanitarianism of Swedish pietists. Apart from the teaching that is my first passion, I’ve had speaking engagements in India, Australia, England, and the United States.
Among theological historians, I have expertise in three areas that are not entirely common. One is knowledge of non-Western Christianity. My autumnal course on Christian history rises above the Eurocentrism of most church histories. I am especially interested in Christian movements in India and Ethiopia that charted different courses than those of the prevalent European and Middle Eastern movements. The second is comparative religion, which I also teach. Hindu asceticism, Jewish philanthropy, Sufi non-violence, and Buddhist impermanence all inform my understanding of Christianity’s boundaries and possibilities. Within the same week recently, both a Jewish student and a Muslim student pulled me aside to thank me for teaching their traditions respectfully and accurately. The third area of expertise is finance, which allows me to assess the impact of the veritable trove of Christian and Jewish teachings on equity, property, and debt. With training as a stockbroker, I co-founded StakeHolders Capital, a socially responsible wealth management firm. I have overseen endowment portfolio management on the boards of non-profits in human services and environmental education.
My biography has prepared me to address Christian conservatives and Christian liberals alike. Valedictorian of my high school in an Oklahoma evangelical town, I encountered jarring counter-narratives at Harvard. My first semester, I waltzed into Memorial Hall in my cowboy boots carrying a bible to the class, “Jesus and the Moral Life.” Harvey Cox lectured on the role of debt in first-century Palestine, concluding that “Jesus was a socialist.” It’s a marvel I didn’t faint! That class began my extended educational journey. I have made it my life’s work to bring clarity to the conversation between traditional Christians and academic students of the faith.