Curriculum Vitae

Education:

1993 - 1996: Ph.D. (March 14, 1997), University of British Colombia
Comparative Literature (German, English, French)
Major Fields: Hermeneutics (from Reformation to Postmodernity); Literary Theory; Devotional and Dogmatic Literature of the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries in Germany and England; German Literature of the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries; German literature after 1954; and individual German authors
Dissertation: "English Puritans and German Pietists: A Re-Examination of Pre-Critical Hermeneutics in Light of the Anthropocentric Turn in Hermeneutics"
Supervisor: Dr. Dennis Danielson, Department of English, University of British Colombia


1992 - 1993: MA (Oct. 1993) University of British Columbia
Comparative Literature (German, English, French)
Major Fields: Iconoclasm, Seventeenth Century tests of the continental Reformation and English Puritanism. Minor Fields: German Literature of the Middle Ages; Renaissance and Baroque Literature.

1988 - 1992: BA (May 1992) University of British Columbia
English literature and language
Major Fields: Milton; early American literature; Victorian novel
Minor Fields: German language and literature

Professional Experience:

Sept 2006 - Present
Canadian Research Council (CRC) Chair in Interpretation, Religion and Culture
(Government funded Position, renewable for 5 years)

Sept 2002 - Present
Trinity Western University Associate Professor (Tenured)
English Language/Literature; Literary Theory; German (beginner/advanced German, German literature from the Enlightenment to the 19th Century); Philosophy (graduate course in Philosophical Hermeneutics); English graduate course in Masters of Interdisciplinary Humanities Program

1998 - 2002
Trinity Western University Assistant Professor
English Language/Literature; Literary Theory; German (beginner/advanced German, German literature from the Enlightenment to the 19th Century); Philosophy (graduate course in Philosophical Hermeneutics); upper level courses on Heidegger, Levinas and Gadamer.

1997 - 1998
University of British Columbia Full-Time Sessional Instructor
English Language and Literature

Trinity Western University
Part-Time Sessional Instructor (English Language; German)

1995 - 1996
University of British Columbia
Part-Time Sessional Instructor (German)

1992 - 1993
University of British Columbia
Teaching Assistant (English)

Academic Honors:
 
2006 - 2011 Canadian Research Council Chair in Interpretation, Religion and Culture 2006 Omni Grant, Religion Culture and Conflict
2001 SSHRC Research Grant
2000 SSHRC Research Grant
1999 CCCU Networking Grant
1999 SSHRC Research Grant
1995 - 1996 University of British Columbia Graduate Fellowship
1995 Ph.D. Comprehensive Exams with distinction
1995 MA with distinction
1992 BA with first-class standing
1990 - 1991 German Government Book Prizes for Academic Excellence

Teaching Interests:

  • Philosophical and Theological Hermeneutics from the Reformation to the present literature of the
  • Reformation in Germany and England
  • Cultural and intellectual history
  • German language and composition
  • European literature (French, German, Russian)
  • Women authors (particularly German)
  • English literature up to the Twentieth Century
  • Philosophical theology (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, Hans-Urs von Balthasar)
  • Phenomenology.

Books: See publications for complete list.

Articles: See publications for complete list.

Reviews: See publications for complete list.

Forthcoming Academic Presentations:

  • July 22, 2008. Annual International Bonhoeffer Conference, Prague, Czechoslovakia. "Bonhoeffer's Christological Hermeneutics." (Invited Lecture.)
  • June 10, 2008.St. Paul and Philosophy. "Paul's Christology and the Limits of Philosophical Interpretation." (Invited Lecture/Keynote Address).
  • May 31-June 8, 2008.Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities Annual Meeting, Vancouver B.C. "Religion and Scholarship After Postmodernity." (Invited Panel Presentation).
  • April 2008. British Society for Phenomenology Annual Conference, Oxford, England. "Martin Heidegger, Religion, and the Limits of Phenomenology."
  • March 15, 2008. Symposium on Literary Theory, Department of English, Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Malaspina University-College. "Richard Kearney and the Religious Turn of Literary Theory." (Invited Lecture in response to Richard Kearney).

Past Academic Presentations:

  • November 19, 2007. AAR Annual Meeting, St. Diego. "Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Exegetical Practice."
  • November 10, 2007. SPEP Annual Meeting, ChicagoIll."A Theological Critique of Gianni Vattimo's Incarnational Ontology."
  • September 14, 2007. McGill Conference on God, Religion, and the Public, Montreal. "Being Human Together: Christian Humanism as Rational Theism."
  • July 22, 2007.International Bonhoeffer Conference, Berlin, Germany. "Reflections on the Relevance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Hermeneutic for the 21st Century."
  • May 22, 2007. Regional Conference of Christianity and Literature, Seeing through a Glass Darkly:Suffering, Sacred, and the Sublime. Keynote Address: "Suffering Knowledge: An Incarnational Hermeneutic."
  • March 27, 2007. Invited Public Lecture at RegentCollege, Vancouver B.C.: "The Passionate Intellect: Recovering Incarnational Humanism."
  • November 10, 2006. 2006 Pruit Memorial Symposium, The World and Christian Imagination, "Recapitulating Humanism: Incarnational Theology, Imago Dei, and the Humanities."
  • October 12, 2006. SPEP Annual Conference Philadelphia. "Hans-Georg Gadamer and Religious Transcendence."
  • September 28, 2006.Taylor Public Lecture Series on Religion and Culture. TaylorUniversityCollege, Edmonton, Alberta. Invited lecture: "Return of the gods? Faith and Intellectual Culture ‘after' Secularism."
  • May 24, 2006. International Heidegger Conference, Meßkirch, Germany. (Invited lecture). "What Are Critics For? Heidegger And Literary Theory."
  • May 5, 2006. Verge Interdisciplinary Arts Conference, TrinityWesternUniversity, Langley, Canada. "Do Poets Still Belong? Heidegger and the Future of Literary Theory."
  • February 18, 2006. RegentCollege, Vancouver, Canada, Invited Lecture. "Suffering with the World: The Continuing Relevance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Theology." (Recorded Publication)
  • November 22, 2005. AmericanAcademy of Religion (AAR), Philadelphia, U.S.A."Heidegger and the Limits of Phenomenology."
  • July 11, 2005. International Symposion for Hermeneutics, Freiburg, Germany. "The Ethics of Philosophical Hermeneutics and the Challenge of Religious Transcendence."
  • May 29, 2005. Canadian Congress (CLSG). "One University Under God: the Religious Future of Literary Theory."
  • May 28, 2005. Canadian Congress (CETA). "Between the Times: the Church's Political Vocation in Eschatological Perspective."
  • March 22, 2005. Invited Presentation hosted by the University of British Columbia, Canada. "Being in Time: The Interpretive Nature of the Christian Faith" (Recorded Publication).
  • November 17, 2004. Invited Presentation to Students and Faculty of Religious Philosophy at Albert Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg, Germany. "Hermeneutics of the Christian Faith: Karl Barth and the Scriptures."
  • September 21, 2004. Discussion Panel on Theology and the University, Trinity Western University, Canada. "Theology and the Crisis of Humanism." (Response to James Reimer).
  • July 27, 2004. 2nd Annual Meaning Conference, Vancouver, Canada. "Recovering Aesthetics After Levinas."
  • May 26, 2004. Nietzsche and Heidegger Conference, Messkirch, Germany. "The Inhumanity of Being: Subjectivity in Heidegger and Levinas."
  • September 2003. Radical Orthodoxy Conference, Calvin College, Michigan, U.S.A. "Nature and Grace or Participation and Incarnation: A Reformational Critique of Participation in Radical Orthodoxy."
  • June 2003. International Gadamer Conference, Freiburg, Germany. "Deconstruction, Hermeneutics, and Self-Knowledge."
  • May 2003. Christianity and Literature (CGLS Halifax, Canada). "The Future of Literary Theory."
  • May 2003. Canadian Evangelical Theological Association (CGLS Halifax, Canada). "Radical Orthodoxy."
  • March 2003. Imagining Subjectivies. 7th Annual Symposium on Interdisciplinarity, UniversityBritish Columbia, Canada. "Back to the Future: Toward Subjectivity in the Human Sciences."
  • March 2003. Imagining Subjectivies. 7th Annual Symposium on Interdisciplinarity, University of British Columbia, Canada. "Hermeneutics in Historical Context."
  • July 2002. Illumination Conference (Radical Orthodoxy), Oxford, England. "Know Theyself: Neohumanism, Self-knowledge and Ethics."
  • July 2002. Neohumanism Network Colloquium. "Neohumanism, Philosophy, and Theology."
  • May 2002. Beyond Postmodernism Workshop. "Neohumanist Manifesto."
  • October 2001. Conference of the Association for Moral Education, Vancouver, Canada. "Levinas, Hermeneutics, and Ethics."
  • June 2001. Conference on Neohumanism, St. Deiniol's, Wales/England. "Metaphysician In The Dark: The Work of Simon Critchley"
  • June 2000. Conference on Neohumanism, Trinity Western University, Canada. "Hermeneutics and Neohumanism."
  • June 2000. Meaning Conference, Richmond, Canada. "Meaning, Ethics, and Hermeneutics."
  • March 2000. Institutional Readings Conference-Towards a Cultural Understanding, University of British Columbia, Canada (Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC). "Humanism and the University."
  • October 1999. Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, St. Louis. "John Owen's Relational Hermeneutics."
  • July 1999. NATFHE Conference, Roehampton Institute London, England. "The Silencing of the Word: Philosophical Hermeneutics and Theology."
  • June 1999. Canadian Learneds, Sherbrooke University Montreal. "Trusting the Word: Language, Communicative Ethics and Literature."
  • September 1998. Unreal Cities Conference, University of British Columbia, Canada (Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC). "Pie in the Sky or Heaven on Earth: Christianopolis and Christian Reform."
  • December 1997. MLA Conference, Toronto, Canada. "Spinoza's Legacy: The anti-theological traces of Spinoza's Tractatus in Schleiermacher's Hermeneutics."
  • September 1995. Language and Literature Studies Conference, UBC, Canada. "What is man that You are mindful of him?: A Comparison of Richard Baxter's Christian Directory and Martin Heidegger's Letter on Humanism."
  • Fall 1995. German Department Colloquium Series, University of British Columbia, Canada. "The Puritan Postmodern? On the Contribution of Calvinism to the Postmodern Debate."

Other Scholarly Activities:

February 2007 Organizing Interfaith Conferences Religion, Culture, and Conflictwith Rogers Cable Television at Trinity Western University. First Symposion: "Muslim Voices."
Sept 28 - 29, 2006 Taylor Lectures. Taylor University Edmonton, A.B., Canada.
Feb 27, 2002 Interview with Hans-Georg Gadamer on Religion, Ethics and Hermeneutics in Heidelberg, Germany.

Professional Associations: ACCUTE; AAR; SPEP

Languages: German (fluency); English (fluency); French (near fluency); Latin (reading knowledge); Greek (reading knowledge)