Grant Neil Havers, PhD

Professor of Philosophy; Chair, Department of Philosophy

Grant Havers is Chair of the Department of Philosophy (with a cross-appointment in the Department of Political Studies) at Trinity Western University in British Columbia. In addition to teaching philosophy and political studies at the undergraduate level, Havers is a professor in the Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary Humanities program at Trinity. He was a recipient of the Davis Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004.

Havers graduated with a doctorate in Social and Political Thought from York University in 1993. His dissertation was a comparative study of Spinoza and Freud. Havers also achieved a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honors) degree in Philosophy from the University of Calgary in 1987.

Havers’ field of expertise is political philosophy, with particular emphasis on modern political philosophy. Havers has also published and lectured widely on the conservative tradition of political philosophy. He is the author of two books: Leo Strauss and Anglo-American Democracy: A Conservative Critique (Northern Illinois University Press, 2013) and Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love (University of Missouri Press, 2009). The main focus of his research is to investigate and articulate the biblical foundations of political philosophy. Havers is currently undertaking research on a book that evaluates Machiavelli’s contribution to conservative political philosophy.

Havers is married and has three children; he lives in Langley, British Columbia.

  • PhD in Social and Political Thought (York, 1993)

Expertise

Political philosophy; history of philosophy; philosophy of history.

Awards & Honours

  • Davis Teaching Award (2004)

Recent Publications

  • “Voegelin, Marx, and the Evils of Capitalism,” Political Science Reviewer (2023, forthcoming)
  • “The Philosophy of Nature Throughout History.” In Environmental Education: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Nature, edited by Matthew Etherington and Amba J. Sepie. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2023. Pp. 56-68.
  • “Was Spinoza a Pagan?” Review of Steven Nadler, Think Least Of Death. European Legacy 28, nos. 3-4 (2023): 394-99.
  • “A Paleoconservative Dialectic.” In A Paleoconservative Anthology: New Voices for an Old Tradition, edited by Paul Gottfried. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2023. Pp. 115-138.
  • “History as Progress or Reversal? The Mythical Prognostications of Kojève and McLuhan.” In Canadian Conservative Political Thought, edited by Lee Trepanier and Richard Avramenko. New York: Routledge, 2023. Pp. 205-219.
  • “Does Politics Need a Theology? Leo Strauss’s Reflections on Hegel,” Political Science Reviewer 46, no. 1 (2022): 239-64.
  • “Owen Barfield’s Biblical Critique of Idolatry.” In The Inklings and Culture, edited by Monika Hilder. London: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2020. Pp. 330-41.
  • “The Tory Right and the American Conservative Movement: Parallel Universes?” in The Vanishing Tradition: Perspectives on American Conservatism, edited by Paul Gottfried. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois Press, 2020. Pp. 32-61.
  • “Introduction,” in Walk Away: When the Political Left Turns Right, edited by Lee Trepanier and Grant Havers. Lexington Books, 2019. Pp. vii-xviii.
  • “Analytical Marxism and the Meaning of Historicism: Reflections on Kai Nielsen and G. A. Cohen,” in Walk Away: When the Political Left Turns Right, edited by Lee Trepanier and Grant Havers. Lexington Books, 2019. Pp. 151-73.
  • “Voegelin, Rawls, and the Persistence of Liberal Civil Theology,” in Eric Voegelin Today: Voegelin’s Political Thought in the 21st Century, edited by Scott Robinson et al.  Lexington Books, 2019. Pp. 91-113.
  • “A Christian Hegel in Canada,” Modern Age 61, no. 1 (Winter 2019): 51-59.
  • “Leo Strauss on Nazism: A Theologico-Political Interpretation,” Political Science Reviewer 42, no.1 (2018): Pp. 218-253.
  • “Wittgenstein and the Athens-Jerusalem Conflict,” in Tradition v. Rationalism: Voegelin, Oakeshott, Hayek, and Others, edited by Lee Trepanier and Eugene Callahan, 2019.  Lanham, MD:  Lexington Books.  Pp. 1-23. 

Affiliations & Memberships

  • Eric Voegelin Society (2009 - present)

  • PHIL 105 Introduction to Philosophy
  • PHIL 108 Society of Philosophy and Law
  • PHIL 203 Ancient Greek Wisdom
  • PHIL 310 Issues in Social Justice
  • PHIL 314 Reason and the Enlightenment
  • PHIL 315 Kant
  • PHIL 320 Social and Political Philosophy
  • PHIL 421 Postmodern Philosophy
  • PHIL 600 Seminar on Human Nature