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M. Ferreira

Carolyn B Barbour Professor of Religious Studies

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Department of Religious Studies
PO Box 400126
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4126

Research Interests

Philosophy of Religion: special attention to questions of epistemology, language, and religious experience; Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, J. H. Newman, and Wittgenstein; Victorian studies and 20th century philosophy; religious and ethical imagination.

Education

  • Bachelor of Arts (BA), Brown University
  • Master of Arts (MA), Princeton University
  • Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Princeton University

Research

My research and teaching in Philosophy of Religion address questions about religious knowledge-claims, religious experience, religious language, and the relation between religion and morality. My work has focused on figures like Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Emmanuel Levinas, and I continue to develop my interests in ethical and religious imagination, commanded neighbor-love, and religious diversity.

Professional Career

  • 2003: Carolyn M. Barbour Professor of Religious Studies (endowed chair)
  • 1992- present: University of Virginia, Professor,
    Departments of Religious Studies and of Philosophy
  • 1993-95: Assistant Dean of the Faculty, College of Arts & Sciences
  • l985-1992: University of Virginia, Associate Professor,
    Departments of Religious Studies and of Philosophy
  • 1980-l985: University of Virginia, Assistant Professor,
    Department of Religious Studies
  • 1977-1980: Yale University, Assistant Professor,
    Department of Religious Studies
  • 1976-1977: Yale University, Acting Instructor,
    Department of Religious Studies

Academic Distinctions, Grants

  • Visiting Research Associate, Soren Kierkegaard Research Center, University of Copenhagen (August 2006,;July 2007)
  • DAAD Study Grant, Phillips-Universität, Marburg, Germany (fall 2002)
  • Sesquicentennial Associateship, University of Virginia (1999)
  • Visiting Professor, Søren Kierkegaard Research Center, University of Copenhagen (July-August, 1996)
  • Sesquicentennial Associateship, University of Virginia (1992-93)
  • Faculty Research Summer Grant, University of Virginia (l988, l989, 1992, 1997)
  • Sesquicentennial Associateship, University of Virginia (l987)
  • Faculty Research Summer Grant, University of Virginia (l986)
  • American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (1983-84) (Visiting Senior Member, Linacre College,  Oxford)
  • National Humanities Research Center Fellowship (1983-84: declined)
  • Faculty Research Summer Grants, University of Virginia, (1981, 1982)
  • American Council of Learned Societies, Recent Recipients of Ph.D. Fellowship (1979)
  • A. W. Griswold Faculty Grant, Yale University (1979)

Major Publications: Books

  • Kierkegaard: An Introduction.  Great Minds Series. Blackwell Publ (2008).
  • LOVE’S GRATEFUL STRIVING: A Commentary on Kierkegaard’s Works of Love (New York: Oxford University Press, May 2001)
  • TRANSFORMING VISION: Imagination and Will in Kierkegaardian Faith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, 1991)
  • SCEPTICISM AND REASONABLE DOUBT: THE BRITISH NATURALIST TRADITION (Wilkins, Hume, Reid, and Newman) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, l986)
  • DOUBT AND RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT: The Role of the Will in Newman’s Thought (Oxford: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, 1980)

Articles and Chapters in Edited Books

  • “The ‘Socratic Secret’: the Postscript to the Fragments,” forthcoming in Concluding Unscientific Postscript: A Critical Guide, ed. Rick Furtak (Cambridge University Press)
  • “Levinas and Kierkegaard on Triadic Relations with God,” forthcoming in Gazing Through a Prism Darkly: Reflections on Merold Westphal's Hermeneutical Epistemology,  ed. B. Keith Putt (Fordham University Press,          ) (          ).   
  • “The Problematic Agapeistic Ideal—Again”, forthcoming in Ethics, Love, and Faith in Kierkegaard: Philosophical Engagements, ed. Edward F. Mooney (Indiana University Press, 2008) (                 ).
  • “Kierkegaard and Levinas on Four Elements of the Biblical Love Commandment,” forthcoming in A Conversation Between Neighbors: Emmanuel Levinas and Soeren Kierkegaard in Dialogue, edited J. Aaron Simmons  and David Wood (Indiana University Press) (154-182).
  • “One’s Own Pastor—Judging the Judge,”  in Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 2008 (Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 2008).
  • “Describing What You Cannot Understand: Another Look at Fear and Trembling,” Kierkegaardiana, vol. 25, spring 2007.
  • “ ‘The Misfortune of the Happy’: Levinas and the Ethical Dimensions of Desire,” Journal of Religious Ethics, 34:3, September 2006
  • “The Single Individual and Kinship: Reflections on Kierkegaard and Schleiermacher,” in Subjektivität und Wahrheit:  Proceedings from the Schleiermacher-Kierkegaard Congress –2003 (de Gruyter, March 2006).
  • “John Henry Newman,” addendum, Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition, ed. Donald M. Borchert (MacMillan Reference Books, Jan. 2006).
  • “The ‘Next Thing’: The Maieutic Relation between Works of Love and the Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits,” International Kierkegaard Commentary series, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, edited Robert L. Perkins (Mercer Univ. Press, Dec. 2005)
  • “Love and Neighbor: Two Ethical Themes in Schleiermacher’s Speeches,” The Journal of Religion 84, 3 (July 2004).
  • “Vision and Love: A Wittgensteinian Ethic in Culture and Value,” in Grammar and Grace: Reformulations of Aquinas and Wittgenstein, eds. Jeffrey Stout and R. MacSwain,  SCM/Macmillan (2004).
    “Immediacy and Reflection in Works of Love,” in Immediacy and Reflection in Kierkegaard’s Thought, eds. Cruyberghs et al, Louvain Philosophical Series, 17, 2003.
  • “Engagement and the Passionate Imagination,” reprinted in Søren Kierkegaard: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, Vol. II, ed. Daniel W. Conway (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 114-41.
  • “Surrender and Paradox: Imagination in the Leap,” reprinted in Søren Kierkegaard: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, Vol. III, ed. Daniel W. Conway (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 142-67.
  • “The Glory of a Long Desire: Need and Commandment in Works of Love,” in Ethik der Liebe, Religion in Philosophy and Theology, Vol. 4, ed. Ingolf Dalferth (Mohr Siebeck: Tübingen, 2002)
  • “Phillips: Hume’s Inheritance Reconsidered,” in The Possibilities of Sense,  ed. John Whittaker (Macmillan/Palgrave, 2002)
  • “Normativity and Reference in a Wittgensteinian Philosophy of Religion,” Faith and Philosophy 18: 4 (2001)
  • “Total Altruism in Levinas’s ‘Ethic of the Welcome’,” Journal of Religious Ethics 29: 3 (fall 2001)
  • “A Kierkegaardian View of Divine Hiddenness,” in Divine Hiddenness: New Essays, eds. Daniel Howard-Snyder and Paul K. Moser (Cambridge University Press, December, 2001)
  • “Impotent Mercifulness in Works of Love,”  Anthropology and Authority in Søren Kierkegaard, ed. Sven. H. Rossel and G. Marino (Amsterdam/ Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, 2000)
  • "Making Room for Faith: Possibility and Hope in Kant and Kierkegaard," Kant and Kierkegaard on Religion,  eds. D. Z. Phillips and Timothy Tessin (MacMillan Press, 2000)
  • "Mutual Responsiveness in Relation: the Challenge of the Ninth Deliberation," International Kierkegaard Commentary on Kierkegaard's Works of Love, ed. Robert Perkins (Mercer University Press, 2000)
  • "Kierkegaard and ‘the Lover'," Enrahonor: Quaderns de Filosofia 28 (fall 1998)
  • "Otherworldliness in Kierkegaard's Works of Love," Philosophical Investigations 21:1    (1999)
  • "Hume's Mitigated Scepticism: Some Implications for Religious Belief," Religion and Hume's Legacy, eds. D. Z. Phillips and T. Tessin (Macmillan Press, 1999)
  • "Faith and the Kierkegaardian ‘Leap'," in The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard, eds. A. Hannay and G. Marino (Cambridge University Press, 1997)
  • "The Point Outside the World: Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein on Nonsense, Paradox and Religion," reprinted in Wittgenstein Studies 1 (1997)
  • “Impartiality, Equality, and Moral Blindness in Kierkegaard's Works of Love," Journal of Religious Ethics (spring 1997)
  • "Imagination and the Despair of Sin," in Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook: 1997, eds. N. J. Cappelørn and H. Deuser (Walter de Gruyter, 1997)
  • "Moral Vision and Moral Blindness in Works of Love,” in Kierkegaard Revisited, Kierkegaard Studies Monograph Series 1 (Walter de Gruyter, 1997)
  • “Hume's Naturalism: Proof and Practice," in Great Political Thinkers: Section 1, eds. Dunn and Harris (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 1997), reprint from The Philosophical Quarterly (1985)
  • "Wittgenstein and Religious Imagination: Between Ontology and Ethics," Philosophy of Religion between Ethics and Ontology, ed. M.M. Olivetti (Biblioteca dell' Archivio di Filosofia, Milano, 1996)
  • "Religion and ‘Really Believing': Belief and the Real," in Philosophy and the Grammar of Religious Belief, eds. T. Tessin and M. von der Ruhr (Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion, Macmillan Press and St. Martin's Press, 1995)
  • "Hume's Naturalism: Proof and Practice," in David Hume: Critical Assessments, ed. S. Tweyman (Routledge, 1995), reprint from The Philosophical Quarterly  (1985)
  • "Hume's Natural History: Religion and ‘Explanation,'" Journal of the History of Philosophy 33:4 (October, 1995)
  • "Religion's ‘Foundation in Reason': the Common Sense of Hume's Natural History," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 24 (December 1994)
  • "Leaps and Circles: Kierkegaard and Newman on Faith and Reason," Religious Studies 30 (December 1994)
  • "Hume and Imagination: Sympathy and the ‘Other'," International Philosophical Quarterly (March 1994)
  • "The Point Outside the World: Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein on Nonsense, Paradox, and Religion,"  Religious Studies 30 (March, 1994)
  • "The Grammar of the Heart: Newman on Faith and Imagination," in Discourse and Context: An Interdisciplinary Study of John Henry Newman, ed. Gerard Magill (Southern Illinois University Press, 1993)
  • "Kierkegaardian Imagination and the Feminine," Kierkegaardiana XVI (April, 1992)
  • "Seeing (Just) is Believing: Faith and Imagination," Faith and Philosophy  (April 1992)
  • "Kierkegaardian Transitions: Paradox and Pathos," International Philosophical Quarterly 31 (March 1991)
  • "Kierkegaardian Faith: the `Condition' and the Response," International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 28 (1990)
  • "Repetition, Concreteness, and Imagination," International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 25 (l989)
  • "Newman and James on Religious Experience: the Theory and the Concrete," The Heythrop Journal XXIX (January l988)
  • "The Faith/History Problem and Kierkegaard's A Priori 'Proof'," Religious Studies 23 (September, l987)
  • "Locke's `Constructive Skepticism'--A Reappraisal," The Journal of the History of Philosophy (April l986)
  • "Newman on Belief-Confidence, Proportionality, and Probability,"  The Heythrop Journal XVI (April l985)
  • "Hume's  Naturalism--`Proof' and  Practice," The Philosophical Quarterly (Jan. l985)
  • "Universal Criteria  and  the  Autonomy of Religious Belief,"  The International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 15 (1984)
  • "Certainty"; "Doubt". Dictionary of Christian Theology (Westminster Press, October 1983)
  • "Newman and `the Ethics of Belief'", Religious Studies (October, 1983)
  • "A Common Defense of Theistic Belief: Some Critical Considerations," The International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 14 (1983)
  • "Kant's Postulate: The Possibility or the Existence of God?", Kant-Studien  (January 1983)

Papers, Lectures, Panels

  • “One’s Own Pastor: Judging the Judge,” Society for Philosophy of Religion, Wilmington, North Carolina, February 27, 2008
  • “One’s Own Pastor: Judging the Judge,”Research Seminar, Søren Kierkegaard Research Center, University of Copenhagen, August 14-17, 2007.
  • Panel on James Conant and Kierkegaard’s Authorship, American Philosophical Association, New York City, Dec. 2005.
  • “Kierkegaard—A Divine Command Theorist?”  Panel on Kierkegaard and Divine Command Theory, American Academy of Religion, Phila., PA, Nov. 2005
  • “Rethinking Religious Faith and Imagination,”Philip Thayer Memorial Lecture, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Lynchburg, VA, April 14, 2005
  • “The Misfortune of the Happy: Levinas and Dimensions of Desire,” Conference on “Jewish Philosophy of Religion: Levinas and Rosenzweig,” Danish Center for Subjectivity Research,  University of Copenhagen, March 10-11, 2005
  • SPR response, Hilton Head, Feb. 24-27, 2005
  • “The Problematic Agapeistic Ideal—Again,” University of Copenhagen, August 14, 2004
  • “Schleiermacher and the Neighbor: Need, Love, and Kinship,” Society for Philosophy of Religion, Mobile, AL, March 4, 2004
  • “The Single Individual and Kinship: Reflections on Kierkegaard and Schleiermacher,”  “Subjectivity and Truth”: Schleiermacher/Kierkegaard Congress,  University of Copenhagen, Oct. 9-13, 2003
  • “Schleiermacher and the Neighbor: Need, Love, and Kinship,” University of Marburg, December 17, 2002
  • “Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard: Immediacy and the Neighbor,” University of Zürich, Institute for Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion  and Faculty of Theology, December 12, 2002
  • “In Defense of a Wittgensteinian Philosophy of Religion,” Goethe University, Frankfurt, Institute for Philosophy of Religion, December 10, 2002,
  • “Schleiermacher and the Neighbor: Need, Love, and Kinship,” Goethe University, Faculty of Theology, Frankfurt, November 25, 2002
  • “The Image of God and the Need of Love,” American Philosophical Association, Atlanta, GA (December 2001)
  • “Immediacy and Indirection in Kierkegaard’s Works of Love,” Conference on Immediacy and Reflection in Kierkegaard’s Thought, Catholic University of Leuven (October 10-13, 2001)
  • Respondent, 28th Annual Hume Society Conference, University of Victoria (July 25-28, 2001)
  • “The ‘As Yourself’ of the Love Command: Kierkegaard and Levinas, Søren Kierkegaard Society of the UK conference “Kierkegaard” Between Ethics and Religion” (July 5-8, 2001)
  • Respondent, 72nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Philosophy of Religion, Hilton Head, SC (Feb. 22-24, 2001)
  • Respondent to Oliver Davies,  panel on “Being and Non-Being: Phenomenology, Religion, and the Other,” University of Virginia (Feb. 19, 2001)
  • “The Glory of a Long Desire—Need and Commandment in Works of Love,” Institute für Hermeneutik und Religionsphilosophie, University of Zürich (October 13-15, 2000)
  • “What Kind of Philosophy is Philosophy of Religion,” European Society for Philosophy of Religion (Helsinki, August 26, 2000)
  • “The Mad Moment of Decision: Kierkegaard on Faith and Reason,” Colgate University, Hartshorne Lecture, November 17, 1999
  • “Kierkegaard on Divine Hiddenness,” Society of Christian Philosophers, Pacific Division, Portland, April, 1999
  • “Divine Hiddenness: To a ‘Certain Degree’?”, Society for Philosophy of Religion, to be March, 1999
  • "Making Room for Faith: Possibility and Hope," 19th annual Philosophy of Religion conference, "Kant and Kierkegaard on Religion," Claremont Graduate University, Feb. 6-7, 1998
  • "Who Says Philosophy Can't Be Fun," panel presentation at the American Academy of Religion, San Francisco, November 1997
  • "Asymmetry and Self-Love: the Challenge to Reciprocity and Equality," Soren Kierkegaard Research Center Seminar, August 1997
  • "Hume's Mitigated Scepticism: Some Implications for Religious Belief,"  Claremont Conference on Philosophy of Religion, February 5-7, 1997
  • "Impotent Mercifulness in Works of Love," Søren Kierkegaard Conference, St. Olaf's College, May 1997
  • "Moral Blindness and Moral Vision in Kierkegaard's Works of Love," Søren Kierkegaard Conference, Copenhagen, DK, May 5-9, 1996
  • Invited Participant: E. Castelli Institute of Philosophy Conference on Philosophy of Religion,  Rome, January 1996 (Paper: "Religious Imagination: Between Ontology and Ethics")
  • Participant in panel on "Poetic Imagination," Kierkegaard, Religion and Culture Group at the American Academy of Religion, Chicago (November, 1994)
  • "Religion's `Foundation in Reason': Common Sense and Reflection in the Natural History," XXI International Hume Conference, Rome (June 20-24, 1994)
  • "You Can't See Tuesday, Can You? Hume on Religion, Universality, and Instincts," Society for Philosophy of Religion, Savannah, GA (February 23-25, 1994)
  • "Leaps and Circles: Kierkegaard and Newman on Faith and Reason," American Academy of Religion, Washington, D. C. (November 21-24, 1993)
  • "`The Point Outside the World': Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein on Nonsense, Paradox, and Religion," Society for Philosophy of Religion, Hilton Head, S.C. (March 5-7, 1993)
  • "Religion and ‘Really Believing': Belief and the Real," Fourteenth Annual Claremont Graduate School Philosopy of Religion Conference ("Philosophy and the Grammar of Religious Belief"), Claremont, CA (February 5-6, 1993)
  • "Hume and Imagination: Sympathy and the ‘Other'," XX International Hume    Conference, Nantes, France (June 29-July 3, 1992)
  • Respondent to panel on my book, Transforming Vision: Imagination and Will in Kierkegaardian Faith, Society for Philosophy of Religion, Winston-Salem, N.C. (Feb. 28, 1992)
  • "The Grammar of the Heart: Newman, Faith, and Imagination," Newman Centenary Conference: The Intellectual Ethos of John Henry Newman, St. Louis, Missouri (November 29-December 2, 1990)
  • Colloquium on Modernism (1860-1910), Woodrow Wilson Center, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C., commentator on paper (May 17, 1990)
  • "Imagination and Feminist Ethics," Department of Philosophy, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia (March 29, l990)
  • "Kierkegaardian Imagination and the Feminine," Society for Philosophy of Religion, New Orleans, LA (March 2, l990)
  • "Kierkegaardian Transitions: Lyrics and Leaps," Society of Christian Philosophers, Plenary Session, Lexington, VA (April 22, l989)
  • "Kierkegaardian Faith: 'the Condition' and the Response," Kierkegaard Conference, San Diego, Ca (February 9-ll, l989)
  • Society for Philosophy of Religion, Charleston, S.C., commentator on paper (March 2-   5, l988)
  • American Philosophical Association, New York; chair of session on "Religious    Experience"(December 27-30, l987)
  • "Newman and the Ethics of Belief," Baptist Theological Seminary, Ruschlikon, Switzerland (September 8, l987)
  • International Newman Conference, Freiburg, Germany; chair of session (September 2-6, l987)
  • "Newman and James on Religious Experience," International Newman Conference, Notre Dame University (June l2-l5, l987)
  • "The Faith/History Problem and Kierkegaard's A Priori 'Proof'," Society for Philosophy of Religion, Tallahasee, Florida (March 4-7, l987)
  • American Academy of Religion, November l985, Chair of panel on "Feminist Perspectives in Philosophy of Religion"
  • "Reid, Scepticism, and Probable Reasoning," International Reid Conference, Aberdeen, Scotland (Sept. 2-4, l985)
  • "Newman, Hume, and a Threshold Concept of Certainty," Society for Philosophy of Religion, Athens, GA (March 6-9, l985)
  • "Newman and Reid:  On 'Trusting' Our Faculties",  International Newman Conference, Dublin (July 2-6, 1984)
  • "Hume—‘Proof' and Praxis":  University of Wales, University College of Swansea (February 16, 1984)
  • "Newman, Proof, and Degrees of Assent": Oxford Historical Theology Society, Oxford University (January 26, 1984)
  • "Doubt and Unconditional Religious Belief": University of Manchester (U.K.)(December  8, 1983)
  • International Newman Conference, Birmingham, U.K., chair of session (July 4-8, l983)
  • "Faith and Doubt: A Philosophical Analysis": Washington and Lee University, May 17, 1983 (evening lecture)
  • "Hume's Naturalism: Another View": Washington and Lee University, May 17, 1983 (afternoon colloqium)
  • "Newman's Ethics of Belief," Newman Conference, Miami, Fl. (October 7-9, 1982)
  • "Rationality and Unconditional Commitment,"  American Academy of Religion, Dallas, TX, November 1980; also Chair of panel on Newman's thought
  • Newman Conference, chairperson of session on "Wittgenstein and Newman", Worcester MA, March 1980

Professional Societies

  • American Philosophical Association
  • Society for Philosophy of Religion 1989-90: President; l988-89: Vice-President; 1985-91: Executive Council
  • American Academy of Religion
  • Kierkegaard Society 1992—President; 1991--Vice-President (President-elect)
  • Hume Society

Editorial Boards and Consulting

  • International Advisory Board, Handbook for the Philosophy of Religion in the 20th Century (E. Long, ed.)
  • Editorial Board, Religious Studies (Jan 2005- Dec 2007)    
  • Board of Editorial Consultants, Faith and Philosophy
  • Board of Associate Editors, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion
  • International Advisory Board of the Søren Kierkegaard Research Center, Copenhagen
  • Consultant on manuscripts for (e.g.) Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Princeton University Press, Blackwell, University of Pennsylvania.
  • Reviewer for a wide variety of journals, including Faith and Philosophy, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Journal of the History of Philosophy, Journal of Religious Ethics, Philosophical Investigations, Hume Studies, The Thomist, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Investigations

Professional Career

  • 2003: Carolyn M. Barbour Professor of Religious Studies (endowed chair) 1992- present: University of Virginia , Professor,
  • Departments of Religious Studies and of Philosophy 1993-95: Assistant Dean of the Faculty, College of Arts & Sciences
  • l985-1992: University of Virginia, Associate Professor, Departments of Religious Studies and of Philosophy
  • 1980-l985: University of Virginia , Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies
  • 1977-1980: Yale University , Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies
  • 1976-1977: Yale University , Acting Instructor, Department of Religious Studies

Academic Distinctions, Grants

  • DAAD Study Grant, Phillips-Universität, Marburg , Germany (fall 2002)
  • Sesquicentennial Associateship, University of Virginia (1999)
  • Visiting Professor, Søren Kierkegaard Research Center , University of Copenhagen (July-August, 1996)
  • Sesquicentennial Associateship, University of Virginia (1992-93)
  • Faculty Research Summer Grant, University of Virginia (l988, l989, 1992, 1997)
  • Sesquicentennial Associateship, University of Virginia (l987)
  • Faculty Research Summer Grant, University of Virginia (l986)
  • American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (1983-84) (Visiting Senior Member, Linacre College , Oxford )
  • National Humanities Research Center Fellowship (1983-84: declined)
  • Faculty Research Summer Grants, University of Virginia , (1981, 1982)
  • American Council of Learned Societies, Recent Recipients of Ph.D. Fellowship (1979)
  • W. Griswold Faculty Grant, Yale University (1979)

Articles and Chapters in Edited Books

  • “‘The Misfortune of the Happy’: Levinas and the Ethical Dimensions of Desire ” Journal of Religious Ethics (forthcoming).
  • “Levinas and Kierkegaard on Triadic Relations with God ” (forthcoming in an edited volume).
  • “Kierkegaard and Levinas on Four Elements of the Biblical Love Commandment,” (forthcoming in an edited volume).
  • “John Henry Newman,” addendum, the new Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Donald M. Borchert (2006).
  • “The ‘Next Thing’: The Maieutic Relation between Works of Love and the Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits,” forthcoming International Kierkegaard Commentary volume on Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits
  • “Love and Neighbor: Two Ethical Themes in Schleiermacher’s Speeches,” The Journal of Religion 84, 3 (July 2004).
  • “Vision and Love: A Wittgensteinian Ethic in Culture and Value,” in Grammar and Grace: Reformulations of Aquinas and Wittgenstein, eds. Jeffrey Stout and R. MacSwain, SCM/Macmillan (2004).
  • “Immediacy and Reflection in Works of Love,” in Immediacy and Reflection in Kierkegaard’s Thought, eds. Cruyberghs et al, Louvain Philosophical Series, 17, 2003.
  • “Engagement and the Passionate Imagination,” reprinted in Søren Kierkegaard: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, Vol. II, ed. Daniel W. Conway (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 114-41.
  • “Surrender and Paradox: Imagination in the Leap,” reprinted in Søren Kierkegaard: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, Vol. III, ed. Daniel W. Conway (London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 142-67.
  • “The Glory of a Long Desire: Need and Commandment in Works of Love,” in Ethik der Liebe, Religion in Philosophy and Theology, Vol. 4, ed. Ingolf Dalferth (Mohr Siebeck: Tübingen, 2002)
  • “Phillips: Hume’s Inheritance Reconsidered,” in The Possibilities of Sense, ed. John Whittaker (Macmillan/Palgrave, 2002)
  • “Normativity and Reference in a Wittgensteinian Philosophy of Religion,” Faith and Philosophy 18: 4 (2001)
  • “Total Altruism in Levinas’s ‘Ethic of the Welcome’,” Journal of Religious Ethics 29: 3 (fall 2001)
  • “A Kierkegaardian View of Divine Hiddenness,” in Divine Hiddenness: New Essays, eds. Daniel Howard-Snyder and Paul K. Moser (Cambridge University Press, December, 2001)
  • “Impotent Mercifulness in Works of Love,” Anthropology and Authority in Søren Kierkegaard, ed. Sven. H. Rossel and G. Marino (Amsterdam/Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, 2000)
  • "Making Room for Faith: Possibility and Hope in Kant and Kierkegaard," Kant and Kierkegaard on Religion, eds. D. Z. Phillips and Timothy Tessin (MacMillan Press, 2000)
  • "Mutual Responsiveness in Relation: the Challenge of the Ninth Deliberation," International Kierkegaard Commentary on Kierkegaard's Works of Love, ed. Robert Perkins (Mercer University Press, 2000)
  • "Kierkegaard and ‘the Lover'," Enrahonor: Quaderns de Filosofia 28 (fall 1998)
  • "Otherworldliness in Kierkegaard's Works of Love," Philosophical Investigations 21:1 (1999)
  • "Hume's Mitigated Scepticism: Some Implications for Religious Belief," Religion and Hume's Legacy, eds. D. Z. Phillips and T. Tessin (Macmillan Press, 1999)
  • "Faith and the Kierkegaardian ‘Leap'," in The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard, eds. A. Hannay and G. Marino (Cambridge University Press, 1997)
  • "The Point Outside the World: Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein on Nonsense, Paradox and Religion," reprinted in Wittgenstein Studies 1 (1997)
  • “Impartiality, Equality, and Moral Blindness in Kierkegaard's Works of Love," Journal of Religious Ethics (spring 1997)
  • "Imagination and the Despair of Sin," in Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook: 1997, eds. N. J. Cappelørn and H. Deuser (Walter de Gruyter, 1997)
  • "Moral Vision and Moral Blindness in Works of Love,” in Kierkegaard Revisited, Kierkegaard Studies Monograph Series 1 (Walter de Gruyter, 1997)
  • “Hume's Naturalism: Proof and Practice," in Great Political Thinkers: Section 1, eds. Dunn and Harris (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 1997), reprint from The Philosophical Quarterly (1985)
  • "Wittgenstein and Religious Imagination: Between Ontology and Ethics," Philosophy of Religion between Ethics and Ontology, ed. M.M. Olivetti (Biblioteca dell' Archivio di Filosofia, Milano, 1996)
  • "Religion and ‘Really Believing': Belief and the Real," in Philosophy and the Grammar of Religious Belief, eds. T. Tessin and M. von der Ruhr (Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion, Macmillan Press and St. Martin's Press, 1995)
  • "Hume's Naturalism: Proof and Practice," in David Hume: Critical Assessments, ed. S. Tweyman (Routledge, 1995), reprint from The Philosophical Quarterly (1985)
  • "Hume's Natural History: Religion and ‘Explanation,'" Journal of the History of Philosophy 33:4 (October, 1995)
  • "Religion's ‘Foundation in Reason': the Common Sense of Hume's Natural History," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 24 (December 1994)
  • "Leaps and Circles: Kierkegaard and Newman on Faith and Reason," Religious Studies 30 (December 1994)
  • "Hume and Imagination: Sympathy and the ‘Other'," International Philosophical Quarterly (March 1994)
  • "The Point Outside the World: Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein on Nonsense, Paradox, and Religion," Religious Studies 30 (March, 1994)
  • "The Grammar of the Heart: Newman on Faith and Imagination," in Discourse and Context: An Interdisciplinary Study of John Henry Newman, ed. Gerard Magill (Southern Illinois University Press, 1993)
  • "Kierkegaardian Imagination and the Feminine," Kierkegaardiana XVI (April, 1992)
  • "Seeing (Just) is Believing: Faith and Imagination," Faith and Philosophy (April 1992)
  • "Kierkegaardian Transitions: Paradox and Pathos," International Philosophical Quarterly 31 (March 1991)
  • "Kierkegaardian Faith: the `Condition' and the Response," International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 28 (1990)
  • "Repetition, Concreteness, and Imagination," International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 25 (l989)
  • "Newman and James on Religious Experience: the Theory and the Concrete," The Heythrop Journal XXIX (January l988)
  • "The Faith/History Problem and Kierkegaard's A Priori 'Proof'," Religious Studies 23 (September, l987)
  • "Locke's `Constructive Skepticism'--A Reappraisal," The Journal of the History of Philosophy (April l986)
  • "Newman on Belief-Confidence, Proportionality, and Probability," The Heythrop Journal XVI (April l985)
  • "Hume's Naturalism--`Proof' and Practice," The Philosophical Quarterly (Jan. l985)
  • "Universal Criteria and the Autonomy of Religious Belief," The International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 15 (1984)
  • "Certainty"; "Doubt". Dictionary of Christian Theology (Westminster Press, October 1983)
  • "Newman and `the Ethics of Belief'", Religious Studies (October, 1983)
  • "A Common Defense of Theistic Belief: Some Critical Considerations," The International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 14 (1983)
  • "Kant's Postulate: The Possibility or the Existence of God?", Kant-Studien (January 1983)

Recent Papers , Lectures, Panels

  • “Rethinking Religious Faith and Imagination,”Philip Thayer Memorial Lecture, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Lynchburg , VA , April 14, 2005
  • “The Misfortune of the Happy: Levinas and Dimensions of Desire,” Conference on “Jewish Philosophy of Religion: Levinas and Rosenzweig,” Danish Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen , March 10-11, 2005
  • SPR response, Hilton Head, Feb. 24-27, 2005
  • “The Problematic Agapeistic Ideal—Again,” University of Copenhagen , August 14, 2004
  • “Schleiermacher and the Neighbor: Need, Love, and Kinship,” Society for Philosophy of Religion, Mobile , AL , March 4, 2004
  • “The Single Individual and Kinship: Reflections on Kierkegaard and Schleiermacher,” “Subjectivity and Truth”: Schleiermacher/Kierkegaard Congress, University of Copenhagen , Oct. 9-13, 2003
  • “Schleiermacher and the Neighbor: Need, Love, and Kinship,” University of Marburg , December 17, 2002
  • “Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard: Immediacy and the Neighbor,” University of Zürich, Institute for Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion and Faculty of Theology, December 12, 2002
  • “In Defense of a Wittgensteinian Philosophy of Religion,” Goethe University, Frankfurt , Institute for Philosophy of Religion, December 10, 2002 ,
  • “Schleiermacher and the Neighbor: Need, Love, and Kinship,” Goethe University , Faculty of Theology, Frankfurt , November 25, 2002
  • “The Image of God and the Need of Love,” American Philosophical Association, Atlanta , GA (December 2001)
  • “Immediacy and Indirection in Kierkegaard’s Works of Love,” Conference on Immediacy and Reflection in Kierkegaard’s Thought, Catholic University of Leuven (October 10-13, 2001)
  • Respondent, 28 th Annual Hume Society Conference, University of Victoria (July 25-28, 2001)
  • “The ‘As Yourself’ of the Love Command: Kierkegaard and Levinas, Søren Kierkegaard Society of the UK conference “Kierkegaard” Between Ethics and Religion” (July 5-8, 2001)

Professional Societies

  • American Philosophical Association
  • Society for Philosophy of Religion
    1989-90: President; l988-89: Vice-President; 1985-91: Executive Council
  • American Academy of Religion
  • Kierkegaard Society
    1992—President; 1991--Vice-President (President-elect)
  • Hume Society