Philosophy & Liturgy Conference

May 20-22, 2008
Prince Conference Center at Calvin College

Ângelo Cardita was born in Fundão, Portugal in 1974. He holds a PHD in Theology (Dogmatic, specializing in Sacraments and Liturgy), he is an Inviting Teacher at the High Liturgical Institute of Barcelona (Spain), a member of the research group “Language, Interpretation and Philosophy” (LIF) in the Centre of Philosophical Studies of Coimbra University’s Faculty of Letters (Portugal), a member of the Italian Professeurs Association of Liturgy (APL), and a member of the European Theological Association (ET). His publications include: O Mistério, o Rito e a Fé. Para uma “recondução antropológica” da Teologia Litúrgico-Sacramental [Mistery, Ritual, and Faith. Towards an ‘anthropological return’ of Liturgical and Sacramental Theology], Bond, Lisbon 2007; the editor of: Vaticano II. 40 anos depois [Vatican II. 40 Years after], Ariadne, Coimbra 2005; and the soon to be published in English: Liturgical Polarity and Symbolical Hermeneutics, in J. Leachman (ed.), The Liturgical Subject: subject, subjectivity, and the human person in contemporary liturgical discussion and critique, SCM – UNDP, London 2008.  

Sarah Coakley is the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge. Her initial training was at Cambridge and at Harvard, and she previously held posts at Lancaster University, Oxford University and Harvard Divinity School (where she was the Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity, 1995-2007).  She has also been a visiting Professorial Fellow at the Dept of Religion at Princeton (2003-4).  At Cambridge her teaching is focused in the area of philosophical theology, but she would describe herself as a systematic theologian and philosopher of religion with wide interdisciplinary interests.  Her recent publications include:  Powers and Submissions: Spirituality, Philosophy and Gender (2002); (ed.) Re-Thinking Gregory of Nyssa (2003); (co-ed.) Pain and Its Transformations: The Interface of Biology and Culture (2007); and (co-ed.) Praying for England: Priestly Presence in Contemporary Culture (2008).  She is at work on a systematic theology, the first volume of which is forthcoming as God, Sexuality and the Self:  An Essay ‘On the Trinity’ (2009). Also in preparation is a volume resulting from her collaboration with the Harvard evolutionary biologist Martin A. Nowak:  co-ed., Evolution, Games and God:  The Principle of Cooperation (2009).  Sarah Coakley is an Anglican priest of the Diocese of Ely, and has served as an Associate priest in parishes in both the USA and the UK.

Terence Cuneo works primary in the areas of ethical theory and history of early modern philosophy.  His papers have been published in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Nous, Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, The Oxford Handbook of Skepticism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and elsewhere.  He is the editor (or coeditor) of six books, The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Reid (Cambridge 2004), Religion in the Liberal Polity (Notre Dame, 2005), Foundations of Ethics: An Anthology (Blackwell, 2007) and three volumes of Nicholas Wolterstorff's papers (Cambridge and Oxford, 2009).  His book The Normative Web: An Argument for Moral Realism (Oxford, 2007) develops an argument for moral realism that turns on the similarities between epistemic and moral facts.  He is presently working on two projects, the first concerning the role of speech acts in metaethics, the second concerning Thomas Reid's ethical theory.   From 1999-2001, Cuneo held a post-doctoral fellowship at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.  Having most recently taught at Calvin College, Cuneo will be Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vermont starting fall of 2008. 

Reinhard Hütter teaches systematic and philosophical theology. In his most recent work he has turned to theological anthropology - the human being created in the image of God - and to the closely related topics of nature and grace, divine and human freedom, faith and reason, theology and metaphysics. He has developed a special interest in the theology and philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The author of three scholarly books and numerous articles, reviews, and translations, he has also co-edited four books. His most recent books include Bound to Be Free: Evangelical Catholic Engagements in Ecclesiology, Ethics and Ecumenism and Reason and the Reasons of Faith (ed. with Paul J. Griffiths). He is also the editor of Pro Ecclesia: a Journal of Catholic and Evangelical Theology, co-editor of the academic series Faith and Reason: Studies in Catholic Theology and Philosophy, and serves on the editorial boards of Nova et Vetera: The English Edition of the International Theological Journal and of Theology Today.

He was awarded the Henry Luce III Fellowship, was a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Religion of the University of Chicago, a research fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton, served as visiting professor at the University of Jena, Germany, was elected for membership in the American Theological Society, and has been made a Corresponding Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. He is a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

Peter Ochs is Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia, co-director of the Society for Scriptural Reasoning  and  of the Children of Abraham Institute. He has authored, co-authored or co-edited a number of books including Another Reformation: Postliberal Christianity and the Jews; The Jewish-Christian Schism Revisited; Peirce,  Pragmatism, and the Logic of Scripture; Reviewing The Covenant: Eugene Borowitz and the Postmodern Renewal of Theology; Christianity in Jewish Terms; Reasoning after Revelation: Dialogues in Postmodern Jewish Philosophy; The Return to Scripture in Judaism and Christianity; Understanding the Rabbinical Mind, and Reviewing the Covenant. With Stanley  Hauerwas, he co-edits the book series Radical Traditions: (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) Theology in a Post-critical Key. Professor Ochs serves on the editorial boards of Modern Theology, The Journal of Culture and Religion, and Crosscurrents.

Josh Reeves is a PhD candidate in Boston University’s interdisciplinary Science, Philosophy and Religion Program. In addition to studying general issues within science and religion, his work has focused on questions concerning human nature.  His dissertation will explore how a philosophy of scientific practice might contribute to and reframe methodological debates within the field of science and religion. Before enrolling at Boston University, he completed a M.Phil. degree in Psychology of Religion at Cambridge University.

James K.A. Smith is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Working at the intersection of philosophical theology and continental philosophy, he is the author of several books, including The Fall of Interpretation: Philosophical Foundations for a Creational Hermeneutic (InterVarsity Press, 2000), Speech and Theology: Language and the Logic of Incarnation (Routledge, 2002), Introducing Radical Orthodoxy: Mapping a Post Secular Theology (Baker Academic/Paternoster, 2004), Jacques Derrida: Live Theory (Continuum, 2005), and Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church (Baker Academic, 2006). He is editor of the “Church and Postmodern Culture” Series for Baker Academic and also serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and Faith and Philosophy.

Ludger Viefhues-Bailey is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies for Methods and Theory in the Study of Religion and for Women's and Gender Studies at Yale University. His work focuses on the connections between practices of gendering, religion, and epistemology. His book Beyond the Philosopher's Fears: A Cavellian Reading of Gender, Religion, and Origins in Modern Skepticism appeared in October of 2007 through Ashgate Press, England. In his teaching and research he is furthermore interested in how various theoretical approaches to the study of religion create different visions of self and otherness; in issue of religious globalization; and in bringing together text-based and performance-based approaches to religious studies. His new book is entitled, Patriotic Dreams, Illicit Sex, Divine Grace: Making Sense of Christian Opposition to Same-Sex Love. Currently, he pursues a project with the working title Performing Transnational Religion, which critically assesses the emergence of modern religion, both as a practice and category of analysis. Bringing together Wittgensteinian realism and insights from post-colonial theory, Viefhues-Bailey will provide a richly-textured ethical account of how to live and think in the midst of multiple religious beliefs and practices. His website can be found at http://www.viefhues-bailey.org

Nicholas Wolterstorff received his A.B. from Calvin College in 1953, and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University in 1956.  After teaching philosophy for two years at Yale, he returned to the philosophy department at his alma mater in 1959.  He returned to Yale in 1989, where he was a member of the Divinity School, of the Philosophy Department, and of the Religious Studies Department.  He has taught, during leaves of absence, at Haverford College, the University of Michigan, Princeton University, the University of Texas, Notre Dame University, and the Free University of Amsterdam.  He retired from teaching at the end of 2001, and is Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University.    Currently he is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, at the University of Virginia.
He has been President of the American Philosophical Association, and of the Society of Christian Philosophers; he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Among the lectures he has given are the Wilde Lectures at Oxford University, the Gifford Lectures at St Andrews University, and the Stone Lectures at Princeton Seminary.   Among the books he has published are On Universals, Works and Worlds of Art, Art in Action, Until Justice and Peace Embrace, Reason within the Bounds of Religion, Divine Discourse, John Locke and the Ethics of Belief, Thomas Reid and the Story of Epistemology, Educating for Shalom, and Lament for a Son.  Justice: Rights and Wrongs is to be published by Princeton University Press in early 2008.