r e s e a r c h | current projects & updates

While my research training is primarily in the area of contemporary French phenomenology and philosophical theology (particularly the work of figures such as Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Marion, Emmanuel Levinas, Dominque Janicaud, and Michel Henry), my work ranges beyond narrow specializations within philosophy and reflects interdisciplinary interests and passions. Below is a glimpse of several current research trajectories in which I'm engaged:

• The Cultural Liturgies Project: This is a three-volume project that explores and unpacks a "philosophical theology of culture" that is oriented by the primacy of worship. The first volume, which will appear in summer 2009 from Baker Academic, is entitled Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation. The first volume provides an overview of the project in a way that should be accessible to students and practitioners, with a particular focus on the implications for Christian education. [Read more about Volume 1 here.] The subsequent volumes will be more scholarly monographs that unpack elements sketched in the first volume. Volume 2, tentatively entitled, Homo Liturgicus: A Liturgical Phenomenology, will develop a philosophical anthropology that focuses on "worship" as our fundamental mode of intending the world (to phrase it in terms of Heidegger's critique of Husserl). This will be done in dialogue with phenomenology and the cognitive sciences and will include an articulation of the unique "logic" of what we can call "liturgical reasoning." Volume 3, projected as Liturgical Politics: Reforming Political Theology, will seek to make a constructive contribution to contemporary discussions in political theology, with a particular interest in responding to Jeffrey Stout's critique of "new traditionalism" as well as challenging the regnant paradigms in contemporary Reformed thought (Mouw, Wolterstorff, Stackhouse, et. al.)
• Philosophy and Liturgy: In addition to the Cultural Liturgies project, I am pursuing work in philosophy of religion which seeks to effect a methodological shift in the field, arguing for the importance of practices, and particularly liturgical practices, as the "site" or "topic" of philosophy of religion.
• Philosophy, Theology, and the Sciences: I have been ramping up a research program focused on the sciences--both social sciences and natural sciences. Most recently and concretely, this involves my co-directing, with Amos Yong, a new research initiative funded by the John Templeton Foundation: "Science and the Spirit: Pentecostal Perspectives on the Science/Religion Dialogue." I am particularly interested in questions regarding naturalism and ontology, as well as hermeneutics and science. Along with Matt Walhout (Physics), I am engaged in research that seeks to retool the religion/science dialogue by appreciating the centrality of practices in both.
• Urban Renewal: My interest in new urbanism and urban renewal has turned into a research trajectory on "urban altruism" and questions regarding the role of place in conceptions of community. I worked out some of this in a recent seminar on urban altruism and am now working with Mark Mulder (Urban Studies) on a long-term research agenda as Project Fellows of the Center for Social Research. Our research focuses on evangelical perceptions of and relationships to "the city," with a particular interest in the factors that contribute to the suburban shift of evangelicalism. Part of this work includes a critique of current methodological and theoretical paradigms in sociology of religion. This research will appear in journal articles and ultimately a scholarly book; but we also hope to pen a book on these themes for a general audience.
• Pentecostalism: I will be completing a book entitled Thinking in Tongues: Elements of a Pentecostal Worldview, to be published in a new series from Eerdmans, "Pentecostal Manifestos." The series is co-edited by myself and Amos Yong (Regent University). The book will lay out the key elements of a distinctly pentecostal/charismatic worldview and then unpack the distinctives of a pentecostal philosophy.
• Philosophy and Literature: Over the next five years I hope to take my passion for literature and translate it into a scholarly agenda of criticism and work in philosophy & literature, picking up on earlier work in aesthetics. More to come on this front.

[last updated 22.08.2008]