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Human persons as substantial achieversPhilosophia Reformata 58 (2): 100-112. 1993.A debate is raging in our culture between two ways of understanding what it is to be a person. We are torn between understanding personhood in metaphysical terms, as a kind of entity, and understanding personhood as anachievement, a status which is attributed to something by virtue of that thing’s activities and/or relationships. On the first view persons are what we are; on the second view persons are something which we must become. I shall term these two ways of thinking about human personhood…Read more
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189God and Moral ObligationOxford University Press. 2013.God and moral obligations -- What is a divine command theory of moral obligation? -- The relation of divine command theory to natural law and virtue ethics -- Objections to divine command theory -- Alternatives to a divine command theory -- Conclusions: The inescapability of moral obligations.
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23Ñāṇananda’s Concept and Reality: An AssessmentBuddhist Studies Review 34 (1): 3-23. 2017.Bhikkhu Ñ??ananda’s Concept and Reality has exerted a certain influence on Buddhist Studies, from translations of the P?li Nik?yas to interpretations of doctrine. Far beyond proposing translations for papañca and papañca-saññ?sa?kh?, the book lays out a thesis, supported and illustrated by frequent citations from the Nik?yas, concerning the role of concepts and language itself in perpetuating bondage to sa?s?ra. Concepts and language are said to obscure reality in a self-perpetuating cycle that …Read more
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18Kierkegaard's Aesthete and Unamuno's NieblaPhilosophy and Literature 28 (2): 342-352. 2004.What is truly beautiful? For Søren Kierkegaard the beautiful is to be found in an integrated self, one that is freely chosen. This article explores Kierkegaard's "aesthetic" stage of existence through the character of Augusto Pérez, the protagonist of Miguel de Unamuno's novel, Niebla. After establishing a solid link between Unamuno and Kierkegaard, Kierkegaard's "ethical" stage is used to critique the "aesthetic" stage on aesthetic grounds, on the basis of the beauty found in life's work, a cal…Read more
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4The Single Individual is Higher than the Universal: KierkegaardIn John Shand (ed.), A Companion to Nineteenth Century Philosophy (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy), Wiley-blackwell. pp. 160-184. 2019.
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48The Revolt against Accountability to GodPhilosophia Christi 21 (2): 289-308. 2019.Philosophers such as Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud have developed “global hermeneutical perspectives” on human nature. This paper argues that Christian faith also provides such a perspective, which is termed the “no-neutrality thesis.” Humans were created to serve God, but they have rebelled against their rightful sovereign, and this rebellion may show itself in morality. If moral obligations are God’s requirements, then the human rebellion might provide motivation for rejecting objective moral obl…Read more
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58A Kenotic Theologian’s Response to Andrew Loke’s “Kryptic Model” of the IncarnationPhilosophia Christi 21 (1): 33-38. 2019.In this article I compare the kryptic model of the Incarnation, developed by Andrew Loke, with two other models, the “two-minds” model and the kenotic model. All three models succeed in showing the logical coherence of the doctrine of the Incarnation, and I concede that Loke’s model has some of the advantages of both of the other two, while avoiding some perceived disadvantages. However, I argue that Loke’s model also has some of the disadvantages of both of the other models. In conclusion I arg…Read more
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Louis Mackey, Points of View: Readings of Kierkegaard (review)Philosophy in Review 7 359-361. 1987.
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23How Reformation Christians Can Be Catholic (Small “c”) ChristiansPhilosophia Christi 19 (2): 415-427. 2017.A key sentence of the Nicene Creed: “We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” This paper attempts to explain how a Protestant Christian can be part of the catholic church. What is essential to genuine or “mere” Christianity is adherence to the doctrines in the Nicene Creed. This account is consistent with a Protestant affirmation of “Scripture alone.” Scripture has the highest authority only when properly interpreted, but this requires that the Bible should be read in accord with…Read more
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60Kierkegaard On Escaping the Cult of BusynessInstitute of Art and Ideas. 2018.A 2016 article in the Journal of Consumer Research argues that busyness has become a status symbol. In earlier societies, such as the 19th century Thorstein Veblen describes in his Theory of the Leisure Class, the wealthy conspicuously avoided work. They saw idleness as an ideal. By contrast, contemporary Americans praise being overworked. They see busy individuals as possessing rare and desirable characteristics, such as competence and ambition. To respond philosophically to our new overwork…Read more
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22Behaviorism as Existentialism? Ryle and Merleau-Ponty on the MindJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 14 (1): 65-78. 1983.
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32Kierkegaard and Plantinga on Belief in GodFaith and Philosophy 5 (1): 25-39. 1988.This paper compares the views and arguments of Alvin Plantinga and Søren Kierkegaard on the question of belief in God. Kierkegaard’s view of belief in God (which must be sharply distinguished from faith in the Absolute Paradox) is shown to be surprisinglysimilar to Plantinga’s claim that belief in God can be properly basic. Two of Plantinga’s arguments for taking belief in God as properly basic are shown to have analogues in Kierkegaard.Plantinga claims that though properly basic beliefs are not…Read more
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15Wisdom as Conceptual UnderstandingFaith and Philosophy 27 (4): 369-381. 2010.This article argues that Platonism provides a plausible account of wisdom, one that is especially attractive for Christians. Christian Platonism sees wisdom as conceptual understanding; it is a “knowledge of the Forms.” To be convincing this view requires us to see understanding as including an appreciation of the relations between concepts as well as the value of the possible ways of being that concepts disclose. If the Forms are Divine Ideas, then we can see why God is both supremely wise and …Read more
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21The Relevance of Historical Evidence for Christian FaithFaith and Philosophy 7 (4): 470-485. 1990.If we assume that Christian faith involves a propositional component whose content is historical, then the question arises as to whether Christian faith must be based on historical evidence, at least in part. One of Kierkegaard’s pseudonyms, Johannes Climacus, argues in Philosophical Fragments that though faith does indeed have such an historical component, it does not depend on evidence, but rather on a first-hand experience of Jesus for which historical records serve only as an occasion. I arg…Read more
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39Who Is the Other in Sickness Unto Death? God and Human Relations in the Constitution of the SelfKierkegaard Studies Yearbook 1997 (1): 1-15. 1997.
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51Is Kierkegaard an Irrationalist? Reason, Paradox, and Faith: C. S. EVANSReligious Studies 25 (3): 347-362. 1989.If some philosophers had not existed, the history of philosophy would have to invent them. After all, what would the introduction to philosophy teacher do without good old Berkeley, the notorious denier of common sense, or Hume, the infamous sceptic. In some cases, in fact, philosophers have been invented by the history of philosophy. I don't mean to suggest that historians of philosophy have actually altered the past by bringing into being real flesh and blood philosophers. Rather, I mean to sa…Read more
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12Faith Beyond ReasonReason & Religion. 1998.This book is an explanation and defence of a veiw of faith and reason that is found in the writings of Kierkegaard, a view often termed as fideism. The author distinguishes indefensible forms of fideism that involve a rejection of reason from a fideism that requires that reason becomeself-critical. An understanding of the limits of reason requires both an understanding of faith as above reason, as in Aquinas and Kant, and also as against what is taken as rational by most human beings.The fiedeis…Read more
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3Louis Mackey, Points of View: Readings of Kierkegaard Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 7 (9): 359-361. 1987.
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23I. the ethical as a stage or sphere of existenceIn John Lippitt & George Pattison (eds.), The Oxford handbook of Kierkegaard, Oxford University Press. pp. 211. 2013.
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19The Role of Irony in Kierkegaard's Philosophical FragmentsKierkegaard Studies Yearbook 2004 (1): 63-79. 2004.
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126Moral ArgumentsIn A Companion to Philosophy of Religion (Second Edition), Wiley-blackwell. pp. 6-8. 2010.This article provides a survey of types of moral arguments for the existence of God. The article begins by defending this type of arguments against some common criticisms, and then distinguishes practical moral arguments from theoretical moral arguments, before looking at the strengths and weaknesses of various versions of each type. The philosophers who are discussed include Immanuel Kant, Philip Quinn, Robert Adams, and George Mavrodes. The article defends the claim that such arguments can be …Read more
Areas of Specialization
History of Western Philosophy |
Value Theory |
Areas of Interest
History of Western Philosophy |
Value Theory |