I gained my first graduate degree at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (1988) before returning to New Zealand, where I completed PhD degrees in both Biblical Studies (1995) and Philosophy (2007). I taught for some years in both Theology and Religious Studies, and in 2010 obtained a joint appointment as Associate Professor in the Philosophy and Theology and Religion Departments.
My work in Religious Studies focused on the challenges to religious belief that arose from a naturalistic study of Christian origins. In particular, my book on the historical Jesus debate traced the factors – the voyages of discovery, a new sense of the past,…
I gained my first graduate degree at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (1988) before returning to New Zealand, where I completed PhD degrees in both Biblical Studies (1995) and Philosophy (2007). I taught for some years in both Theology and Religious Studies, and in 2010 obtained a joint appointment as Associate Professor in the Philosophy and Theology and Religion Departments.
My work in Religious Studies focused on the challenges to religious belief that arose from a naturalistic study of Christian origins. In particular, my book on the historical Jesus debate traced the factors – the voyages of discovery, a new sense of the past, the new sciences, and religious controversy – that led to the emergence of a historical view of the Bible in the seventeenth century. It then examined the ways in which Christian thinkers have responded to this development.
This led to a more strictly philosophical study of religious explanations, examining the claim – frequently made by theologians – that the naturalism of history and the sciences is simply a matter of atheistic prejudice. I disagreed.
I have now returned to the seventeenth century, where I am attempting to understand the natural philosophy of Galileo Galilei.
