J.N. Ward studied Philosophy and Religion at Boston University from 1980 to 1985 under J.N. Findlay, Alan Olson, Abner Shimony, Elie Wiesel, Roger Shattuck, Ishwar C. Ojha, Herbert Mason, Aram Chobanian, Saul Bellow, Stanley Rosen, John Silber, Klaus Brinkmann, Bernard Elevitch, Erazim Kohak, and Michael McGettigan. He attended lectures by Rudiger Bubner, Paul Ricoeur, Jurgen Habermas, Joseph Ratzinger, and Hans-Georg Gaddamer. He served as assistant to John Findlay in 1983-84.