Education

Areas of Specialization and Research

Papers Presented

“A Critique of Communitarianism: When Baptists Go Bad” Baylor University, 1999.

“Freedom Beyond Berlin: A Communitarian View of Liberty” at Southern Utah University, April 2001.

“The Strong Poet of the Voice of Poetry in the Conversation of Humankind: Poesis and Mortality in Richard Rorty and Michael Oakeshott” at Utah Valley University, 2001.

“On Mormonism and America: An Essay” at Utah Valley University, 2001.

“Epistemic Virtue: On the Nature of Truth” at Utah Valley University, 2001.

“An Anabaptist Perspective on Violence and Religion” at Utah Valley University’s Annual Religion and the Humanities Conference, October 2001.

“Theistic Evolution: Christian Reflection on Darwinian Science” at Utah Valley University, 2002.

“On Postmodern Patriotism: Can Liberals be Patriotic?” at Utah Valley University’s fourth Annual Conference by the Faculty, September 2002.

“Can Liberal Theory be Radical?” at the Society of Radical Philosophy, Brown University, November 2002.

“Setting the Captives Free: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Intolerable Offense of Slavery” at Utah Valley University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration, 2003.

“On Just War Theory and Iraq” at Utah Valley University, 2003.

“What to do about Saddam” at Utah Valley University, 2003.

“The Politics of Jesus” at Salt Lake Theological Seminary, 2003 (and at a Utah Valley University Philosophy Colloquium, Fall 2003).

“Hobbes: Lessons from the First Great English Philosopher,” for Utah Valley University’s “Great Thinkers” lecture series, Fall 2003.

“Political Ecology and the Question of Sustainability: The Need for Democracy and Civil Society” at the 6th Annual Conference by the Faculty at Utah Valley University, September 2004.

“When Soldiers Aren’t Heroes” at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities co-sponsored by the Asia Pacific Institute of Peking University, the East-West Council for Education, and the University of Louisville Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods, January 2005.

“Democratic Civil Society Under the Burden of Empire” at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, June 2005.

“Loving Nature and Imaging God: A Sketch for a Political Theology of Nature” at the Salt Lake Theological Seminary, July 2006.

“Beyond Rawls, Habermas, and Dryzek: Radical and Green Democratic Theory,” at the annual meeting of the Radical Philosophy Association, Omaha, November 4, 2006.

“Jesus: God Made Poor” at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Conference; Utah Valley University, January 17, 2007.

“Democracy, Equality, and Economy: Necessary Trends” given at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, Copenhagen, June 30, 2007.

“Forgiveness as Political Practice and Economy: Double Negation and Reconciliation” delivered at The Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration at Utah Valley University, January 2008.

“Why Justice must be Global Justice” given at the 21st annual Environmental Ethics Conference at Utah Valley University, April 2008.

“Democratic Virtues as a Means to Overcome Democratic Deficits and Provide Hope” at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, University of Costa Rica, July 22, 2008.

“With and Beyond Pogge’s Brief for a Global Resource Dividend: A Sketch” at First Unitarian Church, Salt Lake City, October 10, 2008.

“Democracy as Music, Music as Democracy” given at the Radical Philosophy Association, San Francisco State University, November 7, 2008.

“Thoughts about Words and Definitions with Special Reference to the Words ‘Christian’ and ‘Christianity,’” at Utah Valley University, November 12, 2008.

“Living Obliquely: Education for Democracy” at the Grace A. Tanner Symposium on Culture and Democracy,” Southern Utah University, January 23, 2009.

"On Secularism and Politics," presented at the "Secularism Revisited" conference sponsored by the Religious Studies Committee at Utah Valley University, February 2, 2009.

“The Politics of Jesus: Theopolitical Vision and Commission” at the annual “Religion and Public Life” symposium at Salt Lake Community College, March 12, 2009.

“Democracy: Can it be Rescued and Rebuilt?” at the 8th annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, January 13, 2010; and the Grace A. Tanner Symposium on Language, Rhetoric, and Democracy at Southern Utah University, January 22, 2010.


“Morality 101 and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:  Who Owes What to Whom and Why” at Utah Valley University, March 9, 2010.

“On Boundaries and Frames and the Erasure of ‘War’ and ‘Peace’” at the 7th annual Global Conference on War and Peace, Prague, the Czech Republic, April 30-May 2, 2010; and the annual meeting of the Peace and Justice Studies Association; University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada, October, 2010.

“Christian Socialism: Past, Present, and Future Hope” at Salt Lake Community College, October 12, 2010.

"On the Legitimacy and Value of Violence," lecture given at Utah Valley University, organized by the Revolutionary Student Union; January 25, 2011.

"Learning from C. S. Lewis," lecture given for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences for community members at Utah Valley University, August 11, 2011.

“The Palestinian Karios Document as an Unintended Contribution to Conflict Transformation Theory and Practice,” at the annual meeting of the Peace and Justice Studies Association; Memphis, TN, October, 2011.

“Justice as Restoration,” at the 7th annual Restorative Justice and Death Penalty Symposium, Utah Valley University, November 3, 2011.

"Notes on Religion, Violence, and America," at the Questioning Minds Forum, Salt Lake City Main Library, September 9, 2012.

"Freedom of Speech in the United States: How We Have Too Much of It, and Not Enough," lecture given the Revolutionary Student Union at Salt Lake Community College, September 11, 2012.

"Human Development, Anthropogenic Climate Change, and the Demands of Justice," at the annual Peace and Justice Studies Association Conference, Tufts University, October 5, 2012; and the Intermountain Philosophy Conference, University of Utah, October 26, 2012.

"Art, Peacebuilding, and Reconciliation: Will Formation and Consequence," at the 4th annual International Conference on Peace and Reconciliation" sponsored by York St. John University, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, November 6-9, 2012.

"Climate Change in Relation to Security and Development in Central Asia with Special Attention to the Ferghana Valley," at the "Mountains and Climate" Conference held at the Kyrgyz International University, Bishkek, the Kyrgyz Republic, December 11, 2012.  Conference co-sponsored by many universities and organizations, including: the European Union, the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Central Asia, the International Mountain Partnership, the Swiss, Indian, and Kyrgyz governments, and the UN Development Programme.

"Conflict Transformation, Nonviolence, Democratization, and Regime Change," for the Union of Guinean Students in the Americas conference in Fortaleza, Brazil, December 28, 2012.

"Nonviolent Resistance, Transformation, and Democratization in the Middle East:  Success, Failure, and Possibilities," at the "Conference on Islam: The Price for Peace," February 28, 2013 at UVU

"Beijing and Washington as Partners in Response to Pyongyang: Possibilities within Democratic and Human Rights Tension," at the
"China and the Asia-Pacific— The New U.S. Focus" conference, March 7, 2013 at UVU.

Publications

“Anabaptism," Encyclopedia of Religion and Violence, Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, ed. (New York: Rutledge, 2004).

“On Postmodern Patriotism” and “Political Ecology and the Question of Sustainability” published by the Center for the Study of Ethics at Utah Valley University.

 “When Soldiers Aren’t Heroes” in the Fall 2004 issue of Teaching Ethics.

Living Ethics, with Christine Weigel (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage, 2008); second edition, 2011.

The Democratic Theory of Michael Oakeshott: Contingency, Discourse, and “the Politics of Conversation” (Charlottesville, VA: Imprint Academic, 2009).

“Democracy as Music, Music as Democracy,” with Clifton Sanders, Radical Philosophy Review, Vol. 12. Nos.1 and 2 (2009).

“Living Obliquely: Education for Democracy,” Proceeds from the Grace A. Tanner Symposium on Culture and Democracy, January 2010.

“Democracy Talk: Can It Rescue and Rebuild Democracy?”  Political Rhetoric and Leadership in Democracy, Lee Trepanier, ed. (Cedar City: Southern Utah University Press, 2011), 49-66.

The following articles in The Encyclopedia of Global Justice, Deen Chatterjee, ed. (New York: Springer, 2011):

“Amnesty International”
“Anarchy”
“Augustine”
“Borders”
“Communitarianism”
“Corporate Social Responsibility”
“Deliberative Democracy”
“Democratic Peace Theory”
“Global Civil Society”
“Greenpeace”
“Hobbes, Thomas”
“Human Rights Watch”
“Liberation Theology”
“Political Ecology”

“Trinitarian Economics,” Ryan McIlhenny, ed., Render Unto God (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2013); [forthcoming, 2013].

I am currently working on a book tentatively entitled, Democratic Virtues (will submit for contract early in 2013).

Organizational Memberships

I have taught or teach:

Other Academic Work