Battelle-Tompkins 117, springs@american.edu
Areas
of specialization and research/teaching interests
Moral
philosophy and comparative religious ethics, modern religious thought in the
west, social/political philosophy and religion in American public life, pragmatism,
Wittgenstein, and theories and methods in the study of religion.
Selected
Publications and Papers
“The
Priority of Democracy to Social Theory,” Contemporary Pragmatism,
special issue on Cornel West, ed. Eddie Glaude (June 2007)
“Between Barth and Wittgenstein: On the Availability of Hans Frei’s Later Theology,” Modern Theology (July 2007)
“‘Dismantling the Master’s House’: Freedom as Ethical Practice in Robert Brandom and Michel Foucault,” paper presented to the Pragmatism and Empiricism Group, American Academy of Religion National Conference, November 2006; Wayne Proudfoot responding.
“What Cultural Theorists of Religion have to learn from Wittgenstein, or, How to Read Geertz as a Practice Theorist,” paper presented to the Religion and Public Life Colloquium, Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University, May 2006; Martin Kavka responding.
Recent Teaching
Theories of Democracy and Human Rights: The Ethics of Democracy
Moral Philosophy: If God is Dead then Everything is Permitted: God, Evil, and Moral Absolutes
Western Philosophy: The Quest for Certainty from Plato to Wittgenstein
Forms of the Sacred in Eastern Religious Traditions: Ethical and Philosophical
Challenges of Religious Diversity
Hinduism and the Ethical Legacy of Gandhi
Experience, Rationality and Belief in 20th Century Religious Thought (New
School for Social Research, Eugene Lang College)
God and Caesar: Religion and State in Modern Political & Social Thought (Spring 2004, Harvard College Junior Seminar)
Religion, Relativism and Ethics (Fall 2003, Harvard College Junior Seminar)
Education
Ph.D., A.M.,
Harvard University
MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary
M.A., Baylor University
B.A., Georgetown College
C.V.
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here for Dr. Spring's
complete CV.
