Curriculum Vitae

Last updated 11/30/23

Education:

  • Ph. D. in English Literature, Vanderbilt University, 1995

Areas of Specialization:

  • New Testament Studies:  Gospel reliability, reliability of Acts
  • Formal and classical Epistemology: Foundationalism; internalism/externalism controversies; metaepistemology; Bayesian inference and confirmation theory; testimony; Bayesian coherentism; varied evidence; independence; philosophy of religion; intersection of epistemology with biblical studies
  • English Literature: Renaissance non-dramatic literature; Edmund Spenser

Publications:

Books

Articles

  • “Be Careful What You Grant,” Published via online first, December 7, 2023, Philosophia, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-023-00702-4. Author’s accepted version available in full here. The linked accepted version hosted on this site has been accepted for publication after peer review but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements or corrections. The Version of Record’s digital Object Number is https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-023-00702-4. Use of the Accepted Version is subject to the publisher’s Accepted Manuscript terms of use https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-research/policies/acceptedmanuscript-terms.
  • “Truth, Historiography, and the Gospels’ Genre: Classical and Patristic Considerations,” The Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 17 (2021):88-117. Available here.
  • “Time and Narrative: Clarity and Chronology in Reading the Gospels,” The Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 17 (2021):62-87. Available here.
  • “Is Jesus John’s Mouthpiece? Reconsidering Johannine Idiom,” Conspectus 32:43-57 (October, 2021). Available here.
  • “Confirmation, Coincidence, and Contradiction,” Synthese, 2021, Online First 3/14/21, DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03102-x. Author’s Accepted Manuscript archived by permission here.
  • “Undesigned Coincidences and Coherence for an Hypothesis,” Erkenntnis, 85 (4) (2020), pp. 801-828. On-Line First, August 6, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-018-0050-4 Author’s accepted manuscript version archived here.
  • “Finessing Independent Attestation: A Study in Interdisciplinary Biblical Criticism,” Themelios 44.1, pp. 89-102 (April, 2019)
  • “Of Generic Gods and Generic Men: The Limits of Armchair Philosophy of Religion.” The Journal of Analytic Theism 6 (2018):183-203 (Available as open access: https://doi.org/10.12978/jat.2018-6.112400120222a)
  • “The World, the Deceiver, and The Face in the Frost,” Quaestiones Disputatae, 7:2 (2017, volume appeared in print fall, 2018), 112-146. Draft version archived by permission here.
  • “Bayes’ Theorem,” entry in Dictionary of Christianity and Science. Edited by Paul Copan and Tremper Longman III. Zondervan, 2017.
  • “Accounting for Dependence: Relative Consilience as a Correction Factor in Cumulative Case Arguments,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy. 95:3 (2017), 560-572, DOI 10.1080/00048402.2016.1219753.
  • “Bayes Factors All the Way: Toward a New View of Coherence and Truth,” Theoria (2016) 82:329-350. DOI 10.1111/theo.12102.
  • “Evidential Diversity and the Negation of H: A Probabilistic Account of the Value of Varied Evidence,”  Ergo 3:10 (2016), available here.
  • “Four (Or So) New Fine-Tuning Arguments,” European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 8:2 (Summer, 2016):85-106.
  • “Why Bayesian Coherentism Isn’t Coherentism,” European Journal of Analytic Philosophy, Vol. 11:1 (2015):37-55, published online, May 10, 2016. Available here.
  • “Before the Mountains Were Brought Forth: A Defense of Divine Timelessness,” Christendom Review 6:1 (Summer, 2014).
  • “On Not Counting the Cost: Ad Hocness and Disconfirmation,” Acta Analytica 29 (2014):491-505. DOI 10.1007/s12136014-0225-9.
  • “Jeffrey Conditioning, Rigidity, and the Defeasible Red Jelly Bean,” Philosophical Studies (2014) 168:569-82. Published online May 17, 2013, via On-Line First. DOI # 10.1007/s11098-013-0145-3. Per copyright agreement with Philosophical Studies, I am permitted to link and archive an author-prepared version of the article here.
  • “Probabilistic Issues Concerning Jesus of Nazareth and Messianic Death Prophecies,” Philosophia Christi 15:3 (2013), pp. 311-28.
  • “Tall Tales and Testimony to The Miraculous,” European Journal of Analytic Philosophy. 8.2 (2012):39-55.
  • “Historical Inquiry,” In The Routledge Companion to Theism, ed. Victoria Harrison, Stewart Goetz, and Charles Taliaferro. (New York: Routledge. Official publication date on copyright page, 2013; became available fall 2012), pp. 281-293.
  • “The Reliability of Witnesses and Testimony to the Miraculous.” With Timothy McGrew. In Probability in the Philosophy of Religion, ed. Jake Chandler and Victoria Harrison (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 46-63.
  • “Probability Kinematics and Probability Dynamics,” Journal of Philosophical Research 35 (2010):89-105.
  • “The Argument from Miracles: A Cumulative Case for the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.” With Timothy McGrew. In The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology, edited by W. L. Craig and J. P. Moreland (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), pp. 593-662. Preprint version (without Blackwell page numbers or copy editing, posted with publisher’s permission) here.
  • “The Irrational Faith of the Naked Public Square,” The Christendom Review 1:1 (December, 2008).
  • “Foundationalism, Probability, and Mutual Support,” With Timothy McGrew, Erkenntnis 68 (2008):55-77.
  • “On the Historical Argument: A Rejoinder to Plantinga,” With Timothy McGrew, Philosophia Christi 8 (2006):23-38.
  • “Likelihoods, Multiple Universes, and Epistemic Context.” Philosophia Christi 7 (2005): 475-81.
  • “A Response to Robin Collins and Alexander R. Pruss.” With Timothy McGrew. Philosophia Christi 7 (2005): 425-43.
  • “Testability, Likelihoods, and Design.” Philo 7:1 (Spring-Summer 2004):5-21.
  • “Foundationalism,” entry in ISCID Encyclopedia of Science and Philosophy, June, 2003.
  • “Agency and the Metalottery Fallacy.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 80:4 (December, 2002):440-464.
  • “Probabilities and the Fine Tuning Argument: A Sceptical View.” With Timothy McGrew and Eric Vestrup.  Mind 110 (October, 2001): 1027-37. Anthologized in God and Design, ed. Neil A. Manson (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), pp. 200-208.
  • “What’s Wrong with Epistemic Circularity.” With Timothy McGrew. Dialogue 39 (2000): 219-39.
  • “Blaming the Designer.” Origins and Design 20:1 (Spring 2000): 9-10.
  • “Foundationalism, Transitivity and Confirmation.” With Timothy McGrew. Journal of Philosophical Research 25 (2000): 47-66.
  • “Blaming the Handyman.” Origins and Design 19:2 (Winter 1999): 8.
  • “Psychology for Armchair Philosophers.” With Timothy McGrew. Idealistic Studies 28 (1998): 147-57.
  • “Internalism and the Collapse of the Gettier Problem.” With Timothy McGrew.  Journal of Philosophical Research 23 (1998): 239-56.
  • “Level Connections in Epistemology.” With Timothy McGrew. American Philosophical Quarterly 34 (1997): 85-94.
  • “Reason, Rhetoric, and the Price of Linguistic Revision.” Public Affairs Quarterly 11:3 (July, 1997): 255-79.

Book Reviews

  • Review essay on Michael Licona, Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? Global Journal of Classic Theology, 15:3 (February, 2019)
  • Review of Ola Hössjer, Becoming a Christian: Combining Prior Belief, Evidence and Will, Philosophia Christi 20:2 (2018):599-603.
  • Review of William Dembski, ed.,  Mere Creation. Philosophia Christi (1999): 160-62.
  • Review of William Dembski, No Free Lunch. Science and Religion Forum Reviews, 41, June, 2003:9-12.

Conference Presentations

  • “Taking John’s Historicity Seriously: The Evidence of Unexplained Allusions,” Evangelical Theological Society (Johannine Literature special section), November 18, 2021.
  • “Is Jesus John’s Mouthpiece? Reconsidering the Concept of Johannine Idiom,” Jesus and the Fourth Gospel, South African Theological Seminary (virtual conference), March 17, 2021.
  • “Literary Devices in the Gospels: Fact or Fiction?” NCCA 2020, Southern Evangelical Seminary (virtual conference), October 13, 2020.
  • “Acts Gets Hard Things Right: External Evidence for Acts,” NCCA 2020, Southern Evangelical Seminary (virtual conference), October 12, 2020.
  • “Undesigned Coincidences and the Synoptic Puzzle,” Defend 2020, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans, LA, January 6, 2020.
  • “Literary Devices: Fact or Fiction,” Defend 2020, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans, LA, January 6, 2020.
  • “The Reliability of Witnesses and Testimony to the Miraculous,” co-presented with Timothy McGrew, Formal Methods in the Epistemology of Religion,  Leuven, Belgium, June 11, 2009.
  • “Jeffrey Conditioning, Rigidity, and Foundationalism,” Formal Epistemology Workshop, University of California at Berkeley, May, 2006.
  • “What Grandma Can’t Know,” Society of Christian Philosophers Pacific Division, Biola University, La Mirada, CA, February 28, 2004.
  • “Mathematics, Probability, and Fine-tuning: Disentangling the Issues,” presented at “The Mathematics of Fine-Tuning,” Symposium at Notre Dame University,  April 25-26, 2003.
  • “Likely Machines: a Response to Elliott Sober’s ‘Testability’.” Presented at “Design and its Critics,” Concordia University, WI, June 2000.
  • Completed work not published: “What Grandma Can’t Know”

On-going areas of research

  • New Testament studies (Gospels and Acts)
  • Applications of epistemology and probability theory to biblical studies
  • Probabilistic analysis of witness reliability
  • Probabilistic analysis of witness contradictions
  • Bayesian coherentism
  • Bayesian analysis of witness testimony
  • Evidential independence and successive confirmation (cumulative case arguments)
  • Ad hocness
  • Philosophy of religion
  • Probabilistic independence