[about the author.]

The Arts of Faith, Hermeneutics, and Philosophical Theology.

There is a dialectical relationship between art and life. Art was originally intended to imitate and replicate various aspects of life, but the artist’s ability to speak to our soul began to inspire us at some point. Our lives then began to imitate the art that inspired us, leading to further artistic expressions of inspired living. The muses speak to us, and we offer a living response. Art is the language of my soul.

This creative dialogue is how I exist in the world. It is how I see and experience my Faith and my Existence. The God that I see revealed in Christ, a God who is beyond any conception of God precisely because of the weakness portrayed in and through Jesus, is experienced by a dialogical relationship between the Divine and the Pathetic, the Every-day, and the Ordinary. The expression of my Faith is necessarily an expression of the artistry of a Pathetic, Every-day, and Ordinary soul.

My mediums are not canvas and paints, but mild obsessions with the sociology and ecclesiology of lived religions (particularly Christianities in America), with biblical hermeneutics (particularly studies of the Greek New Testament), and with philosophical theology (particularly the influence of postmodern philosophy on Christian theology). These are my canvas, and words are my paints. Unfortunately, like most artists, I am struggling to both be and become. One day, I hope hindsight will show me a writer and a theologian, and while both are simultaneously impossible and all-to-easy to attain, I still “weep and pray” to find the Love that will lead me Home.

The Dreaded CV

In some ways, we can only prove who we are by what we will say we have done. So, here goes:

• I earned a BA in Biblical Studies with emphases on New Testament Studies and Biblical Languages at Southwest Baptist University in 2007, where I graduated “Outstanding Senior Scholar in Theology.” It’s pretentious to bring it up, I’ll admit, but this is my CV and that’s where that stuff belongs.
• I’m currently working towards an MA in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Religion, Self, and Society at Missouri State University. My proposed thesis is (at this point) “The (e)Merging of Postmodernism(s) in American Christianities.” I work as a Graduate Assistant for Dr. James C. Moyer, Professor of Religious Studies, in two sections of REL 101: Literature and World of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible.

My current professional research consists of:

• Continued sociological/ethnographic research into the emerging/emergent church movement, particularly in America.
• Fieldwork evaluating the possible “anti-evangelicalism” of the emerging/emergent church towards progressive theologies.

My recent professional research includes:

• A brief survey of emerging/emergent Christian understandings and reactions to homosexuality and transgendered relations in the Church.
  The Body Disrupted: Homosexuality and the Body in Emergent Christianity (contact for password)
• An analysis of Philippians 1:19b-26 in light of Rodney R. Reeves article, “To be or not to be? That is not the Question: Paul’s Choice in Philippians 1:22,” [Perspectives in Religious Studies 19 (1992): 274-89] and his claim to the unifying theme of the gift (Phil 4:10-20) for the entire letter.
  The Price of Freedom: Bribery, the Gift, and Paul’s Choice in Philippians 1:19-26 (contact for password)

Here are some of my other papers:

• A Theological Throwdown? Paul v. James on the Issue of Justification (contact for password)
  {from my undergrad; read: “not good”}
• Logos-Centric: A Review of Dr. Mark D. Given’s “Paul and Writing” (contact for password)

My personal interests are:

• The postmodern Church, its role in a global society, and the ecclesiological role of the clergy.
• Negative theology, the “weakness of God,” and Christian a/theological dis-courses.
• The intersection of “real life,” philosophy and theology, and creativity.
• Deconstructionist hermeneutics, literary criticism, and postmodern literature and film.