Bio

Matthew Bagger joins the department as an instructor in the fall of 2015. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy of religion at Columbia University. He has taught previously at Dartmouth College, Columbia University, Brown University, and Auburn University. As he joins us this fall, he will be teaching REL 105 and REL 360.

He has published two books: Religious Experience, Justification, and History (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and The Uses of Paradox: Religion, Self-Transformation and the Absurd (Columbia University Press, 2007). He has recently completed editing a volume of essays, Pragmatism, Naturalism, and Religion (Columbia University Press). Additionally, he as published articles on (among other topics) Hume, Kierkegaard, the ethics of belief, and the place of religion in American public life.

In his research Bagger attempts to bring philosophical tools and approaches to bear on interpretive and explanatory questions that arise from the social-scientific study of religion.

Read one of Dr. Bagger’s recent essays in JAAR, “Dewey’s Bulldog: Sidney Hook, Pragmatism, and Naturalism.”

Learn more about Prof. Bagger

Courses Taught

REL 105 Honors Introduction to Religious Studies

REL 360 Popular Culture/Public Humanities

REL 480 Religion and Skepticism

Selected Publications