Current Position | Academic Interests | Publications | Grants and Awards | Teaching Experience | Conference Participation
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies; member of
Doctoral Faculty.
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Education:
Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies, The University of Calgary, 1999.
Specialization: History of Religious Movements and Institutions
Dissertation:
"Bearing False Witness: Propaganda, Reality-Maintenance, and Christian
Anticult Apologetics"
Abstract
Committee Members:
Irving R. Hexham (Supervisor),
Department of Religious Studies, University of Calgary; Full Professor; History of
Religions and New Religious Movements.
A.W. Barber, Department of Religious
Studies, University of Calgary; Associate Professor; Buddhism and East Asian Religions.
David G. Taras, Faculty of General Studies, Associate Professor; University of
Calgary; Director of Communications Studies.
Tad Guzie, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary; Dean.
Jeffrey K. Hadden, Department of
Sociology, University of Virginia; Full Professor; Sociology and Sociology of Religion.
Other Education:
Master of Divinity (Honours), St. Andrew's College,
Saskatoon, 1989.
Thesis: "A Nakid Entent Unto God: A Source/Commentary on The Cloud of Unknowing."
Bachelor of Arts (with distinction) in English literature, University of Victoria, 1985.
World Religions; Cults, Sects, and New Religious Movements; Sociology of Religion; Sociology of Knowledge; Religion and Media; History and Development of Religious Thought.
Academic Interests: ResearchSociology of Orthodoxy and Heresy; History of Religions; New Religious Movements, their organisation, beliefs, and cultural impact; Christian response to New Religious Movements; Religious Freedom and Religious Intolerance; Research methods and theory.
(2002) "Explaining Eggs in Terms of Bacon: A
Response to Secular Theories of Religion: Current Perspectives." Review
essay in The Council of Societies for the Study of Religion Bulletin 31 (2):
30-31.
(2000) "No Harmony: Some Notes on Evangelical Response to Buddhism." Religious
Studies and Theology 19 (2): 17-52.
(2000) "’What’s in it for us?’: Reflections on Membership, Commitment,
and the Current Malaise." Touchstone: Heritage and Theology in a New Age 18
(2): 7-21.
(1998) "Too Narrow and Too Close: Some Problems with Participant Observation in the
Study of New Religious Movements." Method and Theory in the Study of Religion
4: 391-406.
(1996) "Jack’s Buddhism: A Dharma Walk with Jack Kerouac." Journal of
Buddhist and Tibetan Studies 2: 38-91.
(1990) "The Parson and the Landlord: Religion and Capitalism in The Communist
Manifesto and Karl Marx’s ‘Contribution to The Critique of Hegel’s
Philosophy of Right’." Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 19 (4):
459-69.
"Martial Arts." Entry in Dictionary of Contemporary Religion in the Western World, edited by C. Partridge
and Douglas Groothuis. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press (May 2002).Works Currently Under Contract
Bearing False Witness?: An Introduction to the Christian Countercult. Greenwood, CT: Praeger Publishers (in press).Works Currently Under Peer Review
"Confronting the Failed Failure’: Christian Eschatology in Light of the Passed Millennium." Nova Religio: The Journal of New and Emergent Religions.Works in Progress: Articles
"'A nun walks into a bar...' Transgression and Reversal as Analytic Categories"Works in Progress: Books
Coming Naked Before God: The Cloud of Unknowing and the English Mystical Tradition. Revised edition of A Nakid Entent Unto God: A Source/Commentary on The Cloud of Unknowing (see above).University of Missouri Research Board (2001): "Religion
in the Mass Media: The Case of Islam."
Meriwether Lewis Fellow (2001): Transformation in Higher Education Conference.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2000-2002; declined due to employment at UMKC).
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship (1998-1999).
The University of Calgary Silver Anniversary Graduate Fellowship (1998-1999).
The University of Calgary Fee Scholarship (1998-1999).
The Province of Alberta Graduate Fellowship (1997-1998).
Graduate Research Scholarships, The University of Calgary (1997, 1998).
The Constantinian Order Scholarship (1997).
St. Andrew’s College Travelling Scholarship, (1990-1991).
Grand Prize, American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature (Pacific
Northwest Region) Student Paper Contest. (1989).
Willoughby Entrance Scholarship, St. Andrew’s College (1985).
President’s Scholarship, University of Victoria (1984, 1985).
Special Academic Service
Preparing Future Faculty mentor (2001-2003)
New Faculty Teaching Scholar (2001-2002)
(2002) Evangelical Ministries to New Religions Annual Conference.
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (February). Invited paper: "Apologetics and Academia: Prospects for a Rapprochement?"References available upon request.