Philosophy & Religion
The Department of Philosophy and Religion at Coe offers courses designed to lead students to reflect on their views concerning fundamental issues in life and thought. These issues concern the nature of our world; the nature and possibilities of knowledge; and issues concerning the nature of society, values (both moral and religious), faith commitments and the divine.
The Department of Philosophy and Religion houses two distinct programs each offering a separate major with a broad range of course offerings. Class sizes within the Department vary, with most classes limited to twenty students, and enrollment in upper-level courses is generally fewer than fifteen. This small class size permits individualized attention and provides the opportunity for active participation in classroom discussion.
Philosophy & Religion Department Newsletter - Fall 2012
This past academic year has been a busy and successful one for the Coe College Department of Philosophy and Religion. Meira Kensky, Assistant Professor of Religion, who is entering her fourth year of teaching at Coe, gave an invited address at the Benjamin Cardozo College of Law in New York City, and this summer she was issued a contract for the publication of her second book. The contract was issued by Mohr Siebeck, the same company which published her first book, Trying Man, Trying God: The Divine Courtroom in Early Jewish and Christian Literature (2010). Christopher Hatchell just completed his first year of teaching on the Religion side of the Department. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and he specializes in eastern religions. This summer he received a contract from Oxford University Press for the publication of his first book, Naked Seeing. The religion program has taken on a new life with the addition of these new faculty members. Many more students are studying religion at Coe than we have seen in recent years, and they are doing some fine work. As testament to this, Kristine Gift, a religion major who will be a senior this year, published her essay, "Sarah's Laughter as her Lasting Legacy: An Interpretation of Genesis 18:9-15," in the Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research. Two religion students received David Hay Memorial Research Awards to do summer research. Peter Miller researched the apocalypticism of First Enoch; and Christopher Brummitt engaged in a careful study of the Jean-Luc Marion’s God Without Being.
This fall the Philosophy Program welcomes Stephen Campbell to the Department. He is an ACM/Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow, who will teach three courses a year in the Department for each of the next two years. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Michigan, and he will be teaching courses in ethics and applied ethics for the Department during his time here. The "old timers" in the Department - Professors Hoover, Lemos, and McCormick - are still active teachers and scholars. Professor Hoover presented a paper at the Renaissance Society of America last spring and he recently published an article on the philosophy of Schleiermacher in the Journal of the History of Philosophy. Professor Lemos has recently published three articles on free will in three different journals - Dialectica, Philosophia, and The Public Affairs Quarterly. He also has a book on the subject, Freedom, Responsibility, and Determinism: A Philosophical Dialogue, scheduled to appear in print this coming spring. It is being published by Hackett Publishing. Professor McComick has been active revising his courses and developing and teaching a new course in critical thinking. Coe philosophy students continue to produce fine work themselves. Four philosophy students - Michael Anderson, James Flansberg-Sivell, Ethan Olson, and Lynnette Volden - presented papers at undergraduate philosophy conferences last spring. The papers were well-received and our students did a fine job handling questions and comments from their audiences.
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