Degrees, Certificates and Certifications
- PhD, Louisiana State University
- MA, Louisiana State University
- MS, Walsh College
- MA, Louisiana State University
- BA, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
My Teaching Philosophy
You can’t teach people if they don’t want to learn, so it is essential to give students a reason to learn. Also, I am like a tour guide in a museum. I’m not the painting. I’m not the painter. The author of the primary work (e.g. Aristotle, Augustine, Kant, Nozick, Rawls) is the artist. The student has to experience the painting with his or her own eyes. I am there to enable that experience and make it more effective.
Why I am at NU
Northwood students have a clear sense of purpose, and they are able to pursue that purpose without a lot of the politics or ideology that makes other universities less effective. We also appreciate what businesses do. Though we need to be mindful that there is more to life than commerce or finance, for example, we shouldn’t apologize for the good work that businesses do to make life better for everyone, or presume that businesses owe something to everyone.
Selected Publications
- “Free Exercise and Establishment in Colonial America” in The Cambridge Companion to the First Amendment and Religious Liberty (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
- Justifying Revolution: Law, Virtue, and Violence in the American War of Independence (co-edited) (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018)
- Politics Reformed: The Anglo-American Legacy of Covenant Theology (University of Missouri Press, 2010)
- “Ferris Bueller’s Vacation Vocation” Public Discourse (http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/) Published August 6, 2019
- “False Choices: Religion’s Role in the American Revolution” (http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/) Published June 19, 2019
