Ronney B. Mourad

Professor

E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: (517) 629-0354

Dr. Ron Mourad specializes in the philosophy of religion and Christian theology. While teaching a broad range of courses in these areas, his scholarship focuses on the epistemology of religion and its implications for theological method. In particular, he has written about religious uses of transcendental arguments, Reformed epistemology, religious experience and Christian mysticism, the ethics of belief, the place of religious convictions in political and academic discourse, and the distinctiveness of theological criteria of truth. He is currently writing a series of articles on the concept and ethics of religious faith.

Courses

• RS101 Introduction to Western Religions
• RS131 Introduction to Christian Thought
• RS232 Faith and Reason
• RS234 Philosophy of Religion
• RS242 Christian Ethics
• RS270 Liberation Theology
• RS250 Mysticism and Ecstasy
  RS330 American Christianities
• LA101 Religion and Science
• HSP135 Religion and Politics

Education

• Ph.D. Philosophy of Religion, University of Chicago, 2002
• M.A. Divinity, University of Chicago, 1995
• B.A. Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1994; graduated summa cum laude and with distinction

Career

• Full Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Albion College, Fall 2012 – present.
• Chair, Religious Studies Department, Albion College, Spring 2008-2014.
• Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Albion College, Fall 2007 – Spring 2012
• Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Albion College, Fall 2001 – Spring 2007
• Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Calvin College, 1998

Books

• Jeanne Guyon: Selected Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, translated, edited, and introduced with Dianne Guenin-Lelle (Paulist Press, 2012)
• The Prison Narratives of Jeanne Guyon, translated, edited, and introduced with Dianne Guenin-Lelle (Oxford University Press, 2011)
• Transcendental Arguments and Justified Christian Belief (University Press of America, 2005)

Journal Articles

• “Choosing to Believe,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion (February 2008); reprinted in Ethics of Belief: Essays in Tribute to D.Z. Phillips, edited by  Eugene Thomas Long and Patrick Horn (Springer Publishing, 2008).
• “Religiosity, Religious Doubt, and the Need for Cognition: Their Interactive Relationship with Life Satisfaction,” Journal of Happiness Studies (2006), co-author.
• “Argumentative Justification and Religious Experience,” Journal of Religion, July 2005.
• “Proper Function and Justified Christian Belief,” Journal of Religion, October 2001.
• “Credibility and Warrant in Theology: An Epistemological Synthesis,” American Journal of Theology and Philosophy, May 2000.

Online Publications

Podcats:  Ultimate Concerns

• Response to “Justification and Truth, Relativism and Pragmatism: Reflections on Indian Philosophy and its Lessons for Religious Studies” by Dan Arnold. The Religion & Culture Web Forum (November 2006). The Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion.

Book Reviews

• Review of Josephy J. Godfrey’s Trust of People, Words, and God:  A Route for Philosophy of Religion (July 2015)
  Review of Robert McKim’s On Religious Diversity in The Journal of Religion (July 2014)
• Review of Angus Ritchie’s From Morality to Metaphysics: The Theistic Implications of our Ethical Commitments in the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion (September 2013)
• Review of Kevin Harrelson’s The Ontological Argument from Descartes to Hegel in Teaching Philosophy (June 2012)
• Review of Patricia Ward’s Experimental Theology in America: Madame Guyon, Fénelon, and Their Readers in the Journal of Religion (July 2012)
• Review of Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley’s Knowledge of God in the Journal of Religion (October 2010)
• Review of Paul K. Moser’s The Elusive God: Reorienting Religious Epistemology in the Journal of Religion (October 2009).
• Review of Stephen Davis’s Christian Philosophical Theology in the Journal of Religion (January 2008).
• Review of J. L. Schellenberg’s Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion in the Journal of Religion, January 2007.
• Review of William Rowe’s Can God Be Free? in the Journal of Religion, October 2005.
• Review of Paul Helm, Faith with Reason in the Journal of Religion, April 2002.
• Review of Sue Patterson, Realist Christian Theology in a Postmodern Age in the Journal of Religion, April 2001.