ERIC MICHAEL DALE, PhD

Emerson College ● Dept. of Communication Studies

120 Boylston St. ● Boston, MA 02116

Email: eric_dale [at] emerson.edu ● emd [at] post.harvard.edu

Education:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Philosophy of Religion. Boston University. January 2009.

Alan Olson (principal advisor). Dissertation: Hegel, History, and Evil: Towards Finite Theodicies. Defended 11 Dec 2008. The committee consisted of Alan M. Olson, Michael Zank, Robert Cummings Neville, and Krzysztof Michalski of Boston University, and Gordon D. Kaufman of Harvard University.

Master of Theological Studies (MTS), Harvard University, The Divinity School, 2002.

Francis Schüssler Fiorenza (advisor). Hermeneutics, theology.

Bachelor of Music (MusB), Voice, University of Central Arkansas, 1995.

Tenor performance major, minor in German language and literature.

Appearances with Opera Memphis, the Shreveport Opera, Dallas Lyric Opera, the Arkansas Symphony, and others.

Academic Employment:

Adjunct Professor (since 2008), Fisher College, Boston, MA.

Introduction to Philosophy

Ethics

Topics in Philosophy: Philosophy of Religion

Introduction to World Religions

Honors Colloquium: Plato, Aristotle, and the Roots of Western Thought

Adjunct Professor (since 2007), Emerson College, Boston, MA.

Introduction to Ethics

Ethics and Justice

Religion in Eastern Cultures

Contemporary Ethics

Environmental Ethics

Narrative Ethics

Directed Study: The Ethics of Place: Environment and Urbanity

Visiting Instructor (since 2007), Boston University, Boston, MA.

Religion and Culture

Judaism

Religions of the World: Western

Religions of the World: Eastern

Adjunct Professor (2005-2008), Newbury College, Boston, MA.

World Religions

Introduction to Western Philosophy

Ethics

Teaching Fellow (2003-2005), Boston University, Boston, MA.

Religions of the World: Eastern

Zen Buddhism

Chinese Medicine

Theology II: Christian Theology

Theology I: History of Christian Doctrine

Areas of Teaching & Research:

Philosophy of religion

Philosophy & phenomenology (esp. Schelling, Hegel, Heidegger, Ricoeur, Lévinas, Marion)

History of philosophy

Ethics

Systematic, historical theology

World Religions (historical and comparative)

Religion and literature (esp. theology and Romantic German and English poetry)

Awards & Fellowships:

Visiting Junior Fellow, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna, Austria, 2006.

Boston University Institute for Human Sciences Fellowship and Stipend, Spring 2006.

Publications:

“Bonaventure and Phenomenology: Transcendence and the Gift” Under editorial consideration (2011)

“Humanism and Despotism: Hegel and Jaspers on Chinese History and Religion.” Existenz: An International Journal of Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts. Vol.5 No.1 (2010).

“Hegel, Jesus, and Judaism.” Animus: The Canadian Journal of Philosophy and Humanities 11 (2006)

“Europe, Religion, and Self-Identity.” IWM Post 94:16-17, Vienna, Austria, (Fall 2006)

“Hegel, Evil, and the End of History.” In History and Judgement. Eds. I. Torsen and A. MacLachlan. IWM Junior Visiting Fellows Conferences, Vol. 21. Vienna: IWM, 2006.

Selected Lectures:

“God and the Philosophers: A Reply to Nichols and Jones” American Philosophical Assoc. Pacific Division Meeting, 5 April 2012 (scheduled lecture).

“The Interplay of Ren and Li in Kongzi’s Lun Yu.” Shawnee State University Dept of English and Humanities. 22 April 2011.

“Humanism and Despotism: Hegel and Jaspers on Chinese History and Religion.” American Philosophical Assoc. Eastern Division Meeting, 28 December 2009.

“Quinquae viae: Aquinas and the Western Medieval Reception of Aristotelian Thought.” John Brown University Dept of Biblical Studies, 14 February 2008.

“Loss and the Religious Quest in the Poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin and Charles Williams.” Boston University College of Fine Arts, Tuesday Evening Lecture Series, 23 January 2007.

“The State/Individual and God/World Dynamics in Hegel's Philosophy of World History.” Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna, Austria, 15 February 2006.

“Distance and the Divine: Wordsworth, Hölderlin, and the Absence of God.” University of Texas

at Brownsville, 2005 Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, 29 September 2005. Paper accepted, declined the invitation to present.

“The Possibility of Facing Death: Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Death, and Faith.” Florida State

University, 2005 Dept. of Religion Graduate Symposium, 2 April 2005.

“Yogācāra Buddhism, Kant, and Husserl: Comparative Phenomenology or Misplaced Idealism?” Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, 4 October 2004.

“Christ and the Religions, the Religions and Christ: A Comparative Theology of Religion.” Boston University School of Theology, 30 March 2004.

“Towards a Poetics of Place: Heidegger, Hölderlin, World, and Earth.” Harvard University, The Worldly Earth: An Ecological Conference, 20 March 2004.

“Comparing Kant and Aristotle: A Contemporary Ethical Example.” Boston University,

Graduate Symposium in Philosophy of Religion, 4 November 2002.

Current Projects:

My dissertation, Hegel, History, and Evil: Towards Finite Theodicies, deals with Hegel and the issue of theodicy or the problem of evil. As a work of religious scholarship, it contributes to the conversation surrounding the nature of the divine and the question of human evil. As a work of philosophy, it is a reappraisal both of Hegel’s philosophy of history and his philosophy of religion. I problematize the prevalent critical reading of Hegel’s philosophy of history by considering Hegel’s historical theodicy in light of his so-called “end of history” thesis, and the challenges that have arisen against theodicy in the wake of Heidegger’s critique of metaphysics. In this study I take seriously the criticisms brought against Hegel’s philosophy of history and his historicist theodicy, while proposing a new way to view the relationship between the two in a more positive light.

I have revised and expanded this dissertation into two book-length manuscripts (300-350pp each) and am currently searching for an appropriate publishing opportunity for them both together or separately. The first, a work of philosophy and history, situates Hegel’s philosophy of history between its two most important predecessors, Herder and Fichte, and its two most important early critics, Engels and Nietzsche. By tracing the development of philosophy of history from Herder to Nietzsche, I am able to show the strengths and weaknesses of Hegel’s work on history. At the same time, I provide a much-needed reappraisal of Hegel’s philosophy of history. The second manuscript, a work of religion and philosophical theology, is a reading of Hegel’s historical theodicy in dialogue with Heidegger and Hölderlin. Arguing that neither Hegel’s absolute God nor Heidegger’s last God offers a satisfying account of evil, I offer an interpretation of Hölderlin’s poetic theme of an absent God, in order to suggest a new way to think about the issue of evil and the divine.

In addition, I am structuring a manuscript for a book on justice, based on my successful course at Emerson College “Ethics and Justice,” which I have taught since 2007. The book is arranged chronologically, and right now has chapters on Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, Hegel, Rawls, and Lévinas. I envision the book as both an introduction to the issues of ethics and justice, as well as an original argument about the concept of the self and the self’s relationship with notions of individual and societal justice. This manuscript is in the planning and research stage.

Finally, I am in the process of revising my theopoetical essays on Hölderlin, Hopkins, Wordsworth, and Williams, and researching work on Whitman, Auden, and Rilke, in order to present a book-length study on the theological, biblical, and philosophical theme of divine presence and absence in their poems.

Languages:

German: reading and research competence, basic speaking skills

French: reading and research competence, basic speaking skills

Biblical & Classical Greek: basic reading and research competence

Biblical Hebrew: basic reading and research competence

Professional Affiliations:

American Academy of Religion

American Philosophical Association

Society of Biblical Literature

Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy

Society of Christian Philosophers

The Medieval Academy of America

References:

Professional references dealing with teaching as well as scholarship can be supplied upon request.