Dr. Michael L. Peterson
Professor of Philosophy
Dr. Michael L. Peterson is Professor of Philosophy of Religion. He has written or been senior author in a number of books: Reason and Religious Belief (Oxford University Press; 5 editions); God and Evil: An Introduction to the Issues (HarperCollins/Westview); With All Your Mind: A Christian Philosophy of Education (University of Notre Dame Press); Evil and the Christian God (Baker Books); Philosophy of Education: Issues and Options (InterVarsity Press); Science, Evolution, and Religion: A Debate about Atheism and Theism (with Michael Ruse, Oxford University Press); Biology, Religion, and Philosophy: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press); and C. S. Lewis and the Christian Worldview (Oxford). He has edited Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings (Oxford 5 editions); Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell of Oxford, 2nd edition); and The Problem of Evil: Selected Readings (Notre Dame, now in 2nd edition). Monotheism, Suffering, and Evil (Cambridge, forthcoming). He is General Editor of the Wiley-Blackwell scholarly monograph series “Exploring Philosophy of Religion,” which currently contains five books. He is currently working on three books: Monotheism, Suffering, and Evil (Cambridge, forthcoming), Christian Theism and the Problem of Evil (Wiley-Blackwell Publishers of Oxford, forthcoming) and The Problem of Suffering in the Book of Job. Both of Dr. Peterson’s current Oxford books in philosophy of religion are long-time leading textbooks which are now in fifth editions. He is currently editing “The Problems of God” book series for Cambridge University Press, fifty volumes from experts on important issues and topics related to belief in God. He is currently coediting with Timothy Pawl The Cambridge Companion to Christology, a reference volume of the latest scholarship.
Dr. Peterson has contributed chapters to many reference books and scholarly works, including The Oxford Handbook of Religious Diversity: Contemporary Challenges, Global Responses; The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology; Blackwell Companion to Philosophy of Religion; The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy; C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty; The Continuing Relevance of Wesleyan Theology: Essays in Honor of Laurence W. Wood; Philosophy and the Christian Worldview: Analysis, Assessment, and Development; Basketball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Paint; Handbook on Science and Religion; The History of Evil (6 volumes); The Oxford Handbook of Atheism; and The Cambridge Handbook on Evolutionary Ethics, and the Cambridge Companion to Religious Experience (forthcoming).
Dr. Peterson has received both research grants and programmatic grants from various major foundations: Lilly Endowment, Pew Charitable Trust, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Institute for Advanced Christian Scholarship. Dr. Peterson launched and continues as the Managing Editor of the prestigious scholarly journal Faith and Philosophy, published at Asbury Theological Seminary and now available free and open access worldwide at faithandphilosophy.com. He has lectured widely and conducted a large number of seminars and workshops on topics in his areas of expertise.