Dr. Michael L. Peterson
Professor of Philosophy
Dr. Michael L. Peterson is Professor of Philosophy. He has written or been senior author in a number of books: Reason and Religious Belief (Oxford University Press, now in 5th edition); 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); C. S. Lewis and the Christian Worldview (Oxford); and Monotheism, Suffering, and Evil (Cambridge). He has edited Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings (Oxford, now in 5th edition); Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell of Oxford, now in 2nd edition); and The Problem of Evil: Selected Readings (Notre Dame, now in 2nd edition). Both of Dr. Peterson’s current Oxford books in the philosophy of religion are long-time leading textbooks.
Dr. Peterson has several forthcoming books. His book Jesus and the Genome: The Intersection of Christology and Biology is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2024. His book Suffering and the Book of Job: Humanity’s Universal Problem in an Individual Life is forthcoming from Cambridge in 2025. He is currently coediting with Timothy Pawl The Cambridge Companion to Christology, a major reference volume with the latest scholarship, which is forthcoming in 2025. Dr. Peterson is working on a book entitled Science and Religion: The Basic Issues that is scheduled to be published by Cambridge in 2026.
Dr. Peterson is General Editor of two series of academic books. The first series is themed “The Problems of God” published by Cambridge University Press. This series will eventually include fifty volumes from experts on important issues and topics related to belief in God. The second scholarly monograph series is entitled “Exploring Philosophy of Religion,” published by Wiley-Blackwell of Oxford.
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.
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.