Research

My three primary areas of research are Metaphysics, and Philosophical Theology, and Moral Psychology

• In Metaphysics, I have argued that Orthodox Truthmaker Theory – the claim that every truth requires a necessitating truthmaker – is inconsistent with traditional theism and also inconsistent with certain intuitive types of change and difference.  I have argued against David Armstrong’s truthmakers for modal truths.  And I have argued that a powers account of truthmakers for truths of possibility can answer nine pressing objections.
• In Philosophical Theology, I have done much work on Christology.  Call the Christology of the first seven Ecumenical Councils “Conciliar Christology.”  My view is that any philosophical objection to Conciliar Christology fails.  To that end, I have provided a solution to the most pressing philosophical problem for Christology, I have analyzed the logical isomorphism between that problem and the problem of Temporary Intrinsics in contemporary analytic metaphysics, and I have analyzed two arguments for the thesis that Christ’s omniscience would render his own actions unfree.  This Christological work has cumulated in three books on the subject.  I have also written on the Trinity, the doctrine of transubstantiation, two articles on Aquinas’s Five Ways,  two articles with Kevin Timpe on the freedom of the redeemed in heaven, an article on the Problem of Evil, and an encyclopedia article on Divine Immutability. I also do work on Classical Theism, especially the doctrine of Divine Simplicity.
• In Moral Psychology, I think about the interrelations between the practical advice found in the Christian Moral Wisdom concerning growth in virtue and the contemporary psychological work on the same. I’ve coauthored an article on patience in Christian Moral Wisdom and contemporary psychology with Juliette Ratchford (Baylor) and Sarah Schnitker (Baylor). We are currently working on the virtue of perseverance and the concept of virtue itself. In addition, we are putting together a study on the effectiveness of various varieties of motivation in virtue acquisition.