Since being inspired, in the late 1960s, by the teaching of Paul L. Holmer at Yale, I have been interested in moral psychology, with focus on the emotions and their involvement in human virtues. Also under Holmer’s inspiration, I pursue these themes within a Christian framework, but see them as continuous in many ways with the thought of ancient and modern pagans. Like the ancients, both pagan and Christian, and like Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein more recently, I think of moral psychological thinking as contributing to character formation and formation in wisdom of persons who engage in it in a certain way and of those whose minds are appropriately affected by the thinkers’ reflections. 

I hope to make available on this web site a few of the papers that I’m working on, as well as a few older items that may not be easily available. 

I retired from Baylor University’s philosophy department in 2015, after 14 happy years there. Previously, I had taught philosophy at Western Kentucky University (1973–1984) and Wheaton College in Illinois (1984–2000). I reside in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

Recently I published, with Daniel Telech as co-editor, THE MORAL PSYCHOLOGY OF GRATITUDE with Roman and Littlefield. This book is part of a series of volumes on the moral psychology of emotions, under the direction of Mark Alfano.  

I have a profile on ResearchGate.