Religion & Philosophy Faculty

Dr. Brent Adkins
Ph.D., Loyola University of Chicago
Office phone:(540) 378-5152
Email: adkins@roanoke.edu
Office Hours: MWF 1:10-2:10pm

Dr. Adkins is an associate professor of Philosophy. His primary interests are 19th and 20th Century European philosophy, Modern Philosphy, and politics. His most recent book is entitled Death and Desire in Hegel, Heidegger and Deleuze (2007), and he has a book forthcoming entitled True Freedom: Spinoza's Practical Philosophy (2009). He has published numerous articles in journals such as Kantian Review, International Philosophical Quarterly, and Philosophy Today.

Dr. Robert Benne
Ph.D., University of Chicago
Office phone: (540) 375-2378
Email: benne@roanoke.edu
Office Hours: contact for appointment

Dr. Benne is director of the Center for Religion and Society. He came to Roanoke from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago in 1982. He is a leading figure in Lutheran ethics and social thought. A selection of his publications illustrates his interests: The Ethic of Democratic Capitalism: A Moral Reassessment; Ordinary Saints: An Introduction to the Christian Life; The Paradoxical Vision: A Public Theology for the Twenty-first Century; Seeing is Believing: Vision of Life Through Film. He is currently working on a study of higher education in Lutheran and other Christian denominations.

Dr. Jennifer K. Berenson
Ph.D., Harvard University
Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Administration
Office: Administration 115
Office phone: (540) 375-2204
Email: berenson@roanoke.edu
Office Hours: contact Dianne Eary (375-2204) for appointments
Website: Dr. Berenson's page

Dr. Berenson has taught at Roanoke College since 1996. Her training is in the New Testament and Christian origins, and she is particularly interested in the history of the Pauline communities after the death of the apostle Paul. The literary productions of these inheritors of Paul and their interpretation of oral Christian traditions and Pauline texts are particular areas of her research. She is also currently completing for publication the Heroikos by Philostratus, a sophist from the 3rd century CE.

Dr. Paul Hinlicky
Ph.D., Union Theological Seminary
Office phone: (540) 375-2454
Email: hinlicky@roanoke.edu
Office Hours: 8:30am - 11:50am Wed, or by appointment
Website: Dr. Hinlicky's page

Dr. Hinlicky came to Roanoke College after six years of service in post-communist Slovakia as a missionary professor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, of which he is an ordained minister. His background is in classical theology and modern continental philosophy. Committed to the tradition of Lutheran confessional theology, he is interested in developing an ecumenically-oriented Christian systematic theology and ethics. He is concerned to meet varied contemporary challenges, preeminently the scientific view of the history of the cosmos, the dangers of cultural nihilism, and the disunity of the churches.

Dr. Marwood Larson-Harris
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion
Office phone: (540) 375-2083
Email: mdharris@roanoke.edu
Office Hours: 10:50am - 11:50am Mon, Wed

Dr. Gerald McDermott
Ph.D., University of Iowa
Office phone: (540) 375-2375
Email: mcdermot@roanoke.edu
Office Hours: on sabbatical
Website: Dr. McDermott's page

Dr. McDermott started teaching at Roanoke College in 1989.
He teaches courses in American religion, history of world Christianity, Jonathan Edwards, and the theology of the religions. His scholarship has been devoted to the relationship of faith and serious illness, how Christians should think about the world religions, the American theologian Jonathan Edwards, and other theological issues. The author of thirteen books, his most recent are The Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology (forthcoming) Understanding Jonathan Edwards (Oxford University Press, 2009), and The Great Theologians: A Brief Guide (Intervarsity, February 2010). He is now at work on the first-ever systematic and comprehensive survey of the theology of Jonathan Edwards.

Dr. Eric Rothgery

Office phone: (540) 375-5253
E-mail: rothgery@roanoke.edu
Office Hours: 9:00am -10:00am and 3:00pm - 4:00pm Tu/Th

Dr. Monica Vilhauer
Ph.D., New School for Social Research
Office phone: (540) 375-2458
Email: vilhauer@roanoke.edu
Office Hours: 4:00pm - 5:30pm Mon, Wed, or by appointment

Dr. Vilhauer is assistant professor of philosophy. Her primary interests are in ethics, social-political philosophy, feminist philosophy, ancient philosophy, and 19th and 20th Century European philosophy. She is currently working on a book that explores the ethical dimensions of Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics.

Dr. Ned Wisnefske
Ph.D., University of Chicago
Office phone: (540) 375-2372
Email: wisnefsk@roanoke.edu .
Office Hours: 10:50-11:50am MWF, 1:10-2:40pm Tu

Dr. Wisnefske came to Roanoke College in 1985 after teaching at Luther Seminary. His background is in modern theology and philosophy. Currently he is exploring the idea that there is a domain of moral truth common to all persons. If so, it can provide common ground between believers and non-believers, and common convictions for people from divergent backgrounds and different disciplines.

Dr. Hans Zorn - Chairperson
Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Office phone: (540) 375-2024.
Email: zorn@roanoke.edu .
Office Hours: 2:20pm - 3:20pm Mon, Wed; 1:10pm - 2:40pm Tue, Thu

Dr. Zorn is Professor of Philosophy, has taught previously at the University of Toledo, the University of Notre Dame, and Valparaiso University. His primary areas of interest are the philosophy of religion, ancient and medieval philosophy, and metaphysics. He is particularly interested in the ways in which philosophers attempt to push the limits of thought to encompass what cannot be said.