September 21, 2017

A new semester has begun and the new crop of students seem quite engaged in the material thus far. This is always good news when this happens! It was a rather slow summer this year, but that allowed me to concentrate exlusively on finishing the content of my book, Gods of this World. Speaking of which, the book is now completed. I have made some additional modifications as well as deletions that have brought the page count down to what was originally projected. I am now going through the polishing phase by going through each chapter again with an eye toward the narrative. It is my hope that things do not (or need to) change much. Following that process, I'll be formatting the manuscript in accord with Wipf and Stock's publishing criteria. This has been a thrilling endeavor! I hope the project spawns speaking engagements, talks, lectures, and - of course - a second edition. I also hope that a popular-level version of the book is called for. I would love to make the material palatable to nonspecialists and laypersons.

I am also continuing to work on other articles and such (one is currently under review at Journal of Religion), and I hope to submit one soon on the subject of Augustine and paranormal activity. I did finish a contribution to the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Philosophy over the summer as well as a contribution to the second edition of the Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion (Bloomsbury).