Jack Marsh

PhD Student

Hometown
Easton, Pennsylvania

Education
PhD, Philosophy, SUNY Binghamton
MA, Philosophy, Boston College
BA, Philosophy, UNC Charlotte

Thesis Topic
My research enacts a constructive critique of Martin Heidegger’s philosophy of religion. Premised in an independent phenomenological analysis, I will show that experiences of joy and love – considered in light of the facticity of death and suffering – yield an (abyssal) ground for the meaningfulness of philosophy of religion in general, and of individuated religious communities of commitment specifically. I evidence my claims by a careful description of the livability, rationality, and possible desirability of the Christian faith as one living existential option among others; and through a demonstration of the basic intelligibility and coherence of theology as a discipline. Theology is the lived practice of taking responsibility for one’s fundamental commitments with moral, intellectual, and aesthetic integrity. 

Other Information
Jack is a former Instructor at the American University of Kuwait. He is the author of Saying Peace: Levinas, Eurocentrism, Solidarity (Albany: SUNY Press, forthcoming); and co-editor of Normativity, Meaning, and the Promise of Phenomenology (London: Routledge, 2019). His work has appeared in multiple journals, including Philosophy and Social Criticism, Philosophy Today, and Journal for the Continental Philosophy of Religion.