Paul Martens

Contact Information:
Department of Religion
Baylor University
One Bear Place #97284
Waco, TX 76798-7284

Office: Tidwell 501A

Phone: (254) 710-6327
FAX: (254) 710-3740

Email:
Paul_Martens@baylor.edu

Associate Professor

Education:

Ph.D. University of Notre Dame, 2005
Th.M. Regent College (Vancouver), 2000
M.C.S. Regent College (Vancouver), 1997
B.A. Providence College (Manitoba), 1994

Biography:

Dr. Paul Martens, born and raised on the Canadian prairies, has been teaching at Baylor since 2006. He graduated with a PhD in Theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2005 and spent the subsequent year as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Notre Dame. Specializing in Christian ethics, his research focuses on the thought of Søren Kierkegaard and on the issues surrounding Christian articulations of pacifism and just war. Outside of the office, he enjoys spending time with his wife and four daughters, cycling, and running ultramarathons.

Academic Interests and Research:

Christian ethics and theology, philosophical theology, Søren Kierkegaard, John Howard Yoder, pacifism and just war, environmental ethics, Protestant retrievals of natural law, and the relationship between Scripture and ethics.

Grants and Fellowships:

Lilly Fellows Program Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers (2012), Corrymeela Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, Ballycastle, Northern Ireland (voluntary withdrawal for family medical reasons)

University Research Committee Small Grant (Religion and Environmental Ethics in North America), Baylor University (Fall 2008 – Spring 2009)

Edward Sorin Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Notre Dame Graduate School (Fall 2005 – Summer 2006)

Doctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada (Fall 2003 – Spring 2004)

Presidential Fellowship, University of Notre Dame, (Fall 2000 – Spring 2004)

Books:

Isaiah. Brazos Theological Commentary Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press (contracted).

Kierkegaard: A (Very) Critical Introduction. Intervention Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013 - forthcoming.

Reading Kierkegaard I: A Guide to Fear and Trembling. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013 – forthcoming.

Reading Kierkegaard II: A Guide to Works of Love. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013 - forthcoming.

The Heterodox Yoder. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2012.

Edited Volumes

(with Mark Nation, Matthew Porter, and Myles Werntz) John Howard Yoder, Revolutionary Christianity: The 1966 South American Lectures. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2012.

(with Jenny Howell) John Howard Yoder: Spiritual Writings, Modern Spiritual Masters Series. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 2011.

(with Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz) John Howard Yoder, Nonviolence – A Brief History: The Warsaw Lectures. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2010.

Selected Research Articles:

"Kierkegaard and the Bible," in The Oxford Handbook to Kierkegaard, eds. George Pattison and John Lippitt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) – forthcoming in January.

"George Steiner: Playing Kierkegaard's Theological-Philosophic-Psychological Sports," in Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature, Criticism, and Art. Volume 12, Tome III of Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, ed. Jon Stewart (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2013) – forthcoming in March.

"With the Natural Grain of the Universe: Reexamining the Alleged Pacifist Rejection of Natural Law" Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 32.2 (2012) – forthcoming.

"Iris Murdoch: Kierkegaard as Existentialist, Romantic, Hegelian, and Problematically Religious," in Kierkegaard's Influence on Philosophy. Volume 11, Tome III of Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources (pp. 135-56), ed. Jon Stewart (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2012).

"‘The Changelessness of God' as Kierkegaard's Final Theodicy: God and the Gift of Suffering," (with Tom Millay) International Journal of Systematic Theology 13.2 (2011): 170-189.

"The Pharisee: Kierkegaard's Personification of a Univocal Idea," in Kierkegaard and the Bible. Volume 1, Tome II of Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources (pp. 93-105), ed. Lee C. Barrett and Jon Stewart (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2010).

"Universal History and a Not-Particularly-Christian Particularity: Jeremiah and John Howard Yoder's Social Gospel," Power and Practices: Engaging the Work of John Howard Yoder (pp. 131-46), eds. Jeremy Bergen and Anthony Siegrist (Scottdale: Herald Press, 2009).

"Authority, Apostleship, and Kierkegaard's Bifurcation of the Bible: The Occasion of the Book on Adler," in International Kierkegaard Commentary: The Book on Adler (pp. 121-41), ed. Robert L. Perkins (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2008).

"The Problematic Development of the Sacraments in the Thought of John Howard Yoder," Conrad Grebel Review 24.3 (Fall 2006): 65-77.

Current Ph.D. Students:

Brandon Frick
Matthew Porter
Jeremy Stirm
Ian Panth
Daniel Marrs

Courses Taught at Baylor:

REL 1350 The Christian Heritage
REL 3390 Christian Ethics
REL 3394 War and Peace in the Christian Tradition
REL 4390 Contemporary Christian Ethics Theory
REL 4393 Environmental Ethics
REL 5393 Contemporary Problems in Christian Ethics