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

Assistant 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 an Assistant Professor at Baylor for three years. 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. He specializes in Christian ethics, focusing 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, and Protestant retrievals of natural law.

Grants and Fellowships:

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)

Selected Research Articles:

"Moses: The Positive and Negative Importance of Moses in Kierkegaard's Thought," in Kierkegaard and the Bible. Volume 1, Tome I of Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, ed. Lee Barrett (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) – forthcoming 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. 121-141), ed. Robert L. Perkins (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2008).

"Origen: Kierkegaard's Equivocal Appropriation of Origen of Alexandria," in Kierkegaard and the Patristic and Medieval Traditions (pp. 111-122). Volume 4 of Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, ed. Jon Stewart (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2008).

"The Problematic Development of the Sacraments in the Thought of John Howard Yoder," Conrad Grebel Review 24(3) (Fall 2006): 65-77.

"On the Superiority of the New Law: Stumbling through some Difficulties with Thomas Aquinas," Theology Today 60(2) (July 2003): 170-185.

"The Invigoration of Kierkegaardian Ethics," Religious Studies Review 29(1) January 2003): 29-33.

Books:

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

Current Ph.D. Students:

Will Williams
Matt Porter

Courses Taught at Baylor:

REL 3390 Christian Ethics
REL 4393 Environmental Ethics
REL 3394 War and Peace in the Christian Tradition
REL 5393 Contemporary Problems in Christian Ethics