I am Historian in Residence in the George L. Mosse Program in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Queensland and in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

My recent book, Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict, reinterprets the origins, development, and popularization of the “conflict thesis,” the idea that science and religion are fundamentally and irrevocably at odds.

As an intellectual historian, my research interests ranges over the history of Christian thought, from antiquity to the present. I have a double B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the University of California-Davis. I completed my M.A. in the History of Christianity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Finally, I earned my PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Queensland, where I studied under distinguished early modern historian, Peter Harrison.

I have published articles in such journals as Notes and Records of the Royal Society of the History of ScienceNotes and QueriesZygonScience & Christian BeliefChurch HistoryHistorical Studies in the Natural Sciences, and Fides et Historia. I also have more popular pieces in magazines such as Christian HistoryChristianity Today, and God and Nature, including blog posts for the Emerging Scholars Network and BioLogos. I am also an avid reader and reviewer of books, and my reviews have appeared in the online blogs Reading Religion of the American Academy of Religion, The British Society for Literature and Science, H-Net Reviews in the Humanities & Social Sciences Online, and journals Zygon, Journal of Religious History, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, and Fides et Historia.

As a trained philosopher, scholar of religion, and church historian, I have had the opportunity to teach courses in Early Christianity, Western Religious Thought, Western Civilization, World Religions, Science and Religion, in addition to many courses in Biblical Studies.