Posts & Reflections
Thoughts on philosophy and theology; helpful advice on teaching, learning, and coding.
Featured Series
The Archive
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Is the “state of nature” just a relic of early modern philosophy, or is it a warning about our future?
Recent geopolitical upheavals reveal that our rules-based international order is far more fragile than we might care to admit. When the raw logic of power reasserts itself, we are forced to ask: are we witnessing cracks in the ‘thin veneer’ of civilisation?This new blog post, published to accompany the launch of my new book, explores
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Two upcoming book launch events
The stories we assume about human origins profoundly shape our modern assumptions about freedom and equality, our relationship to each other and the natural world.Unpacking these philosophical origin stories isn’t just an exercise in history; it gives us a remarkably powerful lens for understanding the complex forces driving our contemporary political and cultural landscape.If you’re
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Jean-Luc Nancy and the Deconstruction of Christianity: A Conversation with Ashok Collins
What happens when deconstruction turns toward religion? And what might Christianity look like when read through the philosophical lens of Jean-Luc Nancy? In this interview I speak with Dr Ashok Collins about his book Jean-Luc Nancy and the Deconstruction of Christianity. Our conversation explores the complex relationship between deconstruction, theology, and contemporary continental philosophy. You
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French Technological Thought and the Nonhuman Turn: A Conversation with Madeleine Chalmers
How should we think about technology philosophically? And why has contemporary theory increasingly turned toward the nonhuman—toward machines, objects, and technological systems—as key actors in shaping our world? In this interview, I speak with Dr Madeleine Chalmers about her book French Technological Thought and the Nonhuman Turn. The conversation explores a fascinating intellectual genealogy linking
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Witnessing Plasticity: A Conversation with Benjamin Dalton
What happens when philosophy meets the fragility of the human body? In this episode of the Crosscurrents series, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Benjamin Dalton about his new book Catherine Malabou and Contemporary French Literature and Film: Witnessing Plasticity. The conversation explores the provocative idea of plasticity—a concept developed by the contemporary
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Spaced Repetition and AI: A Data-Driven Approach to Vocabulary Learning
Language learners often face a familiar frustration: memorising vocabulary feels easy in the moment, but the words quickly fade from memory. Traditional vocabulary lists and last-minute revision rarely lead to long-term retention. To address this problem, I recently developed a vocabulary learning aid designed to help students organise and review the words they are learning
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Stob lecture 2025 Video. The Human Remains: Fragility and Fulfilment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Here is a video of my 2025 Stob lecture, exploring the philosophical and theological implications of AI. My title was “The Human Remains: Fragility and Fulfilment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”. I set out to argue that this is a very exciting time to be a philosopher or theologian, because AI is forcing on
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Armitage Lecture 2025: “Custodians of the Common Good: Christian Education in a Post-Christian World”
In June I had the honour of delivering the annual Isaac Armitage Lecture at the Shore School, Sydney. My title was “Custodians of the Common Good: Christian Education in a Post-Christian World”. The video is now available: More information about the lecture can be found here.
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The State of Nature and the Shaping of Modernity: Introduction
An introduction to the book The State of Nature and the Shaping of Modernity: Tracing the Roots of Colonialism, Secularity, and Ecology, forthcoming with Cambridge University Press in 2025. In this video, the first in a new series and rather longer than the others, I read the book’s Introduction, entitled “The State
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Teaching hacks #1: Quick way to bulk create, name, populate and share Google docs from a list of names and emails
Univeristy lecturers sometimes need to create a Google doc for every student in a unit containing information or sections for the student to complete, and share each document with a specific student. A hyperlinked list of the documents is then added to the LMS, and each student can access only their own document and add