EDUCATION
HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL, Th.D., New Testament Studies. 1977
GRADUATE THEOLOGICAL UNION, BERKELEY CALIF., Doctoral Candidate in Biblical Studies. 1967-69.
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION COLLEGE, OCONOMOWOC, WISC., Graduate Studies in Theology. 1962-66, B.A., Medieval Philosophy. 1962.
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
Director of Asian Studies, UMass Boston 1995-2010
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, BOSTON
Lecturer in Religious Studies 1978-82, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, Philosophy, Asian Studies, Law and Justice Program, and Honors Program 1983-2013. Officially retired June, 2013
BOSTON UNIVERSITY. Lecturer, Spring and Fall 1997-98
WELLESLEY COLLEGE. Visiting Assistant Prof. Spring 1996
WHEATON COLLEGE, NORTON, MA. Visiting Assistant Professor. 1982-83
LANGUAGES
Research Ability: Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Chinese, Pali
Fluent Reading: German, French, Spanish, Italian
BOOKS
Rational Spirituality and Divine Virtue in Plato: a modern interpretation and philosophical defense of Platonism. (Albany, State University of New York Press. 2017)
Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching. Co-edited with Livia Kohn(12 essays by an international team of scholars). (Albany NY: State Univ. of New York Press. 1998. Won “Outstanding Book of the Year” award from the library journal Choice, December 1998.)
Tao and Method: A Reasoned Approach to the Tao Te Ching. (Albany NY: State University of New York Press. 1994. 642 pp.)
The Tao of the Tao Te Ching: A Translation and Commentary. (Albany NY: State University of New York Press. 1992. 270 pp.) 13,000 copies sold as of Sept. 2011
Language and Gnosis: Form and Meaning in the Acts of Thomas (Philadelphia: Fortress Press. 1985.)
ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES
Daodejing. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy 1998.
Laozi. In Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion (forthcoming)
ARTICLES
“Hermeneutics and Pedagogy: gimme that old time historicism” in Teaching the Daode Jing. Ed. Gary DeAngelis and Warren Frisina. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. 2008
“More ‘Mencius-on-human-nature’ discussions: what are they about?” China Review International Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring 2003, p. 1-28.
“God and Tao: an experiment in Historicist Theology and Critical Interpretation” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 29(1), p. 35-64, March 2002
“‘Nature’ as part of human culture in Taoism” in Taoism and Ecology: Ways within a cosmic landscape. Ed. N.J. Girardot, James Miller, Liu Xiaogan. (Harvard University Press. Cambridge: 2001)
“The Authority of the Excluded: Mark’s Challenge to a Rational Hermeneutics.” In Religious Propaganda and Missionary Competition in the New Testament World: Essays Honoring Dieter Georgi. Supplement to Novum Testamentum No. 74. Eds Lukas Borman, Kelly DelTredici, and Angela Standhartinger. Leiden: Brill, 1994. 229-55
Book Review of Chan Insights and Oversights by Bernard Faure, China Review International 1:1 pp. 81-86.
“Radically Pluralist, Thoroughly Critical: A New Theory of Religions.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 60 n. 4 (Winter 1992) pp. 693-715.
“Social Roles: Western Intellectuals and Confucian Literati” Continuum 2:2-3, 354-57.
“Form-criticism and the Tao te ching”. Continuum 1:2 (Winter-Spring 1991) 54-70.
“Interpreting the Aphorisms in the Tao te ching”. Journal of Chinese Religions No. 18 (Fall 1990) 25-43.
“Are Texts Determinate? Derrida, Barth, and the Role of the Biblical Scholar”. Harvard Theological Review. 81:3 (1988) 341-57.
“Socio-Historical Research and the Contextualization of Biblical Theology”. In P. Borgen, E. S. Frerichs, R. Horsley, and J. Neusner eds., The Social World of Formative Christianity and Judaism: Essays in Tribute to Howard Clark Kee. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press. 1988) 3-16.
“Orphica” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Ed. James H. Charlesworth. NY: Doubleday 1985, vol. II, p. 795-801
RECENT CONFERENCES
World Conference on Sinology, People’s University in Beijing, March 2007. Presentation “Against ‘Confucian Philosophy’: Self-cultivation and Leadership Skills in the Analects and the Mencius“
Conference on Early Chinese Philosophy, University of Leuven in Belgium, June 2005. Invited Discussant and Respondent to two papers on the Mozi.
