Brian Gregor, Ph.D

Dr. Gregor teaches courses in the history of philosophy, philosophy of religion, and religious studies. His research concerns the relation between religious faith and human subjectivity. This interest has motivated his work in post-Kantian Continental philosophy (especially Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, and Ricoeur).  This research has resulted in numerous articles and two books: A Philosophical Anthropology of the Cross: The Cruciform Self (Indiana University Press, 2013), and Ricoeur's Hermeneutics of Religion: Rebirth of the Capable Self (Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).

Dr. Gregor also studies ancient and medieval models of ethical and religious formation.  He teaches this topic in PHI 201: The Good Life, and he is nearing completion of a book on the practice of philosophy as the art of living, tentatively entitled A Short History of Philosophical Life.  More recently, his long-standing interest in hermeneutics has led from the theory of interpretation to a more direct practice of interpreting myth and literature, both in his current articles and in teaching PHI 352: Myth as Reality.

Selected Publications

Books Authored

• A Philosophical Anthropology of the Cross: The Cruciform Self. (Indiana University Press, 2013).
• Ricoeur's Hermeneutics of Religion: Rebirth of the Capable Self. (Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).

Books Edited

• Being Human, Becoming Human: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Social Thought. Eds. Jens Zimmermann and Brian Gregor. (Wipf & Stock, 2010).
• Bonhoeffer and Continental Thought: Cruciform Philosophy. Eds. Brian Gregor and Jens Zimmermann. (Indiana University Press, 2009).

Articles

• “Becoming Psyche: The Stoic Way and the Platonic Way in Till We Have Faces.” Journal of Inklings Studies 14.1 (2024), pp.1-24.
• “Meaning and Persons: The Ontology of the Word as Revelation.” Paul Ricoeur, Philosophical Hermeneutics, and the Question of Revelation. Ed. Christina M. Gschwandtner. (Lexington Books, 2024).
• “Strangers, Gods, and Demons: Toward a Carnal Hermeneutics of the Demonic.” Anacarnation: Returning to the Lived Body with Richard Kearney. Eds. Brian Treanor and James L. Taylor. (Routledge, 2023).
• “Epistles as Revelation: Expanding Ricoeur’s Account of Biblical Discourse.” Reading Scripture with Paul Ricoeur. Eds. Joseph A. Edelheit and James F. Moore. (Lexington Books, 2021).
• “On Narrating More Wisely: A Prosaic Supplement to Ricoeur’s Poetics of Narrative Identity.” B@belOnline Vol. 8 (2021): Narrative Identity between Hermeneutics and Psychoanalysis.
• “Between Barth and Eliade: Ricoeur’s Mediation of the Word and the Sacred.” A Companion to Ricoeur’s Symbolism of Evil. Ed. Scott Davidson. (Lexington Books, 2020).
• “Reflection, the Body, and Fallibility: The Mysterious Influence of Marcel in Ricoeur’s Fallible Man.” A Companion to Fallible Man. Ed. Scott Davidson. (Lexington Books, 2019).
• “Ricoeur’s Askesis: Textual and Gymnastic Exercises for Self-Transformation.” Continental Philosophy Review. Vol.51, Issue 3 (September 2018), pp.421-38.
• “The Critique of Religion and Post-Metaphysical Faith: Bonhoeffer’s Influence on Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics of Religion.” Engaging Bonhoeffer: The Impact and Influence of Bonhoeffer’s Life and Thought. Ed. Matthew Kirkpatrick. (Fortress Press, 2016).
• “The Transcendence of the Person: Bonhoeffer as a Resource for Phenomenology of Religion and Ethics.” Early Phenomenology: Metaphysics, Ethics, and the Philosophy of Religion. Ed. Brian Harding and Michael R. Kelly (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016).
• “Shame and the Other: Bonhoeffer and Levinas on Human Dignity and Ethical Responsibility.” Ontology and Ethics: Bonhoeffer and Contemporary Scholarship. Eds. Michael Mawson and Adam Clark. (Pickwick Publications, 2013).
• “The Text as Mirror: Kierkegaard and Hadot on Transformative Reading.” History of Philosophy Quarterly Vol. 28, Number 1 (January 2011), pp.65-84.
• “Dexter the Self-Interpreting Animal,” in Dexter and Philosophy (Open Court, 2011).
• “Kierkegaard and the Phenomenology of Temptation.” Kierkegaard as Phenomenologist. Ed. Jeffrey Hanson. (Northwestern University Press, 2010).
• “Following-After and Becoming Human: A Study of Bonhoeffer and Kierkegaard.” Being Human, Becoming Human: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Social Thought (Wipf & Stock, 2010), pp.152-75.
• “Bonhoeffer’s ‘Christian Social Philosophy’: Conscience, Alterity, and the Moment of Ethical Responsibility.” Bonhoeffer and Continental Thought: Cruciform Philosophy (Indiana University Press, 2009), pp.201-25.
• “Thinking through Kierkegaard’s Anti-Climacus: Art, Imagination, and Imitation.” The Heythrop Journal Vol. 50, Number 3 (May 2009), pp.448-65.
• “Friends and Neighbors: Kierkegaard and the Possibility of Transformative Friendship.” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia: “Søren Kierkegaard and Philosophy Today.” Volume 64, Numbers 2-4, (April- December 2008), pp.921-41
• “Formal Indication, Philosophy, and Theology: Bonhoeffer’s Critique of Heidegger.” Faith and Philosophy Vol. 24, No.2. April 2007: pp.185-202.
• “Selfhood and the Three R’s: Reference, Repetition, and Refiguration.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. (2005) 58: pp.63–94.
• “Eros that Never Arrives: A Phenomenological Ethics of the Erotic.” Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy, Vol. 9, No.1. (2005): pp.67-88.