C Stephen Evans
Biographic Data
| ID | 998987 |
|---|---|
| NAME | C Stephen Evans |
| GIVEN NAMES | C Stephen |
| FAMILY NAME | Evans |
| SIGNATURE | EVANS C S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Baylor University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1453-5239 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Religion, Accountability, and the Risk of Aggressive Misconduct Among Prisoners
Prior research has found inverse relationship between religious involvement and misconduct among prisoners. In this study, we examined the mediating role of accountability as welcoming responsibility for one’s actions with respect to the transcendent (e.g., God or a higher power) and other people. We applied structural equation modeling to analyze data from surveys with 339 individuals (108 females and 231 males) incarcerated at three facilities …
Kierkegaard, Virtues and Vices
In recent years, scholars have been divided on what to make of Kierkegaard's relation to what some have called the virtues tradition
Patriotism and Love of the Neighbor
Though patriotism has traditionally been considered a virtue, in many countries of the world today, the status of patriotism as a virtue has been challenged. Philosopher John Hare has recently defended patriotism as a virtue. Kierkegaard, with his suspicion of "the crowd" and attack on "Christendom" has sometimes been thought to be one of the critics of patriotism. This paper argues that Kierkegaard's view is actually close to Hare's. Kierkegaard…
Accountability and the Fear of the Lord
Why did the Biblical writers see the fear of the Lord as a virtue that is conducive to human flourishing? It is difficult for contemporary readers to understand how fear of anything can be virtuous. I propose that the fear of the Lord should be understood as accountability to God. I defend the claim that someone who displays excellence in an accountability relationship does display a virtue, and that this virtue is particularly valuable when exer…
Does Darwall's Morality of Accountability Require Moral Realism? (And Would It Be Strengthened by Adding God to the Story)
Stephen Darwall has developed an account of moral obligations as grounded in "second-personal reasons," which was developed in conversation with early modern "theological voluntarists" who were divine command theorists. For Darwall, morality does not require accountability to God; humans as autonomous moral agents are the source of moral obligations. In this paper, I try to show that Darwall is vulnerable to some objections made against divine co…
God's Own Ethics
Mark C. Murphy's God's Own Ethics is an exercise in what has come to be called Anselmian perfect-being theology, the attempt to determine the nature of God understood as an absolutely perfect being. The book is bold, original, and carefully argued, and it takes on several tasks. The first is an examination of what norms would govern the actions of an absolutely perfect being, an agent generally referred to in the work as “the Anselmian being.” (U…
Doing Psychology as a Christian
Although trained as a philosopher, I have always had a great interest and appreciation for the field of psychology. Part of that interest stems From a concern for philosophical issues that overlap psychology: the mind-body problem and the nature of consciousness, the philosophy of action and problems concerning freedom and determinism, for example. Theological concerns have also motivated an interest in psychology, since it is difficult to see ho…
Is there a Basis for Loving All People
Many ethical systems hold that there are obligations to love and value all human beings. This essay assumes the existence of such universal obligations, and argues that a divine command meta-ethical theory provides a better account of these obligations than secular meta-ethical theories, such as the evolutionary biology and contractual meta-ethical accounts that are favored by many psychologists. God's command to humans to love their neighbors as…
Central Works of Philosophy
CENTRAL WORKS OF PHILOSOPHY is a multi-volume set of essays on the core texts of the western philosophical tradition. From Plato's Republic to the present day, the volumes range over 2,500 years of philosophical writing covering the best, most representative, and most influential work of some of our greatest philosophers. Each essay has been specially commissioned and provides an overview of the work and clear and authoritative exposition of its …
Kierkegaard and the Limits of the Ethical
Developing Wisdom in Christian Psychologists
A major topic of the Rech Conference on Christian Graduate Training in Psychology was that of the “Christian virtues” as potentially powerful therapeutic factors that should be manifested in the lives of Christian psychologists. Yet, the Christian training programs do little to intentionally develop such virtues. This paper is a case study examining the virtue of wisdom as one of the central characteristics that should be encouraged in psychology…
The Epistemological Significance of Transformative Religious Experiences
Is Kierkegaard an Irrationalist? Reason, Paradox, and Faith
If some philosophers had not existed, the history of philosophy would have to invent them. After all, what would the introduction to philosophy teacher do without good old Berkeley, the notorious denier of common sense, or Hume, the infamous sceptic. In some cases, in fact, philosophers have been invented by the history of philosophy. I don't mean to suggest that historians of philosophy have actually altered the past by bringing into being real …
Behaviorism as Existentialism? Ryle and Merleau-Ponty on the Mind
Reductionism as absentmindedness
Mis-Using Religious Language
At the risk of a tremendous over-simplification, I believe it is helpful to categorize views of Christianity which have appeared in the west in the last two hundred years into three major groups. First there are the unbelievers, those for whom Christianity is straightforwardly untrue, unknowable, or unbelievable (or all three). This group would include those who try to salvage some form of essentially humanistic religion as well as those who simp…
Mis-Using Religious Language
At the risk of a tremendous over-simplification, I believe it is helpful to categorize views of Christianity which have appeared in the west in the last two hundred years into three major groups. First there are the unbelievers, those for whom Christianity is straightforwardly untrue, unknowable, or unbelievable (or all three). This group would include those who try to salvage some form of essentially humanistic religion as well as those who simp…
Reductionism as absentmindedness
Behaviorism as Existentialism? Ryle and Merleau-Ponty on the Mind
Is Kierkegaard an Irrationalist? Reason, Paradox, and Faith
If some philosophers had not existed, the history of philosophy would have to invent them. After all, what would the introduction to philosophy teacher do without good old Berkeley, the notorious denier of common sense, or Hume, the infamous sceptic. In some cases, in fact, philosophers have been invented by the history of philosophy. I don't mean to suggest that historians of philosophy have actually altered the past by bringing into being real …
The Epistemological Significance of Transformative Religious Experiences
Developing Wisdom in Christian Psychologists
A major topic of the Rech Conference on Christian Graduate Training in Psychology was that of the “Christian virtues” as potentially powerful therapeutic factors that should be manifested in the lives of Christian psychologists. Yet, the Christian training programs do little to intentionally develop such virtues. This paper is a case study examining the virtue of wisdom as one of the central characteristics that should be encouraged in psychology…
Kierkegaard and the Limits of the Ethical
Central Works of Philosophy
CENTRAL WORKS OF PHILOSOPHY is a multi-volume set of essays on the core texts of the western philosophical tradition. From Plato's Republic to the present day, the volumes range over 2,500 years of philosophical writing covering the best, most representative, and most influential work of some of our greatest philosophers. Each essay has been specially commissioned and provides an overview of the work and clear and authoritative exposition of its …
Is there a Basis for Loving All People
Many ethical systems hold that there are obligations to love and value all human beings. This essay assumes the existence of such universal obligations, and argues that a divine command meta-ethical theory provides a better account of these obligations than secular meta-ethical theories, such as the evolutionary biology and contractual meta-ethical accounts that are favored by many psychologists. God's command to humans to love their neighbors as…
Doing Psychology as a Christian
Although trained as a philosopher, I have always had a great interest and appreciation for the field of psychology. Part of that interest stems From a concern for philosophical issues that overlap psychology: the mind-body problem and the nature of consciousness, the philosophy of action and problems concerning freedom and determinism, for example. Theological concerns have also motivated an interest in psychology, since it is difficult to see ho…
God's Own Ethics
Mark C. Murphy's God's Own Ethics is an exercise in what has come to be called Anselmian perfect-being theology, the attempt to determine the nature of God understood as an absolutely perfect being. The book is bold, original, and carefully argued, and it takes on several tasks. The first is an examination of what norms would govern the actions of an absolutely perfect being, an agent generally referred to in the work as “the Anselmian being.” (U…
Accountability and the Fear of the Lord
Why did the Biblical writers see the fear of the Lord as a virtue that is conducive to human flourishing? It is difficult for contemporary readers to understand how fear of anything can be virtuous. I propose that the fear of the Lord should be understood as accountability to God. I defend the claim that someone who displays excellence in an accountability relationship does display a virtue, and that this virtue is particularly valuable when exer…
Does Darwall's Morality of Accountability Require Moral Realism? (And Would It Be Strengthened by Adding God to the Story)
Stephen Darwall has developed an account of moral obligations as grounded in "second-personal reasons," which was developed in conversation with early modern "theological voluntarists" who were divine command theorists. For Darwall, morality does not require accountability to God; humans as autonomous moral agents are the source of moral obligations. In this paper, I try to show that Darwall is vulnerable to some objections made against divine co…
Patriotism and Love of the Neighbor
Though patriotism has traditionally been considered a virtue, in many countries of the world today, the status of patriotism as a virtue has been challenged. Philosopher John Hare has recently defended patriotism as a virtue. Kierkegaard, with his suspicion of "the crowd" and attack on "Christendom" has sometimes been thought to be one of the critics of patriotism. This paper argues that Kierkegaard's view is actually close to Hare's. Kierkegaard…
Kierkegaard, Virtues and Vices
In recent years, scholars have been divided on what to make of Kierkegaard's relation to what some have called the virtues tradition
Religion, Accountability, and the Risk of Aggressive Misconduct Among Prisoners
Prior research has found inverse relationship between religious involvement and misconduct among prisoners. In this study, we examined the mediating role of accountability as welcoming responsibility for one’s actions with respect to the transcendent (e.g., God or a higher power) and other people. We applied structural equation modeling to analyze data from surveys with 339 individuals (108 females and 231 males) incarcerated at three facilities …
Epistemology (13 works) · Philosophy (13 works) · Law (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Theology and Philosophy of Evil (6 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Accountability (3 works) · Kierkegaardian Philosophy and Influence (3 works)