Curriculum Vitae

Michael Austinson Johnson

 

Business Address:
The Divinity School
The University of Chicago
Swift Hall
1025 East 58th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637

Home Address:
5328 S. Kimbark Ave., Apt. 3
Chicago, Illinois 60615
(773) 363-1139
E-mail: mjohnso@midway.uchicago.edu

   

EDUCATION

University of Chicago Divinity School, Chicago, IL
Ph.D. candidate in religious ethics

University of Chicago Divinity School, Chicago, IL
M.A. in religion, 1995

Saint Olaf College, Northfield, MN
B.A., majors in history and philosophy (departmental distinction), 1992

 

DISSERTATION

Title: “Attestation and Injunction: The Phenomenology of Conscience in Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics of the Capable Self (A Comparative Study of Heidegger, Lévinas, and Ricoeur)”

Advisor: William Schweiker

Readers: David Tracy; Jean-Luc Marion


DOCTORAL EXAMINATIONS

1. Philosophical Ethics
2. Theological Ethics
3. Philosophy of Religions: Contemporary
4. Hermeneutics and Religious Reflection

 

HONORS

2004-2005 Marty Center Dissertation Fellowship

2004 Brauer Seminar Award, University of Chicago

2003 Norman Wait Harris Memorial Fund Award, The Center for International Studies, University of Chicago (Co-recipient)

2003 Conference Proposal Competition Award, The Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago (Co-recipient)

1993-1996 Divinity School Scholarship, Divinity School, University of Chicago


PUBLICATIONS

Edited Books:

Humanity Before God: Contemporary Faces of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Ethics, co-edited with William Schweiker and Kevin Jung (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2006.)

Articles/Essays:

“Creation and Initiative: Paul Ricoeur’s Ethics of Originary Affirmation,” in Humanity Before God: Contemporary Faces of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Ethics, edited by Michael Johnson, Kevin Jung, and William Schweiker (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2006.)

“Proximities: Old and New,” Sightings. Martin Marty Center, University of Chicago Divinity School, October 2001

Reviews:

Patrick Bourgeois, Philosophy at the Boundary of Reason. In The Journal of Religion, 2005.

Paul Ricoeur, The Just. In The Journal of Religion, 2002.

 

PRESENTATIONS/LECTURES

Respondent to "Unity and Disassembly: Moral Aesthetics from Edwards and Buddhaghosa," by Joyce S. Shin and David A. Clairmont, 2006 Student Ethics Conference, University of Chicago, April 2006.

“Heidegger and Thanatology in Twentieth Century Philosophy,” Philosophy of Religion Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, 2005.

“Attestation and Acknowledgment: A Practice-based Theory of Meaning as a Point of Convergence between Paul Ricoeur’s Christian Ethics and Hilary Putnam’s Jewish Ethics,” The Society of Christian Ethics Annual Meeting, Chicago, 2004.

“Attestation and Acknowledgment: Paul Ricoeur and Hilary Putnam on the Ethics of Responsibility,” The D. R. Sharpe Lectures on Social Ethics, University of Chicago Divinity School, 2003.

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together.” Four-part lecture series at Hyde Park Union Church, Chicago IL, October, 2003. (Co-lecturer and discussion leader)


TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Adjunct Instructor:

Business Ethics. University of St. Francis, Joliet, IL, Spring Semester 2005.

Business Ethics. University of St. Francis, Joliet, IL, Fall Semester 2004.

Teaching Assistant:

History of Theological Ethics II: Modern to Contemporary (William Schweiker). University of Chicago Divinity School, Spring 2006.

History of Theological Ethics I: Ancient to Medieval (William Schweiker). University of Chicago Divinity School, Winter 2006.

History of Theological Ethics II: Modern to Contemporary (William Schweiker), University of Chicago Divinity School, Winter 2004.

History of Theological Ethics I: Ancient to Medieval (William Schweiker), University of Chicago Divinity School, Autumn 2003.


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Conference Organizer:

“Humanity Before God: Contemporary Faces of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Ethics,” The D. R. Sharpe Lectures on Social Ethics, University of Chicago Divinity School, October 2003. (Co-organizer) (Website)

Student Ethics Conference. The University of Chicago Divinity School. Chicago, IL. April, 1997. (Co-organizer)

Student Ethics Conference. The University of Chicago Divinity School. Chicago, IL. April, 1996. (Main organizer; moderator)

Research Assistant:

Research Assistant to Professor William Schweiker, University of Chicago Divinity School, 2002-present.

Editorial Assistant:

Assistant to Professor Howard Hong in Kierkegaard’s Works editorial project. Howard and Edna Hong Kierkegaard Library. St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN. (2-year undergraduate position)

Supervisor, Academic Research Library:

Assistant Section Head, Acquisitions Department, University of Chicago Library, 2000-present

Project Assistant:

Project Assistant for Web Site Design and Content Maintenance, The Religion, Culture, and Family Project, The University of Chicago Divinity School, 2003-2004.

TEACHING COMPETENCE

Primary:
History of Western Religious Thought; Theological and Philosophical Ethics (Protestant Ethics; Roman Catholic Moral Theology; Responsibility Ethics; Ethical Theories); Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy; German Idealism; Continental Philosophy, 19th and 20th c.; Social and Political Ethics (Ancient and Modern Political Thought; Just War Theories); Philosophical Theology; Philosophy of Religions, modern and contemporary; Hermeneutical Theory; Philosophical Hermeneutics

Secondary:
Philosophy of Religion; Contemporary Jewish Thought; History of Analytic Philosophy, 19th and 20th c.; Metaphysics (Ancient and Modern) and Epistemology


LANGUAGES:

French, German


PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

The Society of Christian Ethics

American Academy of Religion

 

REFERENCES

(available upon request)

(last updated June 10, 2006)