Robert Oden is the President of Carleton College. He received his Bachelor’s degree in history and literature magna cum laude from Harvard University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Oden earned a Th.M. and Ph.D. with highest distinctions at Harvard Divinity School, as well as earning the Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities. He also earned an honorary master’s degree from Dartmouth College.
Dr. Oden is the recipient of the Detur Prize, the Harvard Honorary Scholarship, and the John Harvard Honorary Scholarship. He was named Outstanding Senior Scholar, Dudley House, and was the Marshall Scholar to Cambridge University. At Cambridge, he earned an additional Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in religious studies/theology as well as the Cambridge University Hebrew Prize and Bethune Baker Prize. He was also Elected Scholar of Pembroke College.
Formerly president of Kenyon College, his professional awards and grants include the Dartmouth College Distinguished Teaching Award and a National Endowment for the Humanities grant...

Frederick Gregory
University of Florida
Ph.D., Harvard University

Frederick Gregory is Professor of History of Science at the University of Florida, where he has taught for 25 years.

Professor Gregory earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Wheaton College. After graduating with a seminary degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Wenham, Massachusetts, he completed his Master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin and went on to Harvard University for his Ph.D. in the history of science...

Bart D. Ehrman
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.Div., Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary

Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has been teaching for over 15 years. He completed his undergraduate work at Wheaton College and received his Masters of Divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Prior to taking his position at UNC, Professor Ehrman taught at Rutgers University...

Louis Markos
Houston Baptist University
Ph.D., University of Michigan


Louis Markos is Professor of English at Houston Baptist University where he has been teaching since 1991. He received his B.A. in English and history from Colgate University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan.

Professor Markos specializes in British romantic poetry, literary theory, and the classics and teaches courses in all three of these areas, as well as in Victorian poetry and prose, 17th-century poetry and prose, mythology, epic, and film.

Professor Markos has received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the University of Michigan and was named the Opal Goolsby Teacher of the Year at Houston Baptist...

Kenneth W. Harl
Tulane University
Ph.D., Yale University

Kenneth W. Harl is Professor of Classical and Byzantine History at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he has been teaching since 1978. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Trinity College and went on to earn his Master’s and Ph.D. from Yale University.

Dr. Harl specializes in the Mediterranean civilizations of Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Byzantium. He has published numerous articles and is the author of Civic Coins and Civic Politics in the Roman East, A.D. 180-275 and Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700. He is also a veteran field researcher who has served since 1999 on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Archaeology...

Phillip Cary is the Director of the Philosophy Program at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He is also a scholar-in-Residence at the Templeton Honors College. He received his undergraduate training from Washington University (St. Louis) with a double degree in English literature and philosophy. He earned his M.A. in philosophy and a Ph.D. in philosophy and religious studies from Yale University. Prior to taking his position at Eastern, Professor Cary taught at Yale University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Hartford. As the Arthur J. Ennis Post-Doctoral Fellow at Villanova University, Dr. Cary taught the nationally recognized undergraduate core humanities seminars on ancient, medieval, and Renaissance thought, and on modern thought...

Thomas F. X. Noble, Ph.D., is the Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute and Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, where he has taught since 2001. Before joining the faculty at Notre Dame, he taught for 20 years at the University of Virginia.
The holder of a doctorate from Michigan State University, Professor Noble has long specialized in the Carolingian world and in early medieval Rome and the papacy. Among his many honors and awards are a Fulbright Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, and two grants from the American Philosophical Society...

Teofilo F. Ruiz
University of California at Los Angeles
Ph.D., Princeton University


Teofilo F. Ruiz is a Professor of History and Chair of the department at the University of California at Los Angeles. A student of Joseph R. Strayer, Dr. Ruiz received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1974...

John L. Esposito
Georgetown University
Ph.D., Temple University

John L. Esposito is University Professor, Professor of Religion and International Affairs, and Professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. He earned his B.A. at St. Anthony College, his M.A. at St. John’s University, and his Ph.D. at Temple University...

Louis Markos
Houston Baptist University
Ph.D., University of Michigan


Louis Markos is Professor of English at Houston Baptist University where he has been teaching since 1991. He received his B.A. in English and history from Colgate University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan...

Bonnie Wheeler
Southern Methodist University
Ph.D., Brown University


Bonnie Wheeler is Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Southern Methodist University, where she directs the Medieval Studies Program. She completed her undergraduate work at Stonehill College and received her Ph.D. from Brown University. Prior to taking her position at SMU, Professor Wheeler taught at Columbia University...

This course presents the lives, based on the latest scholarly interpretations, of four medieval women who still shimmer in the modern imagination: Heloise, the abbess and mistress of Abelard; the prophet Hildegard of Bingen; the legendary Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine; and the woman-warrior and saint, Joan of Arc.

Brad S. Gregory
University of Notre Dame
Ph.D., Princeton University

Brad S. Gregory is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He holds five university degrees, including undergraduate and advanced degrees in both history and philosophy. He received a B.S. in history from Utah State University; B.A. and Licentiate degrees in philosophy from the Institute of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium; an M.A. in history from the University of Arizona; and a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University...

Phillip Cary
Eastern University
Ph.D., Yale University

Phillip Cary is the Director of the Philosophy Program at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He is also a scholar-in-Residence at the Templeton Honors College.
He received his undergraduate training from Washington University (St. Louis) with a double degree in English literature and philosophy. He earned his M.A. in philosophy and a Ph.D. in philosophy and religious studies from Yale University...
Long before he was declared a saint by the Church, Augustine gained profound influence as both a Church Father and a Christian Platonist philosopher—defending the doctrine of the Trinity, defining the epochal idea of religious grace, delving into the inner relationship between God and soul, and much more.
Today, according to Professor Phillip Cary, Augustine is recognizable even to non-Christians as the most important Christian writer outside of the Bible.
Yet Augustine was also a man—a rhetorician trained in the Roman way whose life and discovery of his calling make for one of the most fascinating stories in the history of religious philosophy.

Jeremy McInerney
University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley

Jeremy McInerney is Associate Professor in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also Chair of the Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. From 1994 to 1998, he held the Laura Jan Myerson Term Chair in the Humanities.

This series of lectures examines a crucial period in the history of the ancient world, the age ushered in by the extraordinary conquests of Alexander the Great.

Robert Oden is the President of Carleton College. He received his Bachelor’s degree in history and literature magna cum laude from Harvard University.
Life ... ?
Death ... ?
Suffering ... ?
Redemption ... ?
The origin of being ... ?

Each of these complex issues raises many, many questions.

How do the major religious systems address those questions? And what do their answers tell us?