“The boundary is the best place for acquiring knowledge.”

Paul Tillich

I’m a professor of philosophy and religion in San Diego and have the great privilege of teaching and learning from undergraduates. Early in my career I mostly taught philosophy; later the focus was theology; these days I teach mostly general education courses.

I’ve been teaching for more than thirty years, but along the way I’ve also contributed a few works to the academy’s accumulated tonnage of scholarship. My curriculum operum is eclectic–a historical book on the doctrine of the Trinity, a book on science and theology, a textbook of theology, some others.  My most recent book is The Impassioned Life: Reason and Emotion in the Christian Tradition. If you are interested, have a look at my publications and other research –they are full of shameless self-promotion.

In midlife I also decided to get serious about playing the guitar, so I took lessons from an excellent musician and today am a moderately accomplished amateur–hence the page, “Guitar.”

In place of the customary blog, the page, “Journal,” will be an ongoing journal of my thoughts and reading in preparation for a book that I plan to write on the Christian idea of scripture. To that end, I invite your comments, but, be warned, I will ruthlessly steal any good ideas I find and use them in my book without attribution.

Sam Powell