Dr. Justin D. Klassen

Chair of Liberal Studies and Associate Professor of Theology
Office: Alumni Hall 112
Phone: 502.272.8178
jklassen@bellarmine.edu
Simon Fraser University, B.A.; McMaster University, M.A., Ph.D.

Justin D. Klassen is an Associate Professor of Theology at Bellarmine University. Klassen taught in the Theology Department at Bellarmine during the 2011-2012 academic year, before joining the department full-time in 2014. His interests include contemporary theology, environmental ethics, and philosophy of religion. He is the author of The Paradox of Hope: Theology and the Problem of Nihilism, and the co-editor of Aspiring to Fullness in a Secular Age: Essays on Religion and Theology in the Work of Charles Taylor. His current research focuses on the role of non-human nature in the Christian moral imagination.

Recent Publications

  • “Evolution, Temporality, and Ethics: On Kierkegaard’s Surprising Relevance to Eco-Theology.” In Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 12.1 (2018): 55 – 75.
  •  “The Philosophers’ Paul for Earthlings: Stanislas Breton and the Ecological Significance of the Way of the Cross.” In EcoTheo Review (Fall 2017): 36 – 42.
  • “Thomas Merton and the Integrated Life.” In Thomas Merton and the Protestant Tradition, ed. William Oliver Paulsell. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2017. 180–195.
  • Co-editor (with Carlos D. Colorado): Aspiring to Fullness in a Secular Age: Essays on Religion and Theology in the Work of Charles Taylor. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2014.
  • “The Affirmation of Existential Life in Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age.” In Aspiring to Fullness in a Secular Age: Essays on Religion and Theology in the Work of Charles Taylor, eds. Carlos D. Colorado and Justin D. Klassen. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2014. 13–38.
  • Book Review: Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank, The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic? In International Journal of Systematic Theology 14 (3): 360–362.
  • Monograph: The Paradox of Hope: Theology and the Problem of Nihilism. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011.

Courses Taught

  • THEO 200: Ultimate Questions
  • THEO 334: Christian Peacemaking
  • THEO 336: Theology, Nature, and Environmental Responsibility