Andrew Dell’Olio joined the Hope College faculty in 1993. He has served as department chair, director of Asian studies and coordinator of the Hope-China exchange program. He has taught classes in t'ai chi chuan for Hope's Wellness Program since 2007. He writes and teaches in the areas of philosophy of religion and ethics, as well as the history of philosophy and comparative philosophy.

Areas of expertise

Andrew specializes in the history of philosophy and religious thought, especially during the Medieval period and the early twentieth century. He has also published on virtue ethics, comparative philosophy (e.g., Aquinas and Neo-Confucianism) and contemporary issues in the philosophy of religion, especially religious experience and religious pluralism.

He recently presented a paper on the philosophy of t'ai chi chuan at a national conference and is currently working on a book with his colleague, Anthony N. Perovich, Jr., on the secularization of Anglo-American philosophy in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Education

• Ph.D., philosophy of religion, Columbia University, 1994
• M.Phil., religion, Columbia University, 1991
• M.A., philosophy, Columbia University, 1984
• B.A., philosophy and psychology, Rutgers College, 1981

Selected publications

Books

• Introduction to Ethics: A Reader (with Caroline J. Simon), Rowman & Littlefield, 2010
• Foundation of Moral Selfhood: Aquinas on Divine Goodness and the Connection of the Virtues, Peter Lang, 2003

Articles and Book Chapters

• “The Arica School: Towards a Logic of Unity?,” Philosophical Explorations of New and Alternative Religious Movements, Ashgate Publishing, 2012
• “Do Near-Death Experiences Provide a Rational Basis for Belief in Life After Death?,” Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics, April 2010
• “Zhu Xi and Thomas Aquinas on the Foundations of Moral Self-Cultivation,” Philosophy and Intercultural Understanding: Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, 2004
• “Between Exclusivity and Plurality: Toward A Postmodern Christian Philosophy of Other Religions,” Postmodern Philosophy and Christian Thought, Indiana University Press, 1999
• “God, the Self, and the Ethics of Virtue,” Philosophy & Theology, 1998
• “Why Not God the Mother?” Faith and Philosophy, April 1998

Selected Popular Writing

• “There’s Something About a Train” Temenos, Fall 2007
• “On Carrying and Being Carried: Some Musings on Zen Christianity,” Oregon Extension Journal, Fall 2006