My research focuses on questions in metaphysics and philosophy of religion. Much of my work in metaphysics concerns the Aristotelian theory of hylomorphism and how it might be reimagined. My work in philosophy of religion has focused on (i) applying promising views in metaphysics and ethics to debates in philosophical theology and (ii) the prospects of (slightly) alternative pictures of the divine. Currently, I'm thinking about questions concerning religious epistemology and divine intervention.   

Full drafts available here. 

Metaphysics

(2026) 'Forms are not Emergent Powers' Inquiry

A popular flavor of hylomorphism runs into a bootstrapping problem. 

(2025) 'Being One with One's Parts' Asian Journal of Philosophy

Invited for a symposium of J.D. Rooney's Material Objects in Confucian and Aristotelian Metaphysics. Argues a view like my own does much of the work of Fr. Rooney's view wih less trouble. 

(2025) 'Whence the Form?' Australasian Journal of Philosophy

Mereological accounts of form cannot easily answer how forms come to be. 

(2023) 'Do Substances Have Formal Parts?' Analytic Philosophy

Koslicki's master argument for formal parts doesn't work given the distinction between substances and accidental unities. 

(2020) 'Hylomorphism and Complex Properties' Metaphysica

Hylomorphism can be applied in the domain of complex properties. 

(2016) 'It's All in Your Head: A Solution to the Problem of Object Coincidence' Philosophia

Artifacts aren't out there in the world and so cannot coincide problematically with natural objects. 

(2016) 'Form as Structure: It's not so Simple' Ratio 

The forms of some substances cannot be understood simply as structural principles. 

Philosophy of Religion

(In progress) Deism and Natural Religion: A Philosophical Defense (Bloomsbury)

Explores the cases to be made for philosophical theism and a non-interventionist God. A primarily epistemological case is made on behalf of philosophical theism. This epistemological case, along with issues surrounding special divine action, leads to an invitation to consider a non-interventionist God. 

(draft) with William Bell [Paper Title] 

A Lockean account of rights enforcement makes sense of puzzles concerning divine forgiveness and spits out interesting things concerning the atonement and proportionality. 

(forthcoming) 'The Good Watchmaker' Religious Studies

Against what some argue or assume, omnibenevolence doesn't require special divine actions. 

(2026) with John Heil 'Lowe on Divine Power' in E.J. Lowe's Metaphysics and Philosophical Theology (Routledge)

Lowe's account of powers can't apply to God. 

(2026) with William Bell 'In Defence of Natural Religion' Religious Studies

There is a thin but decent case to be made for philosophical theism. 

(2024) with William Bell 'Why There is No Obligation to Love God' Religious Studies

The first commandment should not be understood deontically.

(2021) 'The Five-Category Ontology? E.J. Lowe and the Ontology of the Divine' TheoLogica

Lowe's famous four-category doesn't have room for God. 

(2021) 'What is God's Power?' European Journal for the Philosophy of Religion

Only 'primitivist' or certain teleological accounts of powers can model a classical God's power. 

One Offs

(2020) 'Assessing Recent Agent-Based Accounts of Right Action' Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

Updated versions of agent-based virtue ethics don't work. 

Book Reviews

(forthcoming) Jeremy Skrzypek's A Dynamic Theory of Hylomorphism (Routledge), American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

(2025) Linda Zagzebski's Omnisubjectivity (Oxford), International Journal for Philosophy of Religion