Mr. Jon K. Cooley

Teaching:
Mr. Cooley spends most of his time in front of a class as part of Union’s Humanities sequence, in which he teaches sections of every course. That means that in the course of a year, his students will cover everything from the origins of the human species to 1970’s existentialism. In addition to these primary responsibilities, Mr. Cooley also teaches courses in the religious studies sequence. Thus far, he has taught courses on “The Identity of Jesus Christ,” world religions, the philosophy of religion, “Religion in the U.S.”, and “Christian Traditions II” (High Middle Ages to 1919).

Mr. Cooley’s courses are known for the extra-curricular events he plans into them, especially as part of Union’s Humanities Sequence. Other examples have included convening a panel of local clergy on campus to discuss a Christian’s stance toward the state, sitting on a panel of local and state figures discussing the proper role of religion in public society, and showing topical movies relevant to themes in his courses (among them Sissoko’s Genesis, Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, Welles’ Touch of Evil, and Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai).

Union’s Student Government Association did Mr. Cooley the honor of awarding him its “Distinguished Professor” title for 2007-8.

Research:
Mr. Cooley cannot remember ever being uninterested in religion, and the ways in which religious practices shape and affect the lives of people and societies. As his education proceeded, he took opportunities to develop his understanding of those topics across a surprisingly wide historical field. His undergraduate thesis concerned St. Augustine’s biblical hermeneutics, with particular attention to the inter-relations between sign and signified as laid out in De Doctrina Christiana and Confessiones.

While at Yale, he wrote a Master’s thesis on the hermeneutical principles of Luther and Calvin as expressed in their commentaries and sermons on the book of Deuteronomy (esp. Deut. 30:11-14).

Doctoral research presented the opportunity to attempt to make a genuine contribution to theological science, and has been concerned with the importance of the three-fold office of Christ — Christ as king, priest, and prophet — for Christian life and practice. The two major figures considered in this work are H. Richard Niebuhr (a leading American theological ethicist) and Karl Barth (a German-speaking Swiss, and perhaps the most significant theologian of the 20th century).

Complementing his theological interests, Mr. Cooley is also concerned with the “borderlands” between theology and other disciplines, especially philosophy, literature, and psychology. Chief among these neighboring interests are: the continuing relevance of German Idealism (esp. the thought of Hegel),

the works of Endō Shusaku (a Japanese Roman Catholic author),