Academician John D. Caputo (b.1940) specializes in continental philosophy, described as the interaction among 20th century French and German philosophy and religion. He has written a number of scholarly books including The Mystical Element in Heidegger's Thought (1978), Heidegger and Aquinas (1982), Demythologizing Heidegger (1993), Against Ethics (1993), and The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida (1997). Caputo has been honored in Dublin and Toronto, where conferences have been organized around his work. Caputo is professor of philosophy at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where he received his M.A. in 1964. Other degrees include a B.A. from LaSalle College (1962) and a Ph.D. from… Bryn Mawr (1968).
Brian D. McLaren is a prominent, controversial evangelical pastor. He was recognized as one of Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America" in 2005, and is the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Maryland. Born in 1956, Brian McLaren graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, with BA and MA degrees in English. After several years of teaching English and consulting in higher education, he left academia in 1986 to become the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church, a nondenominational church in the Baltimore-Washington region. Many of the books that McLaren has authored, including the "A New Kind of Christian" trilogy, deal… with Christianity in the context of the cultural shift towards a new emerging church movement.
James Smith is Lecturer in English Literature at Durham University. Author of a critical study on the work of Terry Eagleton (2008), he has published widely in journals such as New Theatre Quarterly and Literature and History. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2007.
Dr James McLaren is Senior Lecturer, School of Theology, Australian Catholic University, Australia.?