Division of Biblical Studies
Faculty

Dr. James E. Bruce
Assistant Professor Philosophy

Dr. Bruce received an A.B. in engineering sciences and English from Dartmouth College, a B.A. and an M.A. in theology from the University of Oxford, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Baylor University. His current research interests include ethics, philosophy of religion, Reformation-era ideas and institutions, and the history of philosophy, especially the relationship between philosophy and theology in the seventeenth century.

Dr. Bruce comes to JBU from Baylor University, where he was pursuing his doctorate as a presidential scholar at Baylor and a holder of a Calihan Academic Fellowship from the Acton Institute. As a graduate student, he was an invited participant at conferences given by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Liberty Fund, as well as Acton University, sponsored by the Acton Institute. Thomas S. Hibbs, dean of the Honors College at Baylor, served as the chair of his dissertation on the relationship between divine choice and natural law in the thought of Francis Turretin. C. Stephen Evans, Francis J. Beckwith, Robert C. Miner, and David Lyle Jeffrey served on his dissertation committee.

Dr. Bruce recently reviewed Kant and the New Philosophy of Religion for Faith and Philosophy and was invited to comment on a paper by Giovanni Grandi, “Reid and Condillac on Sensation and Perception: A Thought Experiment on Sensory Deprivation,” at the Southwest Philosophical Society. Dr. Bruce has given papers at Baylor University, the University of Texas at Austin, Houghton College, and Princeton Theological Seminary, and he has written over a dozen encyclopedia articles, some of them with C. Stephen Evans.

As a faculty member at JBU, Dr. Bruce will attend a conference by the Acton Institute on “Limited Government & the Rule of Law” and a colloquium by Liberty Fund on “Freedom and Government in Locke and Spinoza.”

Dr. Bruce, his wife, and their daughter live within walking distance of campus. He enjoys rock climbing, bouldering, coffee, and spending time with his family.