Religion & Philosophy Faculty Publications

Scholarly Publications

Books

Faber, Hustwit, and Phelps (eds.) Beyond Superlatives: Regenerating Whitehead’s Philosophy of Experience (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014).

This collection of essays, drawn from the latest generation of Whitehead scholars, explores how, in the deconstruction of certain concepts, an unceasing invitation of possibility and change is released, both in relation to ongoing philosophical conversations, and as applied to lived experience. This volume applies Whitehead’s philosophy to superlatives-those valued concepts that limit and define our categories amid the flux of experience. The first half of this book probes the superlatives that have historically defined philosophical method in the West. The essays in the second half of the book reflect on the influx, fragility, and impossibility of superlatives like care, tragedy, love, and loss in human experience, generating new matters of philosophical discourse.

Hustwit, J. R. Interreligious Hermeneutics and the Pursuit of Truth (Lexington Books, 2014)

In terms of interreligious dialogue, Hustwit’s hermeneutical approach treats religious truth claims as tentative hypotheses, but hypotheses that are frequently commensurable and rationally contestable. Interreligious dialogue goes beyond facilitating bonhomie or negotiating tolerance; dialogue can and should be a disciplined space for rationally adjudicating claims about what lies beyond the limits of human understanding.

Potts, Michael; Byrne, Paul A.; Nilges, Richard G. (eds.) Beyond Brain Death: The Case against Brain Based Criteria for Human Death (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000).

Beyond Brain Death offers a provocative challenge to one of the most widely accepted conclusions of contemporary bioethics: the position that brain death marks the death of the human person. Eleven chapters by physicians, philosophers, and theologians present the case against brain-based criteria for human death. Each author believes that this position calls into question the moral acceptability of the transplantation of unpaired vital organs from brain-dead patients who have continuing function of the circulatory system.

Recent Articles and Chapters

Hustwit, J. R. “Models, Idols, and the Great White Whale: Toward a Christian Faith of Nonattachment,” in Models of God and of Other Ultimate Realities, ed. Jeanine Diller and Asa Kasher. (Forthcoming, Springer Publishing, 2012).

_____. “The Imaginal Solvent: Whitehead and Coleridge on Novel Forms” in Beyond Superlatives: Regenerating Whitehead’s Philosophy of Experience, eds. Roland Faber, J.R. Hustwit, and Hollis Phelps (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014).

_____. “Is Paul Ricoeur a Process Philosopher? Interpretation and Becoming,” Process Studies 37, no. 1 (2008).

_____. “Can Models of God Compete?” Philosophia 35, no. 3-4 (Fall 2007), 433-439. Revised and republished in Models of God and of Other Ultimate Realities, ed. Jeanine Diller and Asa Kasher. (Forthcoming, Springer Publishing, 2012).

_____. “Process Philosophy,” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, hosted by the University of Tennessee at Martin, available at http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/processp.htm.

_____. “Open Interpretation: Whitehead and Schleiermacher on Hermeneutics,” in Whitehead and Schleiermacher: Open Systems in Dialogue, ed. Christine Helmer et al. (New York: De Gruyter, 2004), 185-213.

_____. “Self-Determination, Evil, and Process Theology,” New Perspectives 16:1 (Winter 2004), 20-21.

Potts, Michael; Verheijde, Joseph L; Rady, Mohamad Y.; Evans, David W. “The Ethics of Limiting Informed Debate: Censorship of Select Medical Publications in the Interest of Organ Transplantation.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 38 (December 2013):625-638.

_____ and Devanno, Amy. “Tertullian’s Theory of the Soul and Contemporary Psychical Research.” Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 77 (October 2013): 209-219.

_____ and Verheijde, Joseph L; Rady, Mohamad Y. (2012). “When a Nudge Becomes a Shove.” The American Journal of Bioethics 12:2 (February):40-42.

_____ and Rady, Mohamad Y.; Verheijde Joseph L.; Potts, Michael. “Quality Palliative Care or Physician-Assisted Death: A Comment on the French Perspective of End-of-life Care in Neurological Disorders.” Journal of Clinical Research and Bioethics (2011) 2:102e

_____ and Verheijde, Joseph L.; Rady, Mohamad Y.; Evans, David W. “Normative Consent and Presumed Consent for Organ Donation: A Critique.” Journal of Medical Ethics 36 (2010):498-499.

_____ and Verheijde, Joseph L.; (2010). Commentary on the Concept of Brain Death within the Catholic Bioethical Framework. Christian Bioethics 16:3 (December 2010):246-256.

_____ and Byrne, Paul A.; Evans, David W. (2010). “Infant Heart Transplantation after Cardiac Death: Ethical and Legal Problems.” Journal of Clinical Ethics 21:3 (Fall 2010):224-228.

_____. “Risk Management, Chaos Theory, and the Corporate Board of Directors.” In Corporate Boards: Managers of Risk, Sources of Risk, ed. Robert W. Kolb and David Schwartz (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), pp. 55-69.

_____ and Byrne, Paul A. (2009). “Is it Morally Right to Kill Patients that Good may Come?” The Internet Journal of Law, Healthcare, and Ethics 6:1 (2009)

_____ and Evans, David W. (2008). “Is Solid Organ Donation by Living Kidney Donors Ethical?” The Case of Kidney Donation. In Organ Transplantation: Ethical, Legal, and Psychosocial Aspects, ed. W. Weimar, M. A. Bos, and J. J. Busschlach (Lengerich: Pabst Science Publishers), pp. 377-381.

_____. (2008). “Pharmaceutical Mergers and Genetic Technology: A Problematic Combination.” In The Ethics of Genetic Commerce, ed. Robert Kolb (Malden, MA: Blackwell), pp. 177-189.

Other Publications

Fiction

Potts, Michael. End of Summer (Tullahoma, TN: WordCrafts Press, 2011).

_____. “Death Rattle.” Belle Rêve Literary Journal 14:3 (Summer 2014):40-48.

_____. “Earnest Expectations.” In: We are Dust and Shadow, edited by James Ward Kirk (Lexington, KY: James Ward Kirk Fiction, 2014), 98-103.

Screenplays

Potts, Michael. “Obedience.” Finalist, Peachtree Village International Film Festival, Atlanta, GA, August 2013; Official Selection, Fright Night Film Festival, Louisville, KY, July 2013.

_____. “Business Meeting” Semi-Finalist, Screamfest, 2013.

Poetry

Potts, Michael. “Butterscotch.” In: The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume 6: Tennessee, edited by Jesse Graves, Paul Ruffin, and William Wright (Huntsville, TX: Texas Review Press, 2013).

_____. From Field to Thicket. (North Carolina Writers’ Network, 2006). Winner, 2006 Mary Belle Campbell Poetry Book Award, North Carolina Writers’ Network