Dr. Boyer is Professor of Theology at Eastern University, where he has taught since 1998; before that, he taught for two years at a small Eastern Orthodox college in South Carolina (Rose Hill College). His primary academic training took place at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, northeast of Boston, and then at Boston University, where he earned the Ph.D. in Religious Studies in 1996. His major area of interest is philosophical and systematic theology. He also teaches courses in contemporary Christian thought and World Religions. He is very interested in the work of C. S. Lewis; his doctoral dissertation at Boston University was on Lewis’s understanding of hierarchical authority.
Dr. Boyer became a Christian in 1980 while in college: at that time, he read the New Testament for the first time at the prompting of some friends and became convinced that the biblical way of “seeing the world” offered a balanced and comprehensive explanation for his moral, rational, and relational experience. Further study has served to deepen that initial commitment.
Dr. Boyer is married to Heidi and has four children, ranging in age from 26 to 8. They live in Honey Brook, Pennsylvania, and attend Brick Lane Community Church.
Education
M.A. Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Ph.D. Boston University
At Eastern Since 1998
Why I Teach at Eastern
I love Christian theology and related disciplines, and I enjoy helping young people to enter more deeply into that world. My own spiritual pilgrimage really began (in an intentional way) when I was in college, and so I know how significant these years are for students. There is no better place than a Christian liberal arts college for developing a vision of the world that is comprehensive, coherent, and deeply Christian. I’m glad to be at a place where I can grow in that kind of vision myself, and also contribute to the continuing growth of others.
Courses Taught
Introduction to the Old Testament, Introduction to Christian Theology, C.S. Lewis, Theological Foundations of World Religions, Modern Theology, The Triune God
Research Interests
Philosophical, Systematic, and Historical Theology and related disciplines
Books
The Mystery of God: Theology for Knowing the Unknowable (with Christopher Hall). (Baker, 2012). Received the 2014 Christianity Today Book Award in Theology/Ethics.
Selected Articles
- "Mathematical Knowledge and Divine Mystery: Augustine and his Contemporary Challengers" (co-authored with Walter B. Huddell III), Christian Scholars Review 44, no. 3 (Spring 2015): 207-235.
- “Narnia Invaded: How the New Films Subvert Lewis’s Hierarchical World,” Touchstone 23, no. 6 (Nov/Dec 2010): 30-36.
- “Articulating Order: Trinitarian Discourse in an Egalitarian Age,” Pro Ecclesia 18, no. 3 (Summer 2009): 255-272.
- “The Logic of Mystery,” Religious Studies 43, no. 1 (March 2007): 89-102.