Brian Leftow (born 1956) is an American philosopher specializing in

philosophy of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...

medieval philosophy Medieval philosophy is the philosophy that existed through the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century until after the Renaissance in the 13th and 14th centuries. Medieval philosophy, ...

, and

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

. He is the William P. Alston Professor for the Philosophy of Religion at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

. Previously, he held the Nolloth Chair of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at

Oriel College Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, w ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, succeeding

Richard Swinburne Richard Granville Swinburne (IPA ) (born December 26, 1934) is an English philosopher. He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Over the last 50 years Swinburne has been a proponent of philosophical arguments for ...

Education and Career

Leftow is a graduate of

Grove City College Grove City College (GCC) is a private, conservative Christian liberal arts college in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1876 as a normal school, the college emphasizes a humanities core curriculum and offers 60 majors and 6 pre-profession ...

, and earned his M.A and Ph.D. at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. Before becoming

Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion The Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion is a chair at the University of Oxford, associated with Oriel College. The chair was established in 1920 by an endowment from Charles Frederick Nolloth, on the basis of lectures de ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, Leftow taught at Fordham University. In fall 2018, he took up the William P. Alston Chair in Philosophy of Religion at

Philosophical Work

Leftow's research interests include

, and philosophical theology. He proposed the so-called "Latin Trinity", which examined the tradition of Latin theories involving the Trinity. He likened this to an individual performing three roles, three events, and three time streams that are distinct for such individual but they occur simultaneously for others. Leftow has focused on the works of Thomas Aquinas, drawing from his arguments to theorize on God's omnipresence. On this subject, he noted that there is widespread consensus that God is eternal but there are disagreements regarding what it means. Leftow is also credited for proposing an explanation about the constant change in God prior to creation - that "God can delay creating to enjoy anticipating a universe and/or desiring to create one."

Selected publications

*''God and Necessity'' (2012) *''Divine Ideas'', Ithaca:

Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University; currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing enterprise in t ...

, forthcoming. *''Matter, Parts and Number: Aquinas' Philosophy of Mathematics''. Oxford, forthcoming. *"Anti Social Trinitarianism," in Steven Davis and Daniel Kendall, eds., ''The Trinity''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. *"The Eternal Now," in Gregory Ganssle and David Woodruff, eds., ''God and Time''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. *"Necessary Being", and "Concepts of God," in ''The Encyclopedia of Philosophy''. London: Routledge Press, 1998. *"Anselm on the Cost of Salvation," ''Medieval Philosophy and Theology''. 1997. *"Eternity," in ''The Cambridge Companion to Philosophy of Religion'', ed. Philip Quinn and Charles Taliaferro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. *"Divine Action and Embodiment," Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, 1997. *"Can Philosophy Argue God's Existence?" in The Rationality of Belief and The Plurality of Faith, ed. Tom Senor. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995. *''Time and Eternity''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991.

References

20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers Analytic philosophers Christian philosophers Metaphysicians Philosophers of religion Philosophers of time Living people Grove City College alumni Yale University alumni Fordham University faculty Nolloth Professors of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford Converts to Christianity 1956 births {{reli-philo-bio-stub