Jerry L. Sherman, Ph.D.I got a BA in psychology, long ago, because I thought the “study of the soul” might be what we humans need, to figure ourselves out and be happy.  I soon found they were studying rats, not the human soul, and I switched (unofficially) to philosophy.  Much later I got a Ph.D.  We humans are trying to figure ourselves out, using reason.  I soon learned that reason is fallen . . . wrongly guided, alienated from knowledge of the good, unable to learn this about itself.  But with God’s help, reason can understand its own lostness.  Thus the scripture says, The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. (Proverbs 4:7a)  Seeing the need, we can understand our problem and begin to step clear of it.  Scripture also says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (1:7and 2:6) 

Some Christians are quick to quote, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit (Colossians  2:8, KJV), as if philosophy were by nature a vanity.  People have asked, aloud or with puzzled looks, Why would a Christian want to study and teach philosophy?  But  philosophy is one of the many things a Christian can do, and do well, to the glory of God.  Christian philosophy is exciting, because biblical thought is radical—piercing to the root of our problem: fallen reason.  

WRITINGS IN ACADEMIC PHILOSOPHY

Fallen Reason and Value-Free Thought: a Christian Platonist Account of Nietzschean Thought and Nihilism. University of New Mexico, 1996. Dissertation.

"Value Conflict: Christian Platonism's Explanation of the Modern Tendency to Deny the Reality of Value Experience."  University of New Mexico. 1991. M.A. Thesis.

Ambiguons and Other Entities of Interest: A Case Study in Pragmatic Constructivism. Southwest Philosophical Studies, Spring 1996. 

Algorithm and Antinomy. Southwest Philosophical Studies, Spring 1994.  (PDF  or Link to the Journal)

Epistemic Pessimism. Southwest Philosophical Studies, Spring 1997.   Presented before the "Conference on Christian Scholarship: Knowledge, Reality, and Method," Boulder, Colorado, Oct. 9 - 12, 1997
http://www.leaderu.com/aip/docs/sherman.html

Explanation and Value Free Thought. Presented at the Naturalism, Theism, and the Scientific Enterprise conference, University of Texas, Austin. 1997

God's Fingers.  Presented before the Society of Christian Philosophers, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, March 12-14, 1998.  Revised and presented before the "Conference On Christian Scholarship," Ohio State University, Oct., 21-23, 1999.