How to contact  Dr. Levesque:

voice: 714-278-5902

FAX: 714-278-1502

mailto:pLevesque@Fullerton.edu

Biographical Statement

Paul J. Levesque, [/Le-vek/] Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Christianity and World Religions in the Department of Comparative Religion at California State University, Fullerton. He teaches courses in religion and politics, world religions, Christian thought, and methods of studying religion.  He has also conducted a Senior Seminar in Gender Studies for the Liberal Studies Program, as well as a course in 20th Century social sciences. 

He was a Theodore T. Basselin Scholar in the Honors Program of the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., completing  B.A. (1984) and M.A. (1985) degrees in Philosophy.

He holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies (1995), awarded summa cum laude from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

A revised version of his dissertation was published as Symbols of Transcendence: Religious Expression in the Thought of Louis Dupré, Louvain Theological and Pastoral Monographs 22 (Leuven: Peeters Press, 1997; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998).

His articles have appeared in the international journal Studies in Liturgy, as well as Sociology of Religion; his book reviews have been included in The Review of Metaphysics, Louvain Studies, and New Theology Review.

He has presented papers at a variety of international, national, regional, and local conferences. These include his 1999 presentations at the International Leuven Encounters in Systematic Theology (LEST) Conference in Belgium, and the American Academy of Religion (AAR) National Conference in Boston. These papers investigated different aspects of the possibility of encountering God in postmodernity through a return to apophatic theology.

His research interests are animated by questioning the role and possibility of religion in today’s pluralistic world. This has led to investigating issues surrounding the relationship between church and state in the U.S. and to analyzing the responses of Christian churches to issues surrounding liturgy and sacraments, methodological approaches to the Bible, and sexual orientation and gender.

 He holds membership in the following professional organizations:

• American Academy of Religion
• American Philosophical Association
• Association for the Sociology of Religion
• North American Association for the Study of Religion
• Society for the Scientific Study of Religion