Religious Studies

UNCG Religious Studies Alum Obtains Graduate Degree from University of Chicago’s Divinity School

Posted on May 11, 2020

Congrats to UNCG’s Religious Studies alum, Scott Ferguson, who graduated from University of Chicago’s Divinity School this semester (Spring 2020). With a graduate degree in Philosophy and Religion, he entitled his dissertation, “The Needs of Reason: Kant, Metaphysics, and the Proofs for the Existence of God.” It showcases how people today lack a serious understanding about the nature of proofs that demonstrate God’s existence as told in the history of modern thought from Descartes up to the present day. He argues that individuals can better understand the proofs via re-reading and expanding upon philosophers that critique those proofs developed by scholars like Kant over the course of some four decades. He suggests lastly that the issues presented by this “practical ontotheology” usefully dovetail with questions present in contemporary phenomenology.