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Publications

Collection of writings from C.W. Howell on topics ranging from religion and science to Orthodoxy to video games.

Book

Designer Science is my forthcoming history of the intelligent design movement (ID). ID was an antievolutionary movement that rose to prominence in the 1990s and 2000s--but while it has faded from media view since then, its impact has been pronounced. The book chronicles the legacy and impact of ID in American political, social, and cultural history.

It will be published by NYU Press in 2025.

Interviews

AI-generated college essays are riddled with factual errors
A professor at Elon University assigned his students essay prompts to feed to ChatGPT, but the grades the chatbot received were not great.
MarketplaceMeghan McCarty Carino

Articles

The Beautiful Mind: A Review of All Things Are Full of Gods by David Bentley Hart
by C.W. Howell, Ph.D. Then he put on a tunic, and took a sturdy staff and limped outside. Slaves hurried to assist their lord. They were made of all gold, but looked like living women. They had a c…
Eclectic OrthodoxyEclectic Orthodoxy

October 2024 - My review of David Bentley Hart's book All Things Are Full of Gods, for Eclectic Orthodoxy.

Ted Chiang’s Absent God
by C. W. Howell, Ph.D. God is frequently a character in Ted Chiang’s short stories. This is a bit unusual, especially for science fiction. But Chiang has always been a creative and undaunted write…
Eclectic OrthodoxyEclectic Orthodoxy

February 2024 - An article about the religious themes in Ted Chiang's short stories, with specific attention paid to "Hell is the Absence of God."

To Educate Students about AI, Make Them Use It
A college professor and his students explain what they learned from bringing ChatGPT into the classroom
Scientific AmericanCal Baker, C.W. Howell, Fayrah Stylianopoulos

November 2023 - A co-written op-ed in Scientific American, regarding the AI-in-the-classroom assignment I did earlier this year. I invited two of my students to give their perspective on what they learned.

Who Are You?
C. W. Howell reviews the show Severance and its investigation of the relation of memory, identity, and selfhood.
PloughC. W. Howell

Sept 2023 - A review of the Apple TV show Severance, a meditation on memory and identity in the vein of Augustine's Confessions.

ChatGPT et la crise existentielle de l’université | Le Grand Continent
Tous des tricheurs ? L’université n’a pas échappé à l’irruption de ChatGPT et, plus généralement, de la popularisation de l’intelligence artificielle. Mais faire la chasse au plagiat est stérile. Il faut plutôt se demander ce que nous attendons de nos universités. Dans une perspective informée par s…
Le Grand Continentbaptiste.rogerlacanlegrandcontinent.eu

June 2023 - An essay on whether banning or embracing ChatGPT is the best way to deal with it in the classroom, with some speculation about the purpose and future of higher education. The English version is available here.

Don’t Want Students to Rely on ChatGPT? Have Them Use It
It’s easy to forget how little students and educators understand generative AI’s flaws. Once they actually try it out, they’ll see that it can’t replace them.
WIREDCondé Nast

June 2023 - A short article in Wired about my method of teaching students what ChatGPT is, in the hopes that understanding it better actually reduces their reliance on it.

Enchanted Outer Worlds - First Person Scholar
Christopher Howell teaches religious studies at Elon University. He holds a PhD in Religion from Duke University and an MTS from Duke Divinity School. George Seferis, the Greek poet and Nobel Laureate, once had a nightmare that the Parthenon stood for auction. After it was purchased by a group of Am…
First Person Scholar - Weekly critical essays, commentaries, and book reviews on gamesChristopher Howell

Jan 2023 - Article on the video game The Outer Worlds read through Eugene McCarraher's "The Enchantments of Mammon."

Love Unmasked: Nietzsche on Eternal Hell
by Christopher Howell, Ph.D. Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric mov’d: To re…
Eclectic OrthodoxyEclectic Orthodoxy

Nov 2022 - Article on Friedrich Nietzsche's critique of Christianity/eternal hell.

The Russian World and the Hellenic World
by Christopher Howell | български | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски We are in the midst of a few anniversaries of note in the Greek world. Last year, of course, was the bicentennial of the war for independence. This year, it’s the centennial of the July 1922 founding of AHEPA, in Atlanta, and..…
Public OrthodoxyChristopher Howell

Sept 2022 - Eastern Orthodoxy and the War in Ukraine.

Between Darwin and Dostoevsky: The Syntheses of Theodosius Dobzhansky – The ISCAST Journal
Theodosius Dobzhansky was one of the foremost evolutionary biologists of the twentieth century. Christopher Howell examines his scientific and religious work.
The ISCAST Journaladmin

Aug 2022 - Analysis of the religious, scientific, and political views of evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky.

The Path Upward: Liturgy, Universalism, and George Seferis
by Christopher Howell Burning burning burning burning O Lord Thou pluckest me out O Lord Thou pluckest burning ~ T.S. Eliot ~ “When you asked me about hell the other day,” wrote Philip Sherrard in …
Eclectic OrthodoxyEclectic Orthodoxy

Aug 2020 - The universalist language of the Eastern Orthodox liturgy.

George Seferis and the Freedom of Tradition
by Christopher Howell | ελληνικά “I belong to a small country,” said the great Greek poet George Seferis in his Nobel Prize winning speech in 1963. “It is small, but its tradition is immense.” As wrangling over the word “tradition” has become an idle pastime, particularly on that domain of debaucher…
Public OrthodoxyChristopher Howell

Aug 2020 - The religious and spiritual insight of Greek poet George Seferis.

EVOLUTION AND THE FALL by Christopher Howell
And death shall have no dominion. Dead men naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon; When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, They shall have stars at e…
ORTHODOXY IN DIALOGUEThe Editors

Dec 2019 - Where is the Fall if evolution is true?

Seraphim Rose and David Bentley Hart
by Christopher Howell One might not expect Seraphim Rose and David Bentley Hart to agree on much, but they do share one crucial perspective: that modernity is essentially nihilistic. However, while their diagnoses of modernity may be similar, their prescriptions are diametrically opposed. To stem th…
Public OrthodoxyDavid Hart

May 2019 - Comparative analysis of David Bentley Hart and Seraphim Rose (site misattributed article to Hart). Shortened, popular version of my Almagest article below.

Brepols - Almagest, International journal for the History of Scientific Ideas, 2018/2
Brepols PublishersBrepols & Distributions

2019 - Journal article comparing the thought of Seraphim Rose to David Bentley Hart. Article entitled "The Rose and the Stag: An American Orthodox Conversation on Modernity, Science, and Biblical Interpretation."

Webinars

As part of my work for the C.S. Lewis Foundation, I frequently appear on Webinars to interview scholars from around the world and run Q&A for our listeners. Topics range from C.S. Lewis himself to art & literature, politics, and even (at times) sports.

Q&A Interview with Christian Wiman

Conversation with David Bentley Hart

A conversation with philosopher David Bentley Hart on two of the most important topics in the world: baseball and children's literature.

Q&A Interview with Joy Marie Clarkson

Interview and Q&A with theologian and writer Joy Clarkson, on her short lecture "Serious, Constant Desire: Joy in C.S. Lewis and The Great Divorce."

Q&A Interview with Sorina Higgens

Interview and Q&A with writer and editor Sorina Higgins, following her lecture on the most mysterious member of the Inklings: Charles Williams.

Q&A Interview with Josh Tiessen

Interview and Q&A with the artist Josh Tiessen, following his presentation of his paintings.