Hi! my name is Stefani Ruper. I am a pragmatist philosopher of religion. My primary interest is the modern world’s death of truth and existential despair, and what we should believe in the face of them.
I analyse the mood and ideas driving our despair. I compare, contrast, and make recommendations about solutions. I use several criteria, with an emphasis on pragmatist conceptions of truth and flourishing.
I am mostly interested in faith, William James’s will to believe, and in the question of what to believe, that is, in axiology, and ethics. I focus a lot on the intersections between metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.
What should we believe, and why?
Investigating these questions includes work in historical developments, philosophical analysis of the various problems and solutions associated with the modern existential milieu, philosophical and theological metaphysics, evolutionary and psychological anthropology, and critical and theoretical analysis of various categories such as religion, secularism, science, and relationships therein. I do my best to complement the breadth of my scholarship with the depth its due.
CORE PUBLICATIONS
- William James Valued and Theorised Absolute Truth: A Defence of William James’s Affinity for Truth and Elucidation of the Means by Which to Know it
- -(In Process)
- Rescuing Metaphysics for Pragmatists: Interpreting William James’s Pure Experience as a Metaphysical Concept that Bars Reification and Opens Discourse to Pragmatic Goods
- -(Submitted to Transactions)
- The Will to Experience Transcendence: The Affective Potentialities of Religious (Kierkegaardian) and Secular (Agnostic) Transcendence as Presented by Jean Wahl
- -(Submitted to Philosophy Today)
- Beatific Dying: How the Queer and Autotelic Affects of Saintly Suffering Invalidate Psychologically Functionalist Accounts of Religion
- -(Submitted to Critique of Religion)
- To Naturalise is to Differentiate: How Recent Advances in Cognitive Science Provide a More Plural Basis for Theorising Religion
- -(Method and Theory in the Study of Religion; 2018)
- Metaphysics Matters: Metaphysics and Soteriology in Jerome Stone’s and Donald Crosby’s Varieties of Religious Naturalism
- -(Zygon Journal of Religion and Science; 2014)
MAJOR PROJECTS
The Oxford Pragmatism Centre
Pragmatism is one of the world’s premier schools of thought, and it’s on the rise. But Oxford has never had significant scholarship or any groups related to Pragmatism.
I set out to change that.
I founded the Oxford Pragmatism Society in January 2023:
- I convene a monthly session, at which we discuss a paper or theme.
- In Spring 2024 we will host the first ever conference in Oxford on Pragmatism, with the theme:
What is it Logical to Believe?
The Philosophy of Faith
In January 2023 I founded The Philosophy of Faith and the Association for the Philosophy of Faith.
The Philosophy of Faith is the evaluation an advocacy of faith from the basis of secular reasoning and philosophy.
The Association for the Philosophy of Faith is a group of scholars in diverse disciplines who explore and/or advocate faith amidst secular discourses and audiences explicitly. We network and learn from one another’s ideas and experiences.
We are open to all disciplines and all faiths; even while many affiliated identify with Christianity we consider faith in the modern context broadly construed.
YOUR WILL IS FREE! | TURN YOUR EYES AND HEART TO JOY!
The most important truths – like most important things in life – are gained only by taking risks.
Free will one small, but momentous thing: our ability to direct our attention.
Our task is thus to steer our attention towards the good, beautiful, joyous, empowering, and true.
It is to be growth-oriented.
It is help ourselves build new habits – of belief, of interpretation, of feeling, of body, of love, of life.
BACKGROUND & MISSION
I began having panic attacks about dying and the meaning of life when I was four years old. I became obsessed with finding answers. I was raised in an atheist home, and I grew up thinking religion was for weak and stupid people. Religion was not my answer.
I turned to science. I studied the biochemical origin of life. I soon realised, however, that I was more intereste in what science meant. And the people who were talking about that were the religious ones.
I then realised that I had always prided myself on open-mindedness while dismissing the most cherished views of about 99% of people who have ever existed. I enrolled in seminary at the Boston University School of Theology, and received my MTS in 2014.
In 2015 I was fortunate enough to enrol at Oxford under the supervision of Donovan Schaefer and Alister McGrath in the religion and science cohort of the Theology and Religion faculty.
I received my PhD in 2020 and immediately began trying to write books about what I had learned. I wanted to provide solutions to meaninglessness for secular people. But all the books I wrote (four or five) were bad. My friends thought I had imposter syndrome. But I knew that that wasn’t the problem. The books were just very bad. Something was missing.
I let it go. I tried to live without doing philosophy. I got a prestigious job, a fancy apartment, and a brand new car. I worked during the day and went dancing at night. All my acquaintances thought I was having the time of my life. But I have never been more miserable.
I realised I couldn’t give up. I needed to look somewhere new. I re-discovered William James, and a lightbulb went off. OMG! THIS IS IT! THIS IS MY ANSWER!
I quit my job and followed my gut to the Université Jean Moulin in Lyon, France, where I studied under a world-renowned James scholar, Stéphane Madelrieux.
I learned the foundations of Pragmatism and became a novice James scholar.
I learned that James’s work holds many keys to the existential meaninglessness, despair, and anxiety that blanket our modern world.
I learned that we are not just licensed but justified to have faith.
I learned that faith is brilliant, powerful, transformative, and maybe everything we as individuals and societies need.
I now explore pragmatist philosophy to contribute to academic inquiry into belief and reality, and also to help us become healthier, happier, better people.
In early 2023 I returned to Oxford to work full time on the meaning of life in academic and cultural discourse.
I am beyond excited about daring into what’s next.
CREDENTIALS
Education:
High Honours BA, Dartmouth College (2010)
Master’s of Theology, Boston University (2014)
Doctor of Philosophy, University of Oxford (2020)
Academic publications:
“Metaphysics Matters: Metaphysics and Soteriology in Jerome Stone’s and Donald Crosby’s Varieties of Religious Naturalism” Zygon (49: 2) 2014.
“To Naturalize is to Differentiate: How Recent Advances in Cognitive Science Provice a More Plural Basis for Theorizing Religion” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion (30: 1) 2018.
Rescuing Metaphysics for Pragmatists: Interpreting William James’s Pure Experience as a Metaphysical Concept that Bars Reification and Opens Discourse to Pragmatic Goods (Submitted to Transactions)
The Will to Experience Transcendence: The Affective Potentialities of Religious (Kierkegaardian) and Secular (Agnostic) Transcendence as Presented by Jean Wahl (Submitted to Philosophy Today)
Beatific Dying: How the Queer and Autotelic Affects of Saintly Suffering Invalidate Psychologically Functionalist Accounts of Religion (Submitted to Critique of Religion)
Public Scholarship:
BBC New Generation Thinker Short-list, BBC (2020)
Naked Humanity Podcast Host (2018-2020)
Oxford Torch Summer Program (2019)
Literary Agency:
Park & Fine
Branding and Strategy Experience:
Research Associate, Harvard Business School (2021-2022)
Brand Strategy, Harvard University (2021)
Founder and director, Health to Empower organisation for women’s wellness (2012-2020)
Awards:
Ian Ramsey Centre John Templeton Foundation Grant, 2015-2017.
Institute for Religion in an age of Science Scholarship, 2013.
Carr Scholarship, 2013.
Huayu Enrichment Scholarship, 2011.
Uthman Prize for Most Outstanding Undergraduate Research, 2010.
NASA Space Grant, 2009.