Matthew Anderson Joins Honors Program Faculty
The Honors College is pleased to announce the appointment of Matthew Anderson, D. Phil., as Assistant Professor of Ethics and Theology in the Honors Program. He is set to begin August 1.
“Dr. Anderson will make a tremendous impact on the Honors Program,” Honors Program Director Elizabeth Corey, Ph.D. said. “He is an intellectual entrepreneur with boundless energy for the life of the mind. He’s also a great colleague and someone who can speak charitably across differences. I anticipate he will bring a new energy to the entire department.”
Dr. Anderson joins the Honors College after serving with Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion as an Assistant Research Professor in Theology and Ethics since 2018. Before coming to Baylor, Anderson completed an M. Phil. and D.Phil. at Oxford University in Christian Ethics.
“I am thrilled to be part of a multi-disciplinary learning community, with colleagues and students whose love of learning is not necessarily bound to a single discipline and who are deeply committed to the value of a liberal arts education,” Anderson said. “I am especially looking forward to spending time with undergraduates who are eager to explore fundamental questions about what it means to live well in a difficult and perplexing world.”
Dr. Anderson's scholarly interests include pro- and anti-natalism, political theology, and bioethics. He is the author of several books and has written for First Things, the Washington Post, Mere Orthodoxy, and elsewhere. He also envisioned and led the Honors College’s 2021-22 public humanities initiative, 100 Days of Dante, which assembled the world's largest reading group of the Divine Comedy to recognize the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death.
“I am firmly convinced that education should help students cultivate wisdom, not only gain the practical skills they need to secure jobs,” Anderson said. “Few people in this world have the opportunity to devote time to thinking through life's fundamental questions with some of history's important and profound thinkers; the opportunity to do so is a luxury for which I am extremely grateful.”
Anderson is married to fellow Baylor faculty member, Charity Anderson, Ph.D., and when he is not at work, he enjoys playing piano, reading Anthony Trollope, and beating the fourth graders in his neighborhood at basketball. If you would like to learn more about him, you can visit his personal website.