Darren Yau, Ph.D.

Education

Ph.D., Religion, Ethics, and Politics, Princeton University, 2026
M.A., Religion, Princeton University, 2022
B.A., Philosophy, summa cum laude, Wheaton College, 2017
Visiting Student, Ethics at St. John's College and Political Theory at Worcester College, University of Oxford, 2016
 

Biography

Darren Yau, Ph.D., joined the Great Texts faculty in the Baylor Honors College in 2026. He earned a B.A. in philosophy with a minor in theology, summa cum laude, from Wheaton College before completing an M.A. in Religion and a Ph.D. in Religion, Ethics, and Politics at Princeton University. Prior to pursuing doctoral studies, Yau worked as a paralegal serving Christian nonprofits and churches in Chicago, an experience that deepened his interest in the relationship between faith, justice and public life. His scholarship lies at the intersection of Christian ethics, political theology and political philosophy, exploring how theological ideas shape questions of democracy, race and social reform. His doctoral dissertation, Nonviolence and the Duty to Reform: An Interpretation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Political Theology, serves as the foundation for his first book project. His work has appeared in the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics and in Augustine and Frontiers of Pluralism, and he has presented research at national and international conferences, including the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Christian Ethics, Yale University, Stanford University and the University of Oxford. Before joining Baylor, Yau taught courses at Princeton University in Christian Ethics and Modern Society, Religion and Its Modern Critics, and African American Studies and the Black Intellectual Tradition, where he received the Department of Religion Teaching Award.

Selected Writings

"Direct Action and Political Coercion: Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Ramsey as Theorists of Nonviolence," Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, vol. 44, no. 2 (2024), pp. 341–357.

"On Job and the Practical Problem of Suffering: Augustine and Martin Luther King Jr. Compared." In Augustine and Frontiers of Pluralism. Routledge, 2025.

"Utopia, Means, and Ends: On the Relevance of Impossible Ideals for Social Transformation." Journal of Religious Ethics (under review).