University of Michigan - Flint

University of Edinburgh -- PhD in Philosophical Theology and Christian Ethics (pending June 2008)

Tristin graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English and a BA in Philosophy at the University of Michigan – Flint in 2002. In the summer of 2002 he was hired as research assistant to Stanley Hauerwas, the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School. During this time he helped edit and compile Hauerwas’ book Disrupting Time. In the fall of 2002, Tristin began reading for an MSc in Theology at the University of Edinburgh. Papers written during this time include:

“Kant as Detenser: The Price Paid for Tenselessness before ‘The New Theory of Reference’”

“Whatever happened to the Trinity? or Does the Spirit make us Moral?”

“Hauerwas from Dialectics to Description: on why the Church must ‘out-sing’ the world”

“Between Triumph and Reticence: Eschatological Metaphors for the Timeful Reign of God with special reference to the work of Stanley Hauerwas and Oliver O’Donovan” (thesis)

Upon completion of his thesis, Tristin was accepted to the PhD program where he wrote on the intersection of postliberal political theology, radical democracy, and continental philosophy, titled: A Critique of Postliberal Political Theology in the Writings of Stanley Hauerwas, and a Proposal for an Ecclesial Politics of Gathering. During this time Tristin co-designed the book An Angel Directs the Storm with his thesis Supervisor, and Professor of Ethics, Michael Northcott. Tristin has submitted his dissertation and passed the viva (oral examination). He is currently making recommended changes to the final draft of the thesis.