Nancey Murphy - Career

Career

Murphy's research interests focus on the role of modern and postmodern philosophy in shaping Christian theology; on relations between theology and science; and most recently on philosophy of mind and neuroscience. Her first book, Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning (Cornell, 1990) won the American Academy of Religion award for excellence. She is author of nine other books, including Anglo-American Postmodernity: Philosophical Perspectives on Science, Religion, and Ethics (Westview, 1997); and On the Moral Nature of the Universe: Theology, Cosmology, and Ethics (with G.F.R Ellis, Fortress, 1996), the later of which was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Her most recent books are Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? (Cambridge, 2006); and (co-authored with Warren Brown) Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will (Oxford, 2007).

Murphy has co-edited eleven volumes, including (with L. Schultz and R.J. Russell, Brill 2009) Philosophy, Science, and Divine Action; (with G.F.R. Ellis and T. O'Connor, Springer, 2009) Downward Causation and the Neurobiology of Free Will, Springer; and (with W. R. Stoeger, Oxford, 2007) Evolution and Emergence: Systems, Organisms, Persons.

Murphy is a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (and former chair of the board); the American Philosophical Association; and the Society of Christian Philosophers. She has served as an advisor to the American Association for the Advancement of Science's program on dialogue between science, ethics, and religion, and serves on long-term planning committees for a series of conferences on science and divine action and on the problem of natural evil sponsored by the Vatican Observatory.

In 1998 Murphy was Creighton University's alumnus of the year, and in 2006, GTU Alumnus of the year. She was the 1999 J.K Russell Fellow at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. She was elected to the International Society for Science and Religion and serves on its steering committee. In 2007 she was included in the Los Angeles Magazine 100 most influential people. She is an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren.