Andrew D. Thrasher

Image of Andrew D Thrasher

Department of Theology and Religion
Doctoral Researcher

Contact details

PhD title: Belief After Secular: Late Modern Imaginaries of Belief
SupervisorProfessor David Cheetham and Professor Nicholas Adams
PhD Theology and Religion

Qualifications

  • Master of Theology in Christian Theology, Regent University (2017)
  • MA in interdisciplinary Studies: Religion, Values, and Culture, George Mason University (2014)
  • Adjunct Instructor of Religious Studies at George Mason University and Tidewater Community College

Biography

Andrew holds a ThM in Christian Theology and an MA in Interdisciplinary studies, with a concentration in religion, culture, and values, and a specialisation in religion and philosophy. He has taught religious studies at the Junior college level for six years and teaches also at George Mason University and starting in Fall 2021, American University. He resides in Virginia in the United States, just outside of Washington DC. He specialises in teaching Asian and comparative religion.

Teaching

  • American University (Starting August 2021)
  • George Mason University (August 2019-present)
  • Tidewater Community College (August 2015-present)

Research

My thesis is addressing how the Late-modern contemporary west imagines belief, unbelief, and non-belief through analyses of post-secular everydayness. It extends arguments and methods found at the intersection of sociology of religion, cultural studies, and philosophy of religion, notably extending and applying ideas of Charles Taylor, Michel de Certeau, and Grace Davie, among others. The thesis begins with a methodological mapping of everyday belief in sociology of religion and cultural studies, followed by three sets of two sister chapters. The first set addresses the options of late-modern religiosity and post-secularism by developing further John Milbank and Hans Joas’ articulations of complex space while the second extends analyses of Charles Taylor and Michel de Certeau on post-secular anthropology and flourishing, developing my idea of the middle condition. The final sister set develops a central thesis to post-secular quotidian believing - the defamiliarization thesis - adapting and developing ideas from Grace Davie, Zygmunt Bauman, de Certeau, and Baudrillard and Deleuze’s notions of simulacra as applied to post-secular experience and popular culture.

Other activities

Presentations:

  • AAR 2019 in San Diego on Christian Theology and Raimon Panikkar on Ecology
  • 2019 Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy on Raimon Panikkar, Charles Taylor and post-secularism
  • ETS Eastern regional meeting on 2018 and 2017 on Trinitarian theology and Secular liturgies
  • 10th annual Polish Philosophical congress in 2015 in Poznan Poland on Raimon Panikkar as a postmodern theologian
  • Membership: AAR, Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, Evangelical Theological Society
  • Academia.edu/AndyThrasher

Publications

Forthcoming with Lexington Press:

  • With Austin Freeman and Fotini Toso, (eds.) Fantasy, Theology, and the Imagination
  • “Valar Morghulis: Theology of Death in Game of Thrones” in Theology and Game of Thrones, ed. Matthew William Brake
  • “Wakandan Politics of Identity” in Theology and Black Panther, edited by Matthew William Brake and Kimberly Hampton
  • Inter-religious Resourcement in the Lion King” in Disney and Moral Theology, Edited by Jeremy Scarborough

Published:

  • “Dr. Strange and Modern Re-enchantment” in Theology and the Marvel Universe, ed. Gregory Stevenson, (2019)
  • “Glossary, Bibliography and Index,” in Raimon Panikkar: a Companion to his Life and Thought, Eds. Peter Phan and Young-chan Ro (2018)