Biography:Helen De Cruz
Helen Lucretia De Cruz | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 September 1978 Ghent, Belgium |
| Died | 20 June 2025 (aged 46) |
| Alma mater | UGent, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Groningen University |
| Known for | Philosophy of religion |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Philosophy of religion |
| Doctoral advisor | Igor Douven |
Helen De Cruz (1 September 1978 – 20 June 2025) was a Belgian philosopher and Danforth Chair of Philosophy at Saint Louis University who specialised in philosophy of religion, experimental philosophy, philosophy of blogging, and philosophy of cognitive science. They were also an activist supporting the rights of EU citizens in the context of Brexit.
Biography
De Cruz received their BA in archaeology and art studies and an MA in anthropology of art from Ghent University. In 2007, they completed a PhD in archaeology and art studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and in 2011 they completed a PhD in philosophy at Groningen University, with a dissertation entitled Through a Mind Darkly: An Empirically informed philosophical perspective on systematic knowledge acquisition and cognitive limitations, under the supervision of Igor Douven. After post-doctoral research positions at University of Leuven and Somerville College, Oxford, they joined VU Amsterdam as an assistant professor of philosophy in 2015, before moving to Oxford Brookes University in 2016.[1] They held the Danforth Chair of Philosophy at Saint Louis University from September 2019 onwards.[2]
They were an Executive Editor of the Journal of Analytic Theology,[3] and a member of the editorial boards of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Journal of Mind & Behavior,[4] and Religious Studies.
In 2014, De Cruz published a series of interviews with philosophers working outside of academia for the NewAPPS blog.[5] They were a signatory on a 2018 open letter from academic philosophers to Amber Rudd, which urged the then home secretary to reconsider a request for asylum. The letter described a request which had been denied on the grounds that the applicant had not mentioned Plato or Aristotle when asked about humanism. The letter's signatories argued that the applicant should not have been expected to mention them.[6]
De Cruz regularly engaged in public philosophy and was featured on several public philosophy podcasts discussing the public sphere, religious disagreement, science fiction, philosophy of science, and experimental philosophy of religion.[7][8][9][10][11]
In addition to being a prolific philosopher, De Cruz was also a player of the Renaissance lute and a digital artist.[12]
De Cruz died on 20 June 2025, at the age of 46.[13]
Books
- De Cruz, Helen; De Smedt, Johan (19 December 2014) (in en). A Natural History of Natural Theology: The Cognitive Science of Theology and Philosophy of Religion. MIT Press. pp. 264. ISBN 9780262028547. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262028547/a-natural-history-of-natural-theology/.[14]
- De Cruz, Helen (2018). Religious Disagreement. Elements in the Philosophy of Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-45731-6. https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/religious-disagreement/18A9B767E64FA47F97CD8E9814233210.
- De Cruz, Helen (26 March 2024) (in en). Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think. Princeton University Press. pp. 232. ISBN 9780691232126. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691232126/wonderstruck.[15]
References
- ↑ "Helen De Cruz: Curriculum Vitae". http://helendecruz.net/docs/CV_DeCruz_online_version.pdf.
- ↑ Weinberg, Justin (29 March 2019). "De Cruz from Oxford Brookes to Saint Louis" (in en-US). http://dailynous.com/2019/03/29/de-cruz-oxford-brookes-saint-louis-university/.
- ↑ "Journal of Analytic Theology". http://journalofanalytictheology.com/jat/index.php/jat.
- ↑ "Home - The Journal of Mind and Behavior - University of Maine". https://umaine.edu/jmb/.
- ↑ Rosen, Rebecca (8 July 2014). "What do philosophers do?". The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/what-do-philosophers-do/374036/.
- ↑ <! --not stated--> (26 January 2018). "You don't need to know Plato and Aristotle to be a humanist". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/26/you-dont-need-to-know-plato-and-aristotle-to-be-a-humanist.
- ↑ Brennan, John (11 October 2021). "Owning the Public Square". https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/owning-the-public-square/14107858.
- ↑ Howard, Jeffrey (25 November 2020). "Religious Disagreement and Whether Religious Expertise Exists w/ Helen De Cruz". https://erraticus.co/2020/11/25/religious-disagreement-experience-expertise-helen-de-cruz/.
- ↑ Peña-Guzmán, David M.; Anderson, Ellie (9 March 2021). "Episode 42". https://www.overthinkpodcast.com/episodes/episode-42?rq=helen%20de%20cruz.
- ↑ Roundtable Discussion on Experimental Philosophy of Religion. Center for Philosophy of Religion. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
- ↑ "Owning the Public Square". 28 February 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/owning-the-public-square/14107858.
- ↑ "Sporadic pics" (in en). http://helendec.tumblr.com/.
- ↑ Weinberg, Justin (20 June 2025). "Helen De Cruz (1978-2025)" (in en-US). https://dailynous.com/2025/06/20/helen-de-cruz-1978-2025/,%20https://dailynous.com/2025/06/20/helen-de-cruz-1978-2025/.
- ↑ Reviews of A Natural History of Natural Theology:
- Grundmann, Christoffer H. (November 2015), "none", Zygon 50 (4): 1024–1026, doi:10.1111/zygo.12223
- Vasalou, Sophia (February 2016), "none", Religious Studies 52 (3): 424–429, doi:10.1017/s0034412516000020
- Thurow, Joshua C. (July 2016), "none", Faith and Philosophy 33 (3): 370–374, doi:10.5840/faithphil201633367
- Eyghen, Hans Van (January 2017), "none", Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion 3 (2): 207–209, doi:10.1558/jcsr.27221
- Haan, Daniel D. De (April 2017), "none", Reviews in Religion & Theology 24 (2): 257–260, doi:10.1111/rirt.12897
- Skolits, Wes (July 2017), "none", Philosophical Psychology 30 (6): 849–853, doi:10.1080/09515089.2017.1320371
- Krannich, Laura-Christin (June 2018), "none", Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences 4 (2): 264–267, doi:10.1628/ptsc-2017-0011
- Clark, Kelly James, "Trusting intuitions?", pp. 336–337, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1107247
- Green, Adam, "Natural theology as model-based reasoning", pp. 337–342, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1107248
- Jensen, Jeppe Sinding, "The naturalness of natural theology – an exercise in collective imagination", pp. 342–346, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1107249
- Liénard, Pierre, "Natural theology, verification, and growth of knowledge", pp. 346–349, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1107250
- Shults, F. LeRon, "Can theism be defeated? CSR and the debunking of supernatural agent abductions", pp. 349–355, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1107251
- ↑ Reviews of Wonderstruck:
- Cleary, Skye C. (2 April 2024). "'Wonderstruck' Review: Surprises for the Soul" (in en-US). https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/wonderstruck-review-surprises-for-the-soul-dc9e9686.
- Berlatsky, Noah (22 October 2024). "Book review: Wonderstruck" (in en-GB). https://newhumanist.org.uk/6344/book-review-wonderstruck.
- Curry, Patrick. "Taking the mystery out of wonder" (in en-GB). https://www.the-tls.com/regular-features/in-brief/wonderstruck-helen-de-cruz-book-review-patrick-curry.
- Baggini, Julian (22 June 2025). "Sublime Intervention" (in en). https://literaryreview.co.uk/sublime-intervention.
- Carman, Taylor. "Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think" (in en-US). https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/wonderstruck-how-wonder-and-awe-shape-the-way-we-think/.
Further reading
- Sosis, Cliff (7 June 2018). "Helen De Cruz" (in en-US). http://www.whatisitliketobeaphilosopher.com/helen-de-cruz.
External links
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