Garth W. Green

Academic title(s): 

John W. McConnell Professor of Philosophy of Religion
Director, School of Religious Studies

Garth W. Green
Contact Information
Address: 

3520 University Street, Room 112
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 2A7, Canada

Phone: 
514-398-1446
Fax number: 
514-398-6665
Email address: 
garth.green [at] mcgill.ca
Degree(s): 

M.A. (Boston)
M.A. (Leuven)
Ph.D. (Boston)

Specialization: 

Philosophy of Religion, Philosophical Theology, Christian Neo-Platonism, German Idealism, French Phenomenology

Biography: 

I teach and research the histories of Christian theology and European philosophy, and the systematic relations within and between these histories. I have focused on (1) medieval, and specifically neo-Platonic, theology, (2) modern and 19th-century philosophies of religion, and (3) the reconfiguration of this medieval-theological and modern-philosophical inheritance in contemporary phenomenology and its ‘theological turn.’ In each case, my intention is to comprehend fundamental philosophical and theological problems by attending to the process of their unfolding, in order to come to a contemporary understanding of ourselves as inheritors of these philosophical and theological histories.

These interests developed during graduate study in Religion (M.A., Boston University), Philosophy (M.A., Leuven), and Philosophy of Religion (Ph.D., Boston University). I held graduate fellowship and research positions at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Austria), the University of Leuven (Belgium), the Institut Catholique de Paris (France), and the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici (Italy). I was Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Boston University, where I taught in the Department of Religion, Department of Philosophy, and School of Theology, from 2004-2011. I became Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at McGill University in Fall 2011, and John W. McConnell Professor of Philosophy of Religion in 2017.

Since arriving at McGill, I have been a Faculty Fellow at the McGill Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas (2013-16), and have held a FRQSC Nouveaux Chercheurs Grant (2013-16) for my work on Michel Henry and the origins of the ‘theological turn’ of French phenomenology. In that context, I co-hosted (with Professor Jean Grondin, Université de Montréal) the International Conference of the Société Francophone de Philosophie de la Religion. I was Visiting Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Institut Supérieur de Philosophie) in Summer 2014, and at the Università di Cagliari (Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia) in Summer 2015. 

I became Director of the School of Religious Studies in February, 2018.

In 2019, I founded, with Jean Grondin and Sean McGrath, the Canadian Society for Philosophy of Religion/Société canadienne de philosophie de la religion, of which I serve as inaugural president. In 2021, I founded with George di Giovanni a new series with McGill-Queen’s University Press, entitled Studies in the Philosophy of Religion.

I will return to a full-time research, publication, and graduate supervision schedule when this term of service has been fulfilled.

Courses: 

RELG 321. Western Intellectual Tradition.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

Introduces essential sources in western philosophy and theology; examines the interdependence of these disciplines in their historical development; exposes students to the means and methods of argumentation that will allow them to compare and contrast these sources, and to develop and defend their own positions with respect to them.
  • Prerequisite: U0 students must obtain permission from instructor

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RELG 325. Varieties Religious Experience in Christianity.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

A survey of varieties of religious experience in Christianity.

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RELG 341. Introduction: Philosophy of Religion.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

Introduction to the subject. Faith and reason, theistic arguments, values and destiny, the problem of evil, religious language.
  • Fall

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RELG 374. Topics: Philosophy of Religion.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

Selected topics in the philosophy of religion. Topic varies by year.

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RELG 380. Religion, Philosophy, Modernity.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

Through primary source readings, this class will examine the intellectual history of this change, will identify the agents of this change, both philosophical and theological, and will consider the significance and implications of inhabiting a 'modernity' that is, and understands itself as, 'secular.' Charles Taylor's recent book, A Secular Age, narrates a historical development, from a 'pre-modern' condition, in which it was 'virtually impossible not to believe in and encounter God,' to a modern and contemporary situation in which 'faith is an embattled option.' Within the 'context of our self-understanding,' 'secularism' has become a 'default option.'

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RELG 642. Philosophy of Religion in the 21st Century.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Graduate Studies)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

The course is dedicated to the examination of selected contemporary authors in the field of philosophy of religion.

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Selected publications: 

Recent Publications

2024, Book Chapter; “The Historiographical Significance of Cusanus’ Apologia,” in Divine Illumination: The Reception of German Mysticism in Early Modern England, eds. Torrance Kirby, Douglas Hedley, and Daniel Tolan (Leiden and Boston: Brill).

2023, Book Chapter; “On Hart On Afterthinking,” in The Philosophical Theology of Ray L. Hart (Edinburgh University Press), Alina Feld and Sean McGrath, eds.

2022, Journal Article; “Michel Henry: Natural Consciousness, Philosophical Consciousness, the Essence of Manifestation,” Archivio di Filosofia, 2/3.

2021, Book Chapter; “Hegel’s Philosophy of Religion,” in Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion, 4 v. Co-authored with George di Giovanni; Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro, eds. (Oxford, Wiley Blackwell).

2020, Journal Article; “Nicholas of Cusa’s Platonism: Its Epistemological Structure and Historiographical Significance,” in Annuario Filosofico, n. 36.

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