Caroline J. Simon, PhD, is a philosopher with a talent for making complex philosophical issues understandable to a broad audience. Many people assume philosophy is pointless, largely because of the way it is often practiced and taught within universities. In contrast, Dr. Simon is committed to reclaiming philosophy’s relevance to pursuing a well-lived human life.
Two of Caroline J. Simon’s books, Bringing Sex into Focus: The Quest for Sexual Integrity and The Disciplined Heart: Love, Destiny and Imagination grapple with aspects of human affection. Her other books, book chapters and essays explore topics at the intersection of philosophy, literature, and theology, as well as a wide range of ethical and higher education issues.
Dr. Simon has spoken at dozens of universities and colleges across the United States and abroad on topics related to love, friendship, sexuality, theology, inter-faith dialogue, and education. She spent twenty-five years teaching philosophy and humanities at Hope College in Holland, MI. She is provost emeritus of Whitworth University in Spokane, WA, where she served as executive vice president and chief academic officer for seven years.
Praise
Bringing Sex Into Focus: The Quest for Sexual Integrity
Susan Olasky
"In this thought-provoking book, philosopher and college teacher Caroline Simon seeks to bring clarity to our culture's sexual confusion. She uses helpful metaphor, optics, as a way to talk about six different lenses through which people view sex. . . . The book, written with the non-philosopher in mind, will be particularly useful for young adults searching for a way to think through sexual issues and discern the perspectives that shape media and culture."
Rebecca Manley Pippert
"The skeptic would argue that the Bible was written in a time and culture so different from ours that its prescriptions are no longer valid or relevant for us. But truth be told, the New Testament world was characterized by as much sexual freedom as we have today. In our age of 'whatever floats your boat,' Caroline Simon makes the virtuous life appealing, worth pursuing and ultimately profoundly satisfying."
Andrew Marin
"Caroline Simon presents a balanced philosophical approach to the orthodox Christian ethics of sex for a whole new generation of wonderers. Bringing Sex into Focus is well worth your time."
Richard J. Mouw
"In this fine book Caroline Simon delivers marvelously on what she promises: philosophically informed insight into the complexities of human sexuality. Not that she stays on the level of theory. There is much practical wisdom here on the 'ordinary' interactions of our highly sexualized culture: flirtation, seduction, 'hook-ups,' and much more!"
Lisa Graham McMinn
"Caroline Simon defends sexual integrity, but that's not her sole intention. With clarity and care Simon describes cultural lenses used to determine what we believe about flirting, premarital sex, prostitution and other sexual behaviors. She challenges readers to avoid simplistic explanations of perspectives other than their own as she helps us understand how each leads to consistent beliefs about sexual behaviors. Simon's readable, philosophical study of sex makes an important contribution to the field."
Jenell Williams Paris
"Bringing Sex into Focus delivers on the promise of its title: clarifying the meaning of sex and sexual faithfulness. Caroline Simon describes multiple lenses--both Christian and secular--used to interpret human sexuality, and fairly brings them into dialogue with one another. The book promotes civility and fairness for Christians engaging diverse sexual views and also upholds Christian ideals. Readers will be challenged to sharpen their vision, supported by this well-researched and lucidly presented book."
The Disciplined Heart: Love, Destiny and Imagination
Miroslav Volf
"This is a wise book, written in an engaging dialogue with some of our best novelists, philosophers, and theologians. Simon's profound reflections about the light that love sheds by the fire it carries deserve a wide audience."
Publishers Weekly
"A penetrating and illuminating glimpse into the vagaries of human love."
Booklist
"Caroline J. Simon's book is not only a lucid philosophical examination of love but also an important contribution to contemporary philosophical and theological discussion of narrative. It is accessibly written and will appeal to a broad general audience; but it will also be of interest to specialists concerned particularly with the influence of Anders Nygren in Protestant theology and with discussion of both love and narrative in such philosophers as Martha Nussbaum and Iris Murdoch. Readers will appreciate Simon's perceptive discussion of fictional works by Flannery O'Connor, Leo Tolstoy, William Kennedy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Eliot, Wallace Stegner, and Isak Dinesen, as well as her discussion of correspondence between Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright. The book is a delight, both for Simon's insights and for her pointers to others who have participated and are participating in a lively conversation about love and friendship."
William Hasker
"Caroline Simon has given us a wonderful book. She anatomizes our various loves in a way that is challenging, richly insightful, and at times disturbing. The Disciplined Heart invites comparison with C. S. Lewis's The Four Loves, and in some ways surpasses it."
Mentoring for Mission
Richard T. Hughes
“This wonderful book both instructs and inspires. It shows that a program for mentoring new faculty members at a church-related college is ‘an embodiment of Christian hospitality’ and thus a natural outgrowth of the Christian tradition.”
Michael Beaty
“A wonderful resource for those of us responsible for faculty development programs at religious colleges and universities. There is nothing else like it available in terms of content and quality. It is full of insight and superb practical suggestions.”
Introduction to Ethics: A Reader
Allen Verhey
"This is a quite wonderful collection of essays with splendid introductions. Andrew Dell'Olio and Caroline Simon have provided a book that begs to be taught and the invites reflection not just about moral theory but about our moral lives."
Kelly Clark
"This is an excellent introductory ethics reader. Selections are wisely chosen, with attention paid to both theoretical and applied ethics, classical and contemporary authors, Eastern and Western traditions, and religious and non-religious perspectives. The well-written introductions to the selections and the helpful study questions will prove useful to both students and instructors."
Can Hope Endure? A Historical Case Study
Garrett Ward Sheldon
“This is a well-written, fascinating study of a small Christian college and the changes it has endured over its 150-year history. The authors sensitively and honestly examine the social and theological changes that have occurred in this Reformed Dutch church institution of higher education….Highly recommended.”
Jason M. Morris
“I valued the honesty, and effort the authors used to tell the story of Hope and the lessons learned as one deeply interested in the future of Christian higher education. I recommend this read as a timely addition to the discussion of the purpose and sustainability of Christian higher education.”
Blog Posts and Invited Addresses
Blog posts and lectures available on YouTube:
Invited blogger for Psychology Today: Bringing Sex into Focus
Guest blog post for Brooke Keiner, life coach, Constraints and the Art of Purposeful Living
Guest blog post the Tai Chi Foundation Odd Gifts of the Pandemic
Destiny Whitworth University 125-second Lecture Series
"Bring Sex Into Focus" lecture at Dordt College, Sioux City, IA, March 2014.
Invited addresses on higher education:
“Christ-Centered Learning,” Belmont University, August 2022.
“Mapping Institutional Mission,” Lilly Network National Conference for Senior Administrators, Boston College, October 2021.
“Can Two Walk Together, Except They Be Agreed?” Lilly Network Regional Meeting, Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, January 2016.
“Gratitude, Hope and Purity of Heart: Three Virtues of the Christian Scholar,” Baylor University Crane Scholars Retreat, Waco, TX, April 2008.
“Cultivating Collegial Community: Becoming the Mentors We Need Our Faculty to Be,” presented to the Lilly Network Administrators Workshop in Macon, GA, October 2007.
“Preserving Community while Getting the Job Done: A Philosophy of Church-Related Higher Education.” presented at Viterbo University, La Crosse, WI, April 2002.
Invited addresses on sexuality and human affection:
“Sex and the Soul,” Belmont University, Nashville, TN, October 2014.
“Bringing Sex into Focus,” Dordt College, Sioux City, IA, March 2014.
“Bringing Sex into Focus,” Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, September 2012.
“Exploring C.S. Lewis's Many Loves,” Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. November 2010.
“C.S. Lewis on Love,” Georgetown College, Georgetown, KY, October 2009.
“Redemptive Engagement with Cultural Conceptions of Sexuality” University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, October 2008.
“What Wondrous Love Is This? Meditations on Barth, Christian Love, and the Future of Christian Ethics” Princeton Theological Seminary, June 1999.
“Just Friends, Friends and Lovers, or. . .?” presented to the Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love, in conjunction with the American Philosophical Assoc., March 1994.
“Just Friends” presented at Saginaw Valley State University, October 1992.
“Love and Destiny” presented at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, September 1992.
“Do We Owe Our Friends the Truth?” presented at the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meetings, March 1992.
Invited addresses and presentations on other topics:
“Community and Deliverance from Evil” invited Erasmus Lecture presented at Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA, January 2003.
“The Alchemy of Grace” presented at The Gospel of Justification in Christ: Where Does the Church Stand Today? conference, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, July 2002.
“Discipline, Dialogue and Virtue” presented at the Sixth Sino-American Symposium on Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Xiamen, China, March 1998.
“Christian Eudaimonism” presented to Society of Christian Philosophers Meeting, January 1994.
“Divine Command Theory and the Immoralities of the Patriarchs” presented at the Society of Christian Philosophers Midwest Meeting, October 1991.
“Verbal Virtue” presented at the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters,
March 1991.
“Supererogation: Puzzle or Pseudo-Problem?” presented at the “Beyond Duty?” Conference at the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, Western Michigan University, November 1990.
“Supererogation and the Limits of Morality” presented at the Pacific Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association, March 1990.
“Judgmentalism,” presented at the Society of Christian Philosophers Midwestern Meeting, St. Paul, MN, October 1988.
Selected Articles and Book Chapters:
“Christian Life in The School of Athens.” The Christian Century March 2024. 62-66.
“The Mystery of Grace: A Theological Reading of C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces” Perichoresis Vol. 20, Issue 3, July 2022. 91-107.
“Just Friends, Friends and Lovers, or…?” in Sex, Love and Friendship: Studies of the Society of the Philosophy of Sex and Love: 1993-2003, edited by Adrianne Leigh McEvoy. Rodopi. 27-38.
"On Love" in Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis. Cambridge University Press. 2010. 146-159.
“Vengeance, Forgiveness and Redemption in Mystic River” in Faith, Philosophy and Film: Big Ideas on the Big Screen. InterVarsity Press, 2007.
“What Wondrous Love Is This? Meditations on Barth, Love and the Future of Christian Ethics.” in For the Sake of the World: Karl Barth and the Future of Ecclesial Ethic. Eerdmans, 2005. 143-158.
“Community, Rootedness and Deliverance from Evil.” Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought. June/July 2003. 12-18.
“Seduction: Does How You Get to ‘Yes’ Still Matter?” in Philosophy, Feminism, and Faith. edited by Marya Bower and Ruth Groenhout, Indiana University Press, 2003. 175-189.
“Taking the Plunge: A Kierkegaardian View of Marriage.” International Academy for Marital Spirituality Review, Autumn 2002. 217-226.
“Christianity and Moral Knowledge” in Christian Theism and Moral Philosophy, edited by Michael D. Beaty, Carlton Fisher, and Mark T. Nelson, Mercer University Press, 1998. 107-144.
“The Leaky Sieve of Our Desires.” Perspectives, March 1998.
“When a Man Loves a Woman–As a Friend” Books & Culture, July/August 1997.
“Contending with ‘Gentle Death.’” Perspectives, May 1997.
“How Many Fools Do You Know?” Christian Scholar's Review, Spring 1997.
“The Media and Mother Teresa.” Perspectives, March 1997.
“Can Women and Men Be Friends?” The Christian Century, February 19, 1997.
“Do You Believe in Fairy Tales?” Perspectives, June/July 1995.
“Compassion and the Culture Wars.” Perspectives, February 1995.
“Evil, Tragedy and Hope: Reflections on Tolstoy's 'Father Sergius'” Christian Scholars Review, March 1995.
“On Seeing What Does Not Yet Appear: Reflections on Love and Imagination,” in Faith and Philosophy, July 1993.
“We the Living; We the Dying” in Perspectives, April 1993.
“Sexuality and Women's Voices” The Reformed Journal, vol. 40, no. 6 (1990).
"Judgmentalism" Faith and Philosophy, vol. 6, no. 3 (1989).