Academic Publishing/Research Interests

Gretchen Koch, Fellow, Aarhus University

Gretchen Koch’s background is in philosophy of religion, and she is analyzing research from developmental and moral psychology to explore possible cognitive foundations for belief in souls, and the role which that belief plays in moral reasoning. She is particularly interested in the conditions under which practice of empathy may be stimulated or inhibited, and the ways in which narratives concerning the soul may be invoked in post hoc moral justification.

Gretchen Koch has a BA in Religious Studies from Texas Christian University, an MA from the Centre for Religion, Culture, and Gender at the University of Manchester and a PhD from the Department of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University.

Koch, G (2013). Care of the Soul: Empathy in a Dualistic Worldview in Geertz, A.W. (Ed.). (2013). Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315728988

Koch, G. (2008). Full of Sound and Fury: The Media Response to Dennett. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 20(1), 36-44. https://doi.org/10.1163/157006808X260412

Editorial Blogging

• My personal blog at GiantIf.com.
• Why my sterilization is political in the age of Trump at Medium.
• Religion Dispatches
• State of Formation, a group blog “for emerging religious and ethical leaders. Founded as an offshoot of the Journal of Interreligious Studies, both publications are produced by the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership at Hebrew College and Boston University School of Theology. The forum is for up-and-coming religious and ethical thinkers to draw upon the learning that is occurring in their academic and community work.”
  • I’m Tripping over you, God
  • “Bullshit”
  • IIWAPBK [If I Were a Poor Black Kid] and Privilege 101
  • “Muscular Christianity” and the Penn State Scandal
  • What We Could Have Done
  • What Rick Santorum Doesn’t Get About Bigotry
  • Demonstration Denied in Dearborn; Dawud Declares Doubts
  • Afghans Attack U.N. Building, Murder Workers and Each Other After Qur’an Burning
  • Making Sense of Tragedy: Was the Earthquake a “Divine Punishment”?
  • Sue Blackmore Decides that Religions are Not, in Fact, Viruses of the Mind

Published Cartoons

Religion Dispatches

Politico

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“Stop Protesting Police Brutality” was published on Politico on 6/12/20.

Kansas City Star

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Wichita Eagle

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