Sam Welbaum Image

Sam Welbaum, PhD

Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Director of the Honors Program

Office Phone: 951-552-8410
E-mail: swelbaum@calbaptist.edu
Office Location: YGR 210
Office Hours: Mondays 1-5pm; Wed by appointment

Degree Major Emphasis Institution Year
PhD Philosophy of Religion and Theology Claremont Graduate University 2020
MTS Theological Studies Golden Gate/Gateway Seminary 2011
MA Christian Apologetics Biola University 2007
BA Philosophy, and Christian Studies (double emphasis in Biblical Languages, and Theology) California Baptist University 2005
  • Academic Areas & Scholarly Interests

    Experiential Aesthetics
    Existentialism (Kierkegaard and Heidegger in particular)
    Philosophy of Humor
    Boredom
    Postmodernism
    Modernity/Secularism
    Pop Culture and Theology/Philosophy
    History of Philosophy
    Intersection of Philosophy and Theology
    Apologetics

  • Teaching Experience at Institutions Other than CBU

    Colorado Christian University
    Gateway Seminary

  • Research, Presentations, & Publications

    Dissertation:
    "The Pervasive Emptiness: Acedia, Modernity, and the Boredom of Secularity"

    Publications:
    “Redemptive Derision: The Coexistence of Love and Insult in the Thought and Life of Martin Luther.” Luther Rice Journal of Christian Studies v.3 Summer 2020: 70-87.

    “Understanding Worldview to Minister More Effectively.” In Nursing as Ministry, edited by Kristen Maulk and Mary Hobus, 145-60. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett, 2019.

    “Defining Miracle: Hume, Theism and the History of a Concept,” Hope’s Reason: A Journal of Apologetics, vol. 3 Issue 1, January 2013.

    “The Transformed Beholder: Objective Beauty as the Impetus for Sanctification in the Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar,” Perichoresis, vol. 10 Issue 2, September 2012, pp. 245-265.

    Presentations:
    Symposium Response to "Sanity of Satire," at 2021 Meeting of the Western Division of the American Philosophical Association, virtual, April 2021

    “Redemptive Derision: The Coexistence of Love and Insult in the Thought and Life of Martin Luther,” at the Lighthearted Philosophers Society 13th Annual Meeting, in San Antonio, TX, November 2019

    "Always Making, Never Returning: Creed Bratton and Billy Joel as Windows into Dasein's Experience of Homesickness," at the 36th Annual International Social Philosophy Conference, University of San Fransisco, July 2019

    “Ungodly Boredom: The Impossibility of Divine Ennui in the Christian Tradition,” at the Evangelical Philosophical Society Far West Regional Meeting 2015, April 10, 2015.

    “Boredom and Pop Culture,” in “Apologetics and Pop Culture: Defending the Faith in the Age of Avatar, LOST and Twitter,” Panel Discussion, California Baptist University, March 27, 2012.

    “An Apologetic of Love and Beauty,” in “To Convince or Constrain? A Discussion on the Nature of Apologetics,” The First Annual Discussion Panel on Apologetics in the 21st Century, California Baptist University, October 11, 2011.

    "Becoming What We Once Were: An Argument for Restorative Revelation and its Symbiotic Relationship with Natural Theology," in Live Options in the Study of Religion, The Society for Philosophy and Religion in Claremont, March 25, 2011.

  • Church Membership & Activities

    Crosspoint Church in Huntington Beach