Alexander C. Irwin

Alec Irwin is an assistant professor in the Department of Religion at Amherst College and a research associate of the Institute for Health and Social Justice. His scholarship and teaching explore how religious allegiances and conceptions of the sacred intertwine with economic and political factors to promote or inhibit social change. He is the author of 'Eros Toward the World', a comparison of ideas of love in the work of theologian Paul Tillich and in contemporary religious feminism. His recent articles have focused on the politics of sainthood in twentieth-century Europe. He is currently preparing a study of French philosopher and social activist Simone Weil, and is working to develop medical ethics and environmental ethics courses critically attuned to patterns of transformation in the global economy.