Alan M. Olson

Alan M. Olson
Born	January 7, 1939 Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Era	20th-century philosophy/21st-century philosophy,
Region	Western philosophy
School	Continental philosophy
Main interests	Philosophy of Religion, German Idealism, Philosophical Theology, Existentialism, Phenomenology, Hermeneutics
Notable ideas	Jaspers and Cross-cultural Hermeneutics, Hegel and Pneumatology
Influences Karl Jaspers, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, John N. Findlay

Alan M. Olson is a Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Boston University. He received his degrees from Saint Olaf College (BA, History and Philosophy), Luther Theological Seminary (MDiv, Theology), Nashotah House, where he studied with Arthur Anton Vogel, and Boston University (PhD) where he studied with Peter A. Bertocci, Erazim Kohak, Harold H. Oliver and John N. Findlay. He served as Chairman of the Religion Department at Boston University, 1980–1987, and Chairman of the Philosophy Department, ad interim, 1987-1989.^[1] During the 1970s he was Program Coordinator of the Boston University Institute for Philosophy and Religion; and was Executive Director of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy in Boston, 1998. He was a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow at Karls-Eberhart Universität, Tübingen, Germany, in 1986, where he studied with Klaus Hartmann; and a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna, Austria, in 1995, where he worked with Krzysztof Michalski. He served on the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association, 2000–2003; and is past president of the Karl Jaspers Society of North America. He delivered the Jaspers Lectures at Oxford in 1989; and is currently co-editor, with Helmut Wautischer, of the philosophical journal, Existenz. He lives on Cape Cod with his wife, Janet L. Olson, Professor Emerita, College of Fine Arts, Boston University. They have two daughters, Maren Kirsten, Sonja Astrid, and one grandson, Søren.

Books and Edited Works

• Transcendence and Hermeneutics - ISBN 978-90-247-2092-7 ^[2]
• The Seeing Eye, Co-Author - ISBN 0-271-00291-3
• Hegel and the Spirit - ISBN 0-691-07411-9 ^[3]
• Disguises of the Demonic, Ed. - ISBN 0-8096-1896-6
• Myth, Symbol, and Reality, Ed. - ISBN 0-268-01346-2 ^[4]
• Transcendence and the Sacred, Co-Ed. - ISBN 0-268-01841-3
• Heidegger and Jaspers, Ed. - ISBN 1-56639-115-6 ^[5]
• Video Icons & Values, Co-Ed. - ISBN 0-7914-0412-9 ^[6]
• Educating for Democracy, Co-Ed. - ISBN 0-7425-3540-1
• Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, 12 Vols., Exec. Ed. - ISBN 1-889680-19-2
• Philosophical Faith and the Future of Humanity, Co-Ed, - ISBN 978-94-007-2222-4 ^[7]

References

1. Alan Olson, Abbreviated Curriculum Vitae
2. Springer Verlag
3. Princeton University Press
4. University of Notre Dame Press
5. Temple University Press
6. State University of New York Press
7. Springer Verlag

External links

• Alan M. Olson's homepage
• Boston University Faculty
• The Paideia Project
• American Philosophical Association
• Karl Jaspers Society of North America
• Existenz
• Gladys Leandra Portuondo Blogspot