Dr. Clair serves as dean of the College of Christian Studies, liberal arts, and honors, and as an associate professor of theology. Before joining the George Fox faculty in 2013, he earned his PhD  in the religion, ethics and politics program at Princeton University while also working as an assistant in instruction. His efforts were rewarded with a Department of Religion Teaching Award (2011-12) and a Graduate Prize Fellowship from Princeton’s Center for Human Values (2012-13).

Prior to Princeton, Clair earned an MPhil at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. He also holds master’s degrees from Fordham and Duke University as well as a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College. His research and teaching interests include Christian thought and ethics and the role of religion in public life. He is the author of Discerning the Good in the Letters and Sermons of Augustine (Oxford UP, 2016) and Reading Augustine: On Education, Formation, Citizenship, and the Lost Purpose of Learning (Bloomsbury, 2018).

Joseph can be contacted at  503-554-2153  or  jclair@georgefox.edu .

Joseph discusses the importance of reading great books and authors, and why you should read his own favorite great book,  The Confessions,  by Augustine.