Thomas M. Dicken

Thomas M. Dicken received a BA degree from the University of Louisville, a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, and a PhD in philosophy and religion, from Yale University, working with the great thinkers H. Richard Niebuhr and James M. Gustafson.

Dicken says he has always had trouble being a specialist. He prefers to be labeled as an explorer. He ponders philosophers from Plato through Ludwig Wittgenstein and Alfred North Whitehead. He is captivated by Jewish and Christian traditions in religion, as well as aspects of Buddhism. He often turns to novelists and poets for insight, including Leah Hagar Cohen and John Updike. He travels the world, with his wife Nancy, to see American, European, and Japanese art.

Dicken builds dimensions of his own selfhood, captivated by the ways humans can build their own worlds in the midst of a universe that is both supportive and destructive. The God that Dicken ponders is a Presence that at times wraps itself around our presences, a relationship that is defined by wonder, awe, healing, forgiveness, and a sense of belonging in the moment.