Gregory W. Brown

Rev. Gregory W. Brown EdD is an educator and an author, a pastor and a rock climber, a father and a grandfather. As a teacher, professor, alternative school administrator, historian, and a seeker, he is a lifelong student of humanity, the universe, and our place within it. Raised in conservative Christianity, he has studied across the diversity of faith, science, and philosophy to find new unity in human understanding.

I grew up in a fundamentalist Presbyterian church. The unlikeliness of that combination should have been warning enough that trouble was ahead. I also grew up as a tag along to Young Life activities and camps as my parents helped establish that ministry in Evansville, IN. I would later help to start Young Life in St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, MI. I spent the greater part of my life expecting to move into full time Christian ministry either in the US or on the mission field.

But, I also grew up loving both math and science -- even though the interpretation of the Bible I was taught and taught to others had already parted company with science over the issues of evolution and the age of the earth. Every time I participated in my favorite hobbies of rock or mountain climbing, I was literally in touch with the rock layers testifying to a long variety of past earth environments! The only logical conclusion to my mind was to study more!

I went to college planning to take as much math and science as possible after testing out of my Freshman year courses. Then, I met Dr. Donald Pitzer and discovered the study of American intentional communities and the field of intellectual history, the history of thought patterns and ideas. The search for a unified field in science falls within this history of thought at the turning of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

So, I was set early on the course of a life studying across many disciplines and never left it. This broad approach to study and contemplation eventually led to Unified Field Theology and Matchsticks Contemplating Eternity!

Scholarship:

2022 Matchsticks Contemplating Eternity: Life, Death, and Faith in What Is. Wipf & Stock. Eugene, OR.

2021 “Infinite Invisible Impacts.” Communal Studies Association Annual Conference. October 2.

2020 “Blanchot’s Unavowable Community, New Harmony, and Developmental Communalism.” Communal Studies Association Annual Conference. October 3.

2018 Unified Field Theology: A Journey from Evangelical Fundamentalism to Faith in What Is. Wipf & Stock. Eugene Oregon.

2016 “Historic New Lanark: The Dale and Owen Industrial Community since 1785.” (Review of book by Donnachie, I. & Hewitt, G.). Communal societies: Journal of the Communal Studies Association. 36 (1), 83-85.

2016 “Effects of State and National Policy on Diverse Learners,” Diversity in the Classroom:Integrated Framework beyond Chalk and Talk (Second Edition). Linus Books. Ronkonkoma, NY.

2014 Taught Teacher Leadership in Professional Learning Communities, Beijing, China

2013 “Effects of state and national policy on diverse learners,” Diversity in the Classroom: Integrated Framework beyond Chalk and Talk. Linus Books. Ronkonkoma, NY.

2010, 2011, 2012 Bible Teaching, Faculty Training & Program Development, Sonlight Bible College, Port de Paix, Haiti

2009 Taught Leadership in Education, Beijing, China

2005 Completed Perspectives in World Missions Training

2001 Co-presenter-"Assessment Driven Instruction: A More Authentic Approach” International Society for Exploring Teaching Alternatives Conference, Indianapolis, IN

1996 Panel Member "The Hunger for a Common Life: Listening to Intentional Community: Lessons Learned from Community" Candler School of Theology, Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA.

1996 "Community in the New Millennium: A Discourse that Looks at Past Utopian Communities and Considers the Possibilities of Community in the 21st Century," Historic New Harmony and

Harmonie Associates, New Harmony, IN.

1995 "Community: Lessons from Alternative Schools, Options for Public Schools?" 25th Annual Conference of the International Affiliation of Alternative School Associations, Bloomington, IN

1995 "Searching for Harmony in the Classroom: Can Lessons from Community be Applied to Public Schools?" USI Center for Communal Studies Lecture Series, New Harmony, IN.

1992 "How to Start a New School," First State Conference of Hoosier Alternative Learning Options (HALO), Indianapolis, IN

1988 "Three Students Who Introduced Me to Middle School," Middle School Journal, 20, 2.

1986 Exploring Indiana, Fourth Grade Study Text, D.C. Heath, Lexington, MA.

1984 Review of Cooperative Communities:How to Start Them and Why. In Communal Societies, Journal of the Communal Studies Association.