Matthew Vest grew up in the foothills of the southern Appalachian mountains. Vest, his wife, Leah (an ICU nurse), and two boys now reside in Bozeman, MT and are members at St Anthony's Orthodox Church. He has taught "great books" and moral philosophy courses on the secondary and post-secondary since 2001, including helping launch New College Franklin (2007-2012). Vest's primary academic position is Senior Lecturer with the Division and Center for Bioethics at the Ohio State University where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses within the distance program.

 

Educational Background

Ph.D., Theology and Religious Studies, University of Nottingham (2013 – 2018)
M.A., in Liberal Arts, St John's College (2001 – 2003)
Bannockburn Undergraduate Fellowship in Moral Philosophy (1999 – 2001)

Teaching Interests

Christian ethics
Bioethics
Wittgenstein

Current Projects and Research Interests

Current Projects /Research Interests* Enslaving Ethics: Reflections on Scientific and Religious Thinking in Modernity

Recent Courses Taught at SVOTS

ET 305 -- Christian Morality and Bioethics

Selected Publications

“Beyond Re-Enchantment: Christian Materialism and Modern Medicine,” Christian Bioethics 25, no. 3 (November, 2019): 266 – 282.

“Embodied Knowledge and Moral Knowledge: Felix Ravaisson & Biomedical Ethics” in Treating the Body in Medicine and Religion: Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Perspectives, John Fitzgerald & Ashley Moyse, eds., Routledge Press (2019): 29 – 43. 

(Editor, with Ashley Moyse) Special Issue of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics: Philosophy of Medical Research and Practice 39, issue 6: “Reflections on Modern Medicine at the Centenary of Max Weber’s ‘Science as a Vocation’ (1917).” (Dec., 2018).

(With Ashley Moyse), “Understanding Modern, Technological Medicine: Enchanted, Disenchanted, or Other?” Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics: Philosophy of Medical Research and Practice 39, no. 6 (Dec., 2018): 407 – 417.

(With Elmahdi Elkhammas, Britton Rink, Ryan Nash), “Decision Making With Older Minors: An Ethical Dilemma,” Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 7, no. 1 (February, 2015): 27 – 30.

Recent Conference Presentations and Activities

- "The Great Ambiguity of 'Medicine': Science? Art? Magic? Technique? Mechanics? Guild? Profession? Other?...or All?!" Conference on Medicine and Religion, OSU (April, 2020) [conference postponed amidst COVID; rescheduled for 2021]
- "Performance Enhancing Drugs and Ultrarunning: What the Seriousness of PEDs Tells Us About Ourselves." OSU Medical Ethics Conference, Columbus, OH (Oct. 2019).
- "Is Suffering the Kiss of Jesus?" Conference on Medicine and Religion, Duke University (April, 2019).
- "Ethics Amidst Personal Knowledge: Guiding Theological Bioethics." Junior Faculty Workshop Presentation, Conference on Medicine and Religion, Duke University (April, 2019).
- "Cultural and A-cultural Foundations: Surveying the 'Question of Foundations' through Engelhardt, Wittgenstein, and St Gregory Palamas." Conference on Medicine and Religion, St Louis, MO (April, 2018).
- "Wittgenstein and the Foundations of Bioethics: Religious and Scientific Thinking in Modernity." Junior Faculty Workshop Presentation, Conference on Medicine and Religion, St Louis, MO (April, 2018).
- "The Value of Thinking About Your Thinking." OSU Innovate 2017: Impact Conference, OH (May, 2017).
- "Bioethics: When Life is the Classroom." OSU Innovate 2017: Impact Conference, OH (May, 2017).
- "Seeing the Body: Noesis and Modern Medicine." Conference on Medicine and Religion, Houston, TX (March, 2017).
- "Religion & the Medicine of the Future: An Orthodox Critique of Scientific Theology & Ecumenism." Conference on Medicine and Religion, Houston, TX (March, 2016).
- "The Teleological Suspension of Medicine: Fundamentally Scientific or Fundamentally Religious?" Conference on Medicine and Religion, Houston, TX (March, 2016).
- "Moral Norms & Bioethics: By Theory or Therapy?" American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, Houston, TX (Oct., 2015).
- "Wittgenstein & Bioethics." Lecture to Bioethics Fellowship, Center for Bioethics, OSU (May, 2015).
-"Integrity of Being: Therapy, Theories, and Truth." Religion and Medicine Conference, Boston (March, 2015).
- "Embodied Knowledge and Moral Knowledge: Felix Ravaisson & Biomedical Ethics." Religion and Medicine Conference, Chicago (March, 2014).
- "Narrative Medicine and the Ontology of Modern Healthcare." Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity 20th Conference, Chicago (July 2013).
- "Rituals Forming The Soul: Corpse Impurity, Asceticism, and the Body as Relic." Center of Theology and Philosophy 5th Conference, Oxford, UK (June 2013).
- "Beauty Will Save the Soul: Formation & Theanthropic Education," Edith Stein Project, Notre Dame University (Feb. 2013).
- "Ecology and Theology." New College Franklin Collegium, Franklin, TN (Sept. 2011).
- "Challenging Nature in Modernity: Technology and Sacramentum." Center of Theology and Philosophy 4th Conference, Krakow, Poland (June 2011).
- "Federal Financial Aid and the Religious College." Orthodoxy and Higher Education Conference,
St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, NY (June 2011).