About

Steven B. Cowan is a professional philosopher and Christian apologist.  He was born in 1962 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.  He joined the U.S. Army in 1980, serving six years on active duty.  He attended the University of Southern Mississippi, graduating in 1987 with a B.A. in Sociology.  After that he earned an M.Div. at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas.  Then he studied philosophy at the University of Arkansas, earning an M.A. (1993) and a Ph.D (1996). His dissertation is titled, Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: A Compatibilist Reconciliation.  While doing his graduate work at Arkansas, Steve served bi-vocationally as pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

In 2000, Steve and his family moved to Birmingham, Alabama to join the staff of the Apologetics Resource Center. In that capacity he has conducted numerous conferences and seminars on many topics in Christian apologetics, and is the founding editor of ARC’s Areopagus Journal.  In 2006, Steve joined the full-time faculty of Southeastern Bible College where he served as Associate Professor and Advisor of Philosophy and Apologetics. He was also an adjunct instructor for the Birmingham Theological Seminary and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. In the Fall of 2011, Steve moved to Pineville, Louisiana to join the faculty of Louisiana College as the Jim Young Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, where he remained until May 2014. In the Fall of 2014, he joined the faculty of Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, where he serves as Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion and Director of the Philosophy-Religion Program.

Steve has published numerous scholarly articles in academic journals such as Faith and Philosophy, Philosophia Christi, Religious Studies, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Journal of the International Society for Christian Apologetics, and Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.  He is also the editor of the Zondervan Counterpoint books Five Views on Apologetics and Who Runs the Church? 4 Views on Church Government. He co-authored (with James Spiegel) the book The Love of Wisdom:  A Christian Introduction to Philosophy (Broadman and Holman).  He recently co-edited (with Terry Wilder) a new collection of articles defending the authority and inspiration of Scripture entitled, In Defense of the Bible: A Comprehensive Apologetic for the Authority of Scripture (Broadman & Holman). His primary research interests are freedom and determinism and Molinism.  He is also doing significant study in the philosophy of time, the relationship between Christianity and science, and Berkeleyan idealism.  Additionally, Steve has participated in several public debates on the existence of God, the problem of evil, and the resurrection of Jesus.

Steve has been married to his wonderful wife Ronda (Erwin) since 1986, without whom none of his accomplishments would have been possible.  They were blessed with a son, Oliver, in 2005.