philosophy

Adam Miller is a philosopher, educator, and author whose work serves as a bridge between contemporary continental philosophy and Latter-day Saint theology. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and earned his master’s and PhD in philosophy from Villanova University. Miller currently serves as a professor of philosophy at Collin College in McKinney, Texas, where he also directs the college’s honors program. Miller is a leading voice in the “new Mormon theology” movement, characterized by a rigorous yet accessible approach to religious thought that often operates outside traditional institutional hierarchies. His scholarship draws heavily on the work of French philosophers such as Alain Badiou and Bruno Latour to re-examine Mormon metaphysics. In works like Speculative Grace: Bruno Latour and Object-Oriented Theology , Miller explores an “object-oriented” ontology, proposing a theological framework where grace and agency are embedded within the material relationships of the world—a perspective that resonates with discussions regarding the nature of matter and intelligence found within transhumanist discourse. A prolific writer, Miller has authored numerous influential books that challenge readers to engage deeply with scripture and tradition. His Letters to a Young Mormon is widely regarded for its candid and pastoral approach to questions of faith and agency. He has also produced a series of “urgent paraphrases” of biblical texts, including Grace Is Not God’s Backup Plan (Romans) and Nothing New Under the Sun (Ecclesiastes), which seek to unveil the tremendous power of ancient scripture for modern audiences. His engagement with secular culture is evident in The Gospel According to David Foster Wallace , a text praised by The New York Times for its “incantatory and gorgeous” prose. Beyond his writing, Miller has played a pivotal role in shaping the infrastructure of modern Mormon studies. He co-founded Salt Press, an independent publisher of Mormon theology later acquired by Brigham Young University’s Maxwell Institute. He also founded and serves as co-director of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar, an annual colloquium that fosters collaborative, close readings of scripture. Through these efforts, Miller has cultivated a space for rigorous theological experimentation, emphasizing a “theology of the present” that calls for active, transformative engagement with the divine in the here and now.

Alan Wilson Watts (1915–1973) was a British-born American philosopher, writer, and speaker best known for popularizing Eastern philosophy—particularly Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism—for Western audiences. He remains one of the most influential interpreters of Asian religious thought in the twentieth century. Watts began his career in England, where he was involved with the Buddhist Lodge in London. He later moved to the United States, briefly serving as an Episcopal priest before leaving the ministry to pursue a broader philosophical vocation. He became a professor and dean at the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco and authored over twenty-five books, including The Way of Zen (1957), Psychotherapy East and West (1961), and The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966). His lectures, many of which survive as recordings, continue to reach millions worldwide. Watts’s central teaching—that the individual self and the universe are fundamentally one—resonates with Mormon Transhumanist themes of theosis and the expansive potential of consciousness. His insistence that human beings are not merely in the universe but of it, expressions of a deeper cosmic process, parallels the tradition’s interest in humanity’s divine trajectory. However, significant differences exist. Watts generally rejected the concept of a personal God, viewing divinity as an impersonal process rather than a being with whom one could have a relationship. He was skeptical of doctrines of sin and moral depravity, seeing guilt as a psychological obstacle rather than a theological reality. He also questioned the Western emphasis on individual free will, favoring a view of spontaneous action aligned with Taoist wu wei . Despite these divergences, his lifelong project of dissolving boundaries between the sacred and the secular, the human and the divine, offers rich material for dialogue with Mormon Transhumanist thought.

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) was a British mathematician and philosopher known for his early work in mathematical logic and his later development of process philosophy. Born in Ramsgate, Kent, he studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and remained there as a fellow and lecturer for more than two decades, teaching and publishing on algebra, geometry, and the foundations of mathematics. His most consequential early achievement was Principia Mathematica, written with his former student Bertrand Russell and published in three volumes between 1910 and 1913. The work attempted to derive the whole of mathematics from a small set of logical axioms, and it became one of the central texts of twentieth-century logic, shaping subsequent debates in the philosophy of mathematics even where its technical program was later challenged by Gödel's incompleteness results. In 1910 Whitehead left Cambridge for London, where he taught at University College London and then Imperial College, and where his interests broadened from mathematics into the philosophy of science and education. He wrote on the concepts of space, time, and matter in relativity theory, proposing his own alternative account of relativity distinct from Einstein's, and he served on commissions concerned with the reform of secondary and university education, arguing against rote learning in favor of teaching ideas in their living connections. In 1924, at age sixty-three, Whitehead moved to Harvard University, where he spent the rest of his academic career and produced the metaphysical works for which he is best known, including Science and the Modern World (1925) and Process and Reality (1929). These books developed what came to be called process philosophy, which treats reality as composed of events of becoming rather than fixed substances, and which assigns value, experience, and a kind of creativity to the basic constituents of nature. Process and Reality also includes an account of God as a factor within the cosmic process rather than an unchanging sovereign outside it, an idea that later gave rise to process theology as a distinct field. Whitehead's influence has been most durable in philosophy of science, metaphysics, and theology, particularly through process theologians who built on his account of God and creativity, and his work on education and the unity of knowledge continues to be cited in discussions of curriculum and pedagogy. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1947.

Ben Blair holds a PhD in philosophy and education from Teachers College, Columbia University. He is the co-founder of Newlane University—a platform focused on deinstitutionalizing education. An active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Blair’s work and perspective explore the intersection of religious community and secular ideals. He is particularly interested in how religious and post-religious communities can work towards shared goals, and he questions the equation of any particular organization with the broader concept of the ‘kingdom of God’. Blair, along with his wife, Gabrielle Blair, resides in France and they are the parents of six children. He presented at Sunstone West and is an attendee and speaker at Mormon Transhumanist Association conferences, where he explores the philosophical implications of faith, community, and progress.

Britt Hartley is an author, philosopher, and educator whose work explores the intersection of Mormon thought, philosophy, and the human search for meaning. Raised in a Latter-day Saint family in Idaho, she taught high school history and LDS seminary before pursuing graduate studies in theology with a focus on the future of American religion. Hartley is the author of Mormon Philosophy Simplified: An Easy LDS Approach to Classic Philosophical Questions (2019), which bridges the rich tradition of Mormon academic theology—drawing on thinkers like Terryl Givens, Hugh Nibley, and Blake Ostler—with the everyday questions of Latter-day Saint life. She presented at the 2019 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association on how genealogical record-keeping across cultures reflects the priorities and narratives of the societies that produce them, and how advancing technology is expanding the transparency and complexity of Mormon genealogy in ways that may drive theological reflection. In her subsequent work, Hartley has focused on helping individuals navigate questions of meaning, connection, and spiritual practice beyond traditional religious frameworks. She is the author of No Nonsense Spirituality: All the Tools, No Faith Required (2024) and hosts the No-Nonsense Spirituality podcast, where she draws on philosophy, psychology, and contemplative practice to explore themes of awe, ritual, community, and purpose—concerns that resonate with the transhumanist commitment to human flourishing in all its dimensions. Hartley lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband and four children.