Ian Church,
Principal Investigator
Dr. Ian Church is an associate professor of philosophy at Hillsdale College and the director of the Arete Research Center for Philosophy, Science, and Society.
He earned his PhD and MLitt in philosophy from the St Andrews-Stirling Joint Programme in Philosophy. He is the author of numerous articles and two books: Virtue Epistemology and the Analysis of Knowledge (2024) and Intellectual Humility: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Science (2017, co-authored with Peter Samuelson). He also co-edited (with Bob Hartman) The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Psychology of Luck. Church’s next book, Experimental Psychology and Philosophy of Religion, is under contract with Cambridge University Press as a part of their Elements series.
Church’s areas of specialization are epistemology and the philosophy of psychology, with specific interests in experimental philosophy, virtue epistemology, social epistemology, and the cognitive and social origins of belief.
Daryl Van Tongeren,
Co-Investigator
Daryl R. Van Tongeren, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at Hope College and the director of the Frost Center for Social Science Research. A social psychologist, he has published more than 250 scholarly articles and chapters, and four books (with two more in press), on topics such as religion, meaning in life, and virtues. Most recently, his work has focused on the psychological and social processes of leaving religion and undergoing religious change, summarized in his most recent book, Done: How to Flourish After Leaving Religion (APA Books).
His research has been covered by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, TheAtlantic, and Hidden Brain, and has been supported by numerous grants from the John Templeton Foundation. He has won national and international awards for his research and has earned Fellow status at the Association for Psychological Science, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Society for Experimental Social Psychology, Midwestern Psychological Association, and International Society for Science and Religion.
He won several early career awards, including being named a Rising Star from the Association for Psychological Science, and was an Early Career Award Recipient from APA’s Division 36 (Psychology of Religion and Spirituality) and the International Society for the Scientific of Existential Psychology. He is an associate editor for The Journal of Positive Psychology and a consulting editor for Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
Erika Gehrke
Project Administrator
Erika Gehrke is the Project Administrator for the Virtues and Vices of Spiritual Yearning Project. In this role, she oversees project coordination and administration, supporting the faculty in their investigations and advancing the project's mission. Erika earned her BA from Hillsdale College in 2006. She built a career in non-profit work and fundraising, particularly project management and stewardship. She worked at Junior Achievement of Wisconsin as Development Manager, where she focused on fundraising events and program management. Prior to this role, she worked as a Special Events Planner at Hillsdale College, in event management, donor stewardship, and administration.
