Dr. Stephen Scharper is associate professor at the School of the Environment and the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. He is also cross-appointed in the department of anthropology at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus, and is associate faculty with the Toronto School of Theology.

A Senior Fellow of Massey College and a Fellow of Trinity College, Dr. Scharper holds a Masters in Theology from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from McGill University, where his thesis supervisor was Professor Gregory Baum.

Embodying the values of “public scholarship” and a deep commitment to engaging with environmental issues, Dr. Scharper currently served as a columnist for The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper, and continues to as an occasional contributor to the Comment section. He has appeared as commentator on TVO’s “The Agenda,” CTV News, VISION-TV, CityPulse 24, and CBC’s Counterspin as well as CBC Radio’s “Tapestry,” “Sounds Like Canada,” “Here and Now, ” “The Current,” and “The World at Six.”

He has also contributed over 500 reviews and articles to various academic and popular journals, including Religious Studies Review, Worldviews, Environmental Philosophy, The University of Toronto Quarterly, Social Analysis, as well as Commonweal, America, Alternatives, The National Catholic Reporter, The Hour, The Montreal Gazette, The Walrus, and The Globe and Mail.

Formerly President of the Religious Education Association of the US and Canada, and editor with Orbis Books and Novalis, Dr. Scharper has taught at McGill University, Prescott College, the University of Waterloo, the University of Vermont, and the University of Notre Dame, where he held the John A. O’Brien Chair in Ethics as a Visiting Professor.

Providing a unique blend of the scholarly and the accessible in both his teaching and public speaking, Dr. Scharper has addressed and inspired a wide range of audiences and remains a much sought-after lecturer.

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