David Bentley Hart

David Bentley Hart writes philosophy, theology, fiction, translation, and cultural criticism with an essayist's delight in unexpected connections. A Splendid Wickedness and Other Essays collects fifty-two occasional pieces on subjects ranging from Don Juan and Ayn Rand to Venetian relics, family legends, baseball, poetry, and television. Eerdmans published the volume in 2016, describing its method as a meeting of philosophy, moral theology, cultural commentary, and storytelling. Hart has taught at the University of Virginia, Duke University, and the University of Notre Dame. His books include The Beauty of the Infinite, Atheist Delusions, and a translation of the New Testament. These essays often begin with a narrow curiosity before testing its philosophical or moral implications, so the collection reads less like a systematic argument than a sequence of learned, comic investigations.