In the eighth grade, thinking that he was following God’s wishes, Brock Bahler wanted to be a pastor. He led a high school Bible study for four years, memorized entire books of the Bible and later ended up going to the “deeply fundamentalist” Cedarville University in 2000 with plans to make his pastor goal come to fruition. 

He is now a teaching professor and director of undergraduate studies in the religious studies department at Pitt, where he advocates for more diverse syllabuses, relates religion to social issues and pushes students to think outside of the box.

During his time at Cedarville University, students went to chapel every day, followed a strict dress code, had strict rules on smoking and sex and learned anti-evolution doctrines in biology classes. While at Cedarville, Bahler also found life-changing inspiration in some of the school’s professors and teaching methods.

“I had philosophy professors that were just brilliant and, most of all, cared about people,” Bahler said. “They demonstrated this sense of compassion for students. They wanted to know your name.”

In the span of three weeks, Bahler graduated college in 2003 with what he calls a degree in “Bible” and a minor in philosophy, moved cities, married and started a new job. Bahler began his religious work at a 3,000-member Indianapolis megachurch as a secretary for a small group ministry of about 1,000 people. 

Soon, he controlled the whole program and found himself writing its curriculum every week, which consisted of discussion questions based on the pastor’s sermon every Sunday.

Yet, at this point in his life, Bahler was avidly reading postmodern philosophers because of the influence one of his professors in college had. These philosophers started to “subversively create tension” in the religious discussion questions he conjured up.

“I wasn’t trying to be rebellious, but I don’t think there’s easy answers for a lot of things in life. I don’t think it’s straightforward. I think the world is a complex place,” Bahler said. “What would it look like to enter into that complexity and appreciate that?”

As scandals engulfed the church and the senior pastor was fired, Bahler distanced himself from the institution and started applying for graduate school. He attended Duquesne University in 2007 for his master’s degree and again in 2009 for his Ph.D. 

Because of his background, he wanted to study how Christianity is shaped by philosophy and how Greek philosophy shapes monotheistic religions more broadly. This religious-philosophical intersection was inspired by his belief that some evangelical Christians “treat the Bible as if it fell out of the sky.” 

“How do you go from what [Greek philosophers] said to what [religious thinkers] are saying now? I wanted to discover and explore that,” Bahler said. 

Part of his research, including his dissertation, focused on the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.

“Levinas just had a tremendous impact on how I think about myself, and he became the lens through which I was reading everything,” Bahler said.

Bahler teaches Levinas’ ideas in his Jewish philosophy classes. In a nutshell, Levinas thought that people are awakened to their ethical responsibility when they encounter another person. In class, Bahler asks his students to imagine walking down the street when a homeless person appears in their line of sight. The responses he hears are very similar. 

“Many of them say, ‘I divert my eyes. I look elsewhere.’ Levinas would be like, ‘why?’” Bahler said. “The aversion of your eyes is because you don’t want to admit you are morally obligated to that person. That person is demanding upon you, ‘Help.’” 

Bahler testifies to the truth behind the stereotype that most of the standard curriculum in many Western philosophy classes consists of “dead white male Christians.” Bahler wants to reverse and undermine that idea and ultimately diversify the syllabus “as much as possible.”

“I was raised in the white Christian European mindset, so what would it look like to keep decolonizing the syllabus so that students are encountering Jewish, Muslim, African American, Native American and feminist ideas too?” Bahler asked. 

Adam Shear, associate professor of religious studies and chair of the religious studies department, works with Bahler on organizing courses and religious studies student engagement. Shear said the exciting part of Bahler’s work in the department is his interest in the intersection of philosophy and religion with race and other social topics.

“He pushes outside of the box on what would typically be considered the philosophy of religion,” Shear said.

During the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, Bahler and some other colleagues created the “Action” tab on the religious studies department’s website, which provides resources to learn about anti-racism from a religious perspective. Because of his work in addressing social issues, Shear called him an “advocate” and “ally.”

“He said that we really needed to put something out [about religion, race and racism] and that it was our role as teachers,” Shear said. “He said that we can’t answer every question students might have about race and racism in American history, but we can show what the connections are with religion.”

Cameryn Gray, a senior history and politics and philosophy major with a religious studies minor, has taken classes with Bahler every year. In Bahler’s Race and Religion class, Gray said Bahler is very cognizant of the white majority of students in the class but also pushes his students to acknowledge the position their demographic gives them. To Gray, Bahler is passionate about his work, honest and filled with a strong sense of integrity.

“He makes the classroom a really open setting where you can really say what you’re thinking, and it might not be right and that’s okay,” Gray said. “I think making the learning environment like that really empowers students to bring that energy to other classrooms.”

In the last couple of years, Bahler has seen increasing trends of religious illiteracy among students and a lack of fundamental comprehension of various global religions. Before this, he could mention the Book of Common Prayer, Lent, fasting, spiritual disciplines or St. Paul and be met with a common understanding of these references. Now, though he believes it’s a somewhat positive phenomenon, he has to assume people “don’t know anything.”

“There’s less bias or privilege toward one tradition over another, but I think there’s dangers with it, too, because a lot of students come in thinking being nonreligious is an unbiased position,” Bahler said. “Secularism is also a biased position.”

People leaving their faith altogether may also be a cause of increasing religious illiteracy. A possible cause of increasing religious illiteracy may be people leaving religion altogether. In Bahler’s Philosophy of Religion class, he assigns the reading of an essay on religious trauma and has seen students resonate with it. 

“Ever since the first day I started teaching here, I ask students what it means when someone calls themself spiritual but not religious,” Bahler said. “Lots of people say spirituality matters, but don’t want to have anything to do with the institution because of all the labels and baggage that go along with it.”

As a professor, Bahler wants to provoke students’ curiosity while growing their sense of compassion. Overall, Bahler wants students to have the capability of imagining “better worlds” and realize that personal beliefs are not stagnant and fixed by nature. 

“We all want to believe we’re right, we all want to have the answers, but what does it look like to ask, ‘What if I’m wrong?’” Bahler said. “Maybe some of the things your parents told you are wrong, or maybe some of the things your pastor told you are wrong, and that’s okay. It’s hard. But what does it look like to work through that and be willing to hold your beliefs loosely so you can be challenged by somebody else?” 

Throughout his life, Bahler’s transition from wanting to become a pastor to a professor revolved around a simple yet complex recognition of his passions.

“I realized I was more interested in asking the question than having the answers,” Bahler said.