Dr Alan Herbert

Research Fellow
Alan C. Herbert specialises in the philosophy of religion, Indian thought and culture, with additional experience in sociology through interdisciplinary research and collaborations. His teaching experience spans tertiary and secondary education in the USA, UK, and Asia, and in recent years, his focus has been primarily on research. Currently, as a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, he leads and manages research projects, publishes scholarly work, secures research grants, develops and runs online courses, teaches, mentors, and organises academic conferences. He has also been part of the leadership team for two John Templeton Foundation-funded research projects at the intersections of philosophy and religion: one completed last year (https://www.logicandreligion.com/vaishnava-concept-of-god) and the other currently ongoing (https://www.god-and-consciousness.com/). His academic interests centre on the intersections of philosophy and religion, as well as the interplay of philosophy with social science, personal identity, imagination studies, Indian theology, and social issues affecting contemporary Hindu communities.

PUBLICATIONS

Editor

2024

Vaiṣṇava Concepts of God: Philosophical Perspectives, eds. Ricardo Silvestre, Alan Herbert, Benedikt Göcke (Routledge: 2024). DOI: 10.4324/9781003432081

Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions Special Issue on Concepts of God and the Divine in Indian Traditions (Springer, 63(3), September 2024, pp. 379–586). Guest Editor with Prof. Ricardo Sousa Silvestre. Editor: Purushottama Bilimoria.

2025–2026 (Contracted)

Lead Editor of The Oxford Handbook of Concepts of God from Indian Traditions (OUP: 2026). A proposed output of the Templeton-funded project Concepts of God and the Variety of Theisms in Indian Traditions: Towards a Theistic Theory of Consciousness, with 48 confirmed chapters.

Guest Editor of Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions (Springer). Special Issue: Concepts of God in Underrepresented Religions.

Editor of Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions (Springer). Edited volume comprising proceedings from the three conferences within the Templeton-funded project Concepts of God and the Variety of Theisms in Indian Traditions: Towards a Theistic Theory of Consciousness.

Author (Recent Articles)

2024

“Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism and Personal Identity: A Reductionist Approach,” Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions, 63(3), eds. Ricardo Silvestre, Alan Herbert, Purushottama Bilimoria (Springer: September 2024), pp. 529–552. DOI: 10.1007/s11841-024-01042-w

“Concepts of God and the Divine in Indian Traditions: Introduction” (co-authored with Purushottama Bilimoria and Ricardo Silvestre), Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions, 63(3) (Springer: September 2024), pp. 379–387. Open Access: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11841-024-01046-6

“Vaiṣṇava Concepts of God: Philosophical Perspectives: Introduction” (co-authored with Ricardo Silvestre and Benedikt Göcke), Vaiṣṇava Concepts of God: Philosophical Perspectives (Routledge: 2024).

“On Śaktis and Their Divine Possessor: Towards a Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Concept of God” (co-authored with Ricardo Silvestre), Vaiṣṇava Concepts of God: Philosophical Perspectives (Routledge: 2024).

“The Concept of God in the Bhagavad-Gītā: A Panentheistic Account” (co-authored with Ricardo Silvestre), Vaiṣṇava Concepts of God: Philosophical Perspectives (Routledge: 2024).

2023

The Art of Visualising Reality: Jīva Gosvāmī’s Aesthetics and the Role of Ritual Imagination,” Journal of Hindu Studies, Volume 16(1) (OUP: 2023), pp. 1–32. DOI: 10.1093/jhs/hiac009

2022

“Ritual and Rasa: A Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Recasting of the Role of Ritual Imagination,” Journal of Dharma Studies, Volume 5 (2–3) (Springer: 2022), pp. 121–152. DOI: 10.1007/s42240-022-00125-6

“Reality Imagined: Aesthetic Participation in Indian Ritual Visualization,” in Imagination and Religion: Perspectives from the Philosophy of Religion, eds. Espen Dahl, Jan-Olav Henriksen, Marius T. Mjaaland (LIT Verlag Münster: 2022), pp. 177–195. ISBN: 978-3-643-91210-7

2025–2026 (Contracted)

“A Dipolar Reading of Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja’s Concept of Caitanya as God,” in The Oxford Handbook of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Studies, eds. Lucian Wong, Rembert Lutjeharms (OUP: 2026).

(1) “The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Concept of Caitanya as God,” (2) “The Aghori Concept of God,” and (3) “Introduction” in The Oxford Handbook of Concepts of God from Indian Traditions, eds. Alan Herbert, Ricardo Silvestre, Benedikt Göcke (OUP: 2026).

“A Tension in Jīva Gosvāmin’s Descriptions of Ritual,” in The Intellectual Production and Legacy of Jīva Gosvāmin, eds. Aleksandar Uskokov, Jonathan Edelmann (Brill: 2026).