Mark Novak, PhD, MA, MA, BN

Area of Study / Keywords

Philosophy of religion phenomenology

About

I started my education with a bachelor's degree in nursing from the UofC, then worked for 3.5 years as an RN in two different mental health settings. While working as an RN, I completed an MA in counselling from Providence Theological Seminary. I then left that field to pursue graduate studies in philosophy full-time. I did an MA in philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies, and then a PhD in religious studies at McMaster University, both in the area of contemporary continental philosophy of religion (religious studies departments are often better departments to do continental philosophy than most philosophy departments in Canada).

Research

- Contemporary continental philosophy of religion. Phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics. 

- Philosophy/Religion and Pop Culture (especially film and literature).

- The intersection of philosophy and psychology. Phenomenological psychology, embodied cognition, enactivism, existential psychotherapy, psychoanalysis. 

Mark Novak

London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2025 September;

Mark Novak

Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave. 2018 March; William Desmond’s Philosophy Between Metaphysics, Religion, and Aesthetics: Thinking Metaxologically