☦️❤️🐍
A Bit about Boaz
Boaz was born in Atlanta, GA. For the first 6 years of his life, he lived in Polk County, Georgia, where his family has settled since the colonial days.
His family moved to Frisco, Texas, and he completed his whole primary school education there. He graduated high school at Legacy Christian Academy, where he won the 2008 state powerlifting championship and was a 2009 football state all-star as an offensive lineman.
Originally intending to become a collegiate athlete, he committed to Texas Christian University for their football team. Finding the materialism of D1 university life unfulfilling, he transferred out after a single semester to Azusa Pacific University in California.
Boaz ended up spending most of his undergrad career studying abroad, in APU's fabled "High Sierra Semester”, a tight-knit program in the serene Ansel Adams wilderness that combined the humanities with hiking treks. High Sierra ignited his intellect, his athleticism, and his spirituality through philosophy, theology, and the Great Books.
Boaz graduated cum laude in the APU class of 2013 as a philosophy major with two minors in theology and humanities. After two years of searching for opportunities, he received an offer from Saint Louis University's Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics. He was invited to be in the first-ever class for their new Bioethics + Theology Joint PhD.
Boaz lived in Saint Louis’ Central West End while completing his graduate coursework. While in STL, Boaz began training with local dance companies. In 2016, dance would become an opportunity in itself, and Boaz ended up living two professional lives at once: a PhD research assistant and the studio manager for Consuming Kinetics, a local dance company.
He finished coursework and successfully completed the oral defense for his joint MA in Dec 2017. He then moved to Tampa, Florida to live with family, where he currently resides.
While writing his dissertation, Boaz continued his development as a dance through professional performances with DIAVOLO, the HCC and USF Dance departments, the Central Florida Choreographers Collaborative, cakeface NYC, the Straz Center, the Salvador Dalí Museum, the Tampa City Government, and Central Studios of STL.
After 6 years of dissertation writing, Boaz defended his dissertation in Jan 2023.
Boaz's Academic Career
My Peer-Reviewed Published Work
Free Will and Neuroscience: A Thomistic Corrective to Neurodeterminism. Boaz Goss. Dissertation. 2023. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2801922568
Secular Dreams and Myths of Irreligion: On the Political Control of Religion in Public Bioethics. Boaz Goss and Jeffrey P. Bishop. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine, Volume 46, Issue 2, April 2021, Pages 219–237, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhaa035
Judging Religion: Power, Pluralism, & the Political Control of Medicine. Jeffrey P. Bishop and Boaz Goss. Ethics, Medicine, & Public Health, Volume 5, April 2018, Pages 26-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2018.03.010
Death and Christianity. Boaz Goss and Autumn Alcott Ridenour. Christian Bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality, Volume 23, Issue 1, 1 April 2017, Pages 1–6, https://doi.org/10.1093/cb/cbw023
Chapter 5: Christianity's Rigged Debate with Transhumanism. Boaz Goss. 2018.
In: Steve Donaldson & Ron Cole-Turner, eds. Christian Perspectives on Transhumanism & the Church: Chips in the Brain, Immortality, & the World of Tomorrow. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://www.academia.edu/43672953/Christianitys_Rigged_Debate_with_Transhumanism
The Nuremberg Veil/Le voile de Nuremberg. Boaz Goss. Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, Volume 3, Issue 4, October 2017, Pages 452-459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2017.09.011
Natural Law among Moral Strangers. Boaz Goss and Rico Vitz. Christian bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality, Volume 20, Issue 2, August 2014, Pages 283–300
https://doi.org/10.1093/cb/cbu021
Journals I’ve Edited
Christian Bioethics
Guest Editor: Vol 23, Issue 1. April 2017
Referee since 2015
Journal of Medicine & Philosophy
Assistant Editor: Vol 41, Issue 6. Dec 2016
Referee since 2015
Conferences I’ve Helped Organize
Conference on Medicine & Religion
Organizing Committee: 2014 – 2018
International Academy for Bioethical Inquiry
Organizing Committee: 2015 – 2016
My Teaching Experience
PHIL 3600/THEO 2820 – Science & Religion (TA & Professor)
PHIL 336 – Medical Ethics (TA & Professor)
HCE 320 – Freaks & the Medicalized Body (Substitute Professor)
PHIL 330/HCE 330 – Bioethics & Human Nature Through Film (Professor)
Biology - Grades 9 - 12 (Teacher)
Chemistry - Grade 12 (Teacher)
My Academic Presentations
Invited Response to “Disability, Enhancement, & Flourishing” by Jason T. Eberl of Saint Louis University
International Academy for Bioethical Inquiry – July 2018
Invited Response to “Intrinsicality beyond Artifact: A Theological Inquiry into Mere Instrumentalism and the Axiology of Nature” By Michael J. Sleasman of Trinity International University
International Academy for Bioethical Inquiry – August 2016
“Christianity’s Rigged Debate with Transhumanism”
Transhumanism & the Church Conference – Sept 2015
“Bare Life & Zombies without Christ”
Invited Response to Fr. John Behr of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary, Yonkers, NY
International Academy for Bioethical Inquiry – July 2015
“The Utilitarian Values in ‘Value-Free’ Secular Bioethics”
Albert Gnaegi Center for Healthcare Ethics 2nd Annual Research Conference, Feb 2015
“The Neo-Platonic Revolution of Modern Science & how it started the ‘Science vs. Religion’ War.”
The American Scientific Affiliation’s 2nd Winter Conference – SoCal Division, Jan 2014
“Plato Contra Nietzsche: How the Moral Psychology of the Cave Allegory Refutes Nietzsche’s Criticisms of Plato”
Azusa Pacific University’s 21st Annual Common Day of Learning Colloquium, Mar 6, 2013
"Contra Nietzsche: The Iliad as an Implicit Criticism of Nietzsche's Aristocratic Morality"
The 7th Annual University of Ottawa English Graduate Student Conference: "Violence in Practice and Theory", Mar 23, 2012
"Where Lear Left Off: Finding Answers for the Crow Tribe’s Ethical Devastation"
Biola Association of Student Philosophers' Undergrad Colloquium, Nov 5, 2011
Boaz's Dance Career
Hillsborough CC Dance Dept - current student and performer since 2018
Central Florida Choreographers Collaborative - performer (Project 21 “Law of Polarity”)
DIAVOLO Veterans’ Project: performer
Long Journey Home, Oct 2019
Virtual Ensemble, Nov 2020
Signs of Strength, Summer 2021
Central Studios STL - performer
Big Muddy Dance Co - summer intensive dancer
Consuming Kinetics Dance Co - Studio Manager, special events performer
Sweet Potato the Parish Python
His Travels
Sweet Potato is an albino male Ball Python (Python regius) born in Central Florida in Dec 2017 under the care of Nature’s Wonders reptile breeders.
Boaz and Sweet Potato met on Feb 24, 2018 at the Tampa Repticon expo.
Sweet Potato has spent most of his life in Central Florida, but he has also traveled the country! He road-tripped from Tampa to Saint Louis and spent one summer in STL. Afterwards, he road-tripped again from STL to Portland, OR, where he lived for one year.
Fun fact: reptiles are allowed on planes in America. On his move back home, Sweet Potato took an overnight flight from Portland, OR to Tampa, FL, where he has lived since 2020.
His Passions
A priest blessed Sweet Potato in 2020. Sweet Potato was splashed thrice with holy water from an aspergillum.
Sweet Potato enjoys his organic, sustainably sourced diet but also appreciates fasting. He participated in the 2019 Paschal Fast (he didn’t want a single meal for 6 months!)
He is an avid climber and a skilled contortionist. He finds colorful lights mesmerizing and hopes to one day travel north to see the aurora borealis.
Sweet Potato naturally prefers the night shift. Most nights, you can find him working gigs as a security guard.
Like our Work?
Support Us! :)
Hey! We offer tutoring and coaching for students!
Currently accepting clients for 1-on-1 consults. First call is a free introduction. We create custom programs tailored to your needs!
Healthcare Ethics consults for small hospitals and private practices!
Dr. Boaz offers his healthcare ethics expertise on a per-case basis at an accessible price. Dedicated ethics advising without the research hospital budget!