Resume

John Marvin Sipp

Boston College, B.A. Theology (Honors)

I am an (aspiring) scholar primarily interested in contemporary reevaluation of the phenomenology of religion, particularly regarding mysticism, and in systematic theology and the philosophy of religion as they pertain the aforementioned; broadly I would characterize my project as an attempt to understand how it is that we apprehend un-reifiable concepts (like subjective values: aesthetics and morality, etc), and a critical reconsideration of religious phenomena with this aim.

Writings

• “Withouten Any Desert:” Meaning and Givenness in The Cloud of Unknowing
• The Inner Chambers: Aporia and the Holocaust
• Concerning the Nature of Apprehension in the Sixth Logical Investigation

Academics in Brief

Experiences in Detail

Undergraduate Research Fellowship, 2016-2017

Working for Prof. Pamela Berger in Boston College’s Art History Department, I have scoured various Greek church fathers’ not-yet-translated commentaries on the Psalms in an exhaustive search for what (in this case, has not) inspired the peculiar illustrations of the Utrecht Psalter.

St. Petersburg, summer of 2016

With funding from the Gabelli Presidential Scholarship, I spent the summer of 2016 in St. Petersburg, studying Russian intensively while working full-time at the State Hermitage Museum as an intern.

Advanced Study Grant, summer of 2015

I used one of the university’s Advanced Study Grants to travel to Wales, where I took an intensive Ancient Greek course at Swansea University.  After this, I travelled to Mt. Athos in Greece, where I a week and a half hiking between the Holy Mountain’s monasteries, gaining insight into an ancient way of life still practiced today and learning from the monks.

Service Work, summer of 2015

Living in Boston, I commuted to the Suffolk County House of Corrections, an urban prison, to teach mathematics as a volunteer.  I also spent two days a week at St. Francis House by the Common, working in the soup kitchen.

Other Skills