Walter H. Conser Jr. (Editor) WALTER H. CONSER JR. is a professor of religious studies, professor of history, and chair of the department of philosophy and religion at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. He has written and edited several books, including God and the Natural World: Religion and Science in Antebellum America.Sumner B. Twiss (Editor) SUMNER B. TWISS is a professor of religious studies and department chair at Brown University. He has coauthored or coedited four books, including coediting, with Conser, Experience of the Sacred: Readings in the Phenomenology of Religion.