Cowan was born in Canada and received his undergraduate education at the
University of Victoria where he was awarded a
Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature. He then proceeded to theological studies and received a
Master of Divinity degree from
St. Andrews Theological College. His doctoral work, which involved an examination of the
Christian countercult movement through the prism of the
sociology of knowledge and
propaganda theory, was undertaken through the
University of Calgary. While Cowan currently describes himself as a
methodological agnostic, he was ordained to the Christian ministry in the
United Church of Canada, and held pastoral positions during his doctoral studies. After graduating with a
Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1999 Cowan received a joint appointment in the Department of Sociology/CJC and the UMKC Center for Religious Studies. During 2005 he relocated from the US to his current teaching post at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. ==Bibliography==