Below you will find profiles and important links for our KLC Research Fellows. The Fellows are grouped alphabetically by last name and this page contains letters N – Z. We will be updating this page regularly as new Fellows are inducted. For links to Events, Publications and other Resources produced by KLC Fellows, head over to the KLC Fellows Publications, Resources and Events Page. KLC has different categories of Fellows. Note that some of our categories are still under discussion.
Ben Nicka is studying theological ethics in a masters program at the University of Aberdeen. His studies are motivated by 17 years in mergers and acquisitions consulting, primarily in New York City. Presently, he is exploring options for Ph.D. research into the ethics of finance. His research project uses an intellectual history of index funds to inform a theological reconceptualization of investing and aims to invigorate the act of investing through its re-moralization, resisting the prevailing moral anaemia. He holds a master of arts in religion from Westminster Theological Seminary. He has a lively and lovable ten-year-old son.
Matthew Ng, MD, PhD is a physician and a theologian with an interest moral, public, and systematic theology. He completed a BA in Religious Studies and a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Virginia. His theological training includes a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary and a PhD in theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The title of his dissertation was “The Church’s Social Witness in a Secular and Pluralistic Age: A Refinement of Richard John Neuhaus’s Public Theology Using the Thought of Abraham Kuyper and Lesslie Newbigin.” His writing has appeared in Themelios, Providence, and he contributed a chapter on Charles Taylor in The History of Apologetics: A Biographical and Methodological Introduction (Zondervan, 2020).
Temi is a scholar of Germanistics who works across disciplines such as Africana Studies, Religious studies, and Film studies. Since her doctoral dissertation on Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Luther, her research has been focused on theology and German thought from the 16th century to the present, as well as on neurodiversity and disability. Her latest project is aimed at thinking theologically about autism, assessing ways in which autism is understood by the church, and discovering ways in which the experiences of autistic people interact with gospel culture. When she is not pursuing academic research or training in church ministry, she enjoys pastoral care and currently serves a neurodiverse congregation in North London.
Dr. Normann is a lecturer of physics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He holds a phd in mathematical cosmology, which, alongside astrophysics, is his current field of research. You will often find Ben running in the woods with a podcast in his ear. He also enjoys dissemination of science to the general public. And coffee.
Dr Mikael Normann (FRAS, PhD, MPhil) is an associate professor at the South-Eastern University of Norway. His current research involves the study of Einstein’s theory of gravitation. He is also interested in the interplay between mathematics and theology and the foundations of mathematics. He is a member of the Interdisciplinary Group at KLC. He is married to Sarah and they have two beautiful children together. When the days are dreary and the mind full, he particularly likes to do photography (normannphotography.org) and play the piano.
Brandon is Director of Content Development and Distribution for Redeemer City to City. In this role he has the privilege of serving local churches by serving pastors, of researching and writing, of preaching and teaching, and of helping discover and develop incredible contributors from all around the world. His own writing focuses on the significant influence of “cultural discipleship” (often unconscious) that takes place prior to and continues during our intentional Christian discipleship and that can compromise our formation as Christ followers. He has authored, co-authored and edited several books including Not From Around Here (Moody, 2019), Demanding Liberty (IVP, 2018), Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes (IVP, 2012).
Having trained for ordination at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford (1995-1998), William served his title at Greyfriars Church in Reading. He went on to serve a second curacy at Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge and is delighted to have a reason to visit Cambridge again as a KLC trustee! Since 2011 he has been Incumbent of St Matthias’ Church, Killiney, in the Church of Ireland Diocese of Dublin. He serves the diocese of Dublin and the wider Church of Ireland in several capacities and he is theological adviser to the Archbishop of Dublin. William was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1993 as a member of Middle Temple and he was awarded a PhD in biblical hermeneutics from Liverpool University in 2007. He is married to Tanya and they have three adult children.
Former British Airways Manager and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. In retirement I research and write about transport and the my theological interest is in the intersection of faith and work.
Shane Parker, PhD, currently serves as Associate Professor of Leadership and Educational Ministries, and Director of Online Learning, at Southwestern Seminary, in Fort Worth, TX. He has pastored churches in multiple states in the US, while also serving on faculty and in academic administration in two seminaries before coming to Southwestern. Parker is the co-author of Transformission: Making Disciples through Short-term Missions (B&H Academic, 2010), The Pastor’s Life: Practical Wisdom from the Puritans (Christian Focus, 2019), and Leading from the Foundation Up: How Fearing God Builds Stronger Leaders (RHB, 2023). He has also contributed reviews and articles to the Christian Educational Journal, Puritan Reformed Journal, and the Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry. He actively participates in both the Evangelical Theological Society and the Society of Professors in Christian Education, and he is a part of the Hub for Innovative Pedagogy.
Amy Peeler is the Kenneth T. Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College and a priest in the Episcopal Church (USA). Her research focuses on the Epistle to the Hebrews and the theology of embodiment and gendered language in the New Testament. She is author of a commentary on Hebrews in the Commentaries for Christian Formation Series (Eerdmans, 2024), Women and the Gender of God (Eerdmans, 2022), Hebrews: An Introduction and Study Guide, with Patrick Gray (T&T Clark, 2020), and “You Are My Son”: The Family of God in the Epistle to the Hebrews (T&T Clark, 2014). In addition to time with family and friends, her hobbies include running, CrossFit, and hiking in the Scottish highlands.
Dr Jordan Pickering is an Old Testament scholar specialising in Genesis and Hebrew narrative. His PhD approaches the question of Sarah’s unresolved covenantal status in Genesis 17 the long way around, attempting to establish the theme of the book as a whole, and then evaluating arguments about Sarah’s place in the light of the larger theme. He is the author of two works of public theology, “Troubled Waters: A fresh look at baptism and why we argue” and “Turn Neither Right Nor Left: Re-centering evangelicalism”. Jordan has worked as a biblical-studies lecturer, a campus-ministry worker, and a graphic designer, and is now KLC’s director of media. Jordan is an occasional oil painter in his spare time.
Dennae Pierre is one of the co-Directors for the Crete Collective and leads the Surge Network in Arizona. She also serves as one of the Co-Directors for City to City North America. She has her MA from Covenant Theological Seminary and DMin from Western Theological Seminary (Holland, Michigan) and is the author of Healing Prayers to Resist a Violent World. Dennae is married to Vermon, the lead pastor at Roosevelt Community Church, a multi-ethnic church in downtown Phoenix and they have four very fun children.
Dr. Jacquelynn Pleis is a KLC Fellow and a member of the Hub of Innovative Pedagogy. Her career in education spans over 20 years of public and private education in preschool through higher education. She is from Iowa, USA and currently lives in South Carolina where she is an Assistant Professor at Charleston Southern University preparing future educators. Her research interests include innovative pedagogy, faculty professional development, and teaching with a Christian Worldview. Jacquelynn is an active member of St. James United Methodist Church and loves to craft, read, and play board games with her husband and their two boys.
Jonathan Prosser is a social entrepreneur and corporate innovation leader. His track record is of serial innovation and developing teams in both commercial and social impact settings: from Fortune 500s, to start-ups, and NGOs. The common themes in his work are taking ventures from idea stage through to results, and coaching others to do so as well. He has taught at leading universities, where he brings his industry experience into the classroom. His coaching experience is broad: from executives to students, in business, social innovation, and in sport. He is Director of Innovation Lab at Compassion UK, an NGO addressing child poverty. His wider contributions are as the Founder of NGO PaxHax which engages youth to address barriers to peace through design and innovation, a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and an Official Member of the Forbes Non-Profit Council, a by-invitation group of chief executives and senior leaders. He holds an MA from the University of St Andrews where he majored in international relations, and an MS from Babson College Graduate School of Business in management – advanced entrepreneurial leadership. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Anthropological Institute in recognition of his work (FRSA, FRAI).
Benjamin serves as Associate Dean for Institutional Effectiveness and Assistant Professor of Theology and History of Ideas at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and the College at Southeastern. He also serves as pastor of Holly Grove Baptist Church in Spring Hope, NC. Benjamin earned his doctorate of philosophy in theology from the University of Bristol, U.K., and lives with his wife and four children in Youngsville, NC.
Murray Rae is Professor of Theology at the University of Otago in New Zealand. After completing a Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of Auckland, he began his working career as an architect in private practice before studying theology and philosophy in New Zealand, Germany, and the UK. His research interests include general areas of Christian doctrine, theological interpretation of Scripture, theology and the arts, Māori engagements with Christianity, Christian ethics, and the work of Søren Kierkegaard. He is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Dr Ian Randall comes originally from the north of Scotland. His Christian experience developed while at university in Aberdeen, where he and his wife, Janice, met. Following some years working in human resources, Ian trained in Oxford for Baptist ministry and had local church pastorates. He then joined Spurgeon’s College, London, teaching church history and spirituality there, and in Prague, and supervising PhD students. He has published extensively. In Cambridge, Ian has been a minister at Cambourne ecumenical church and a part-time chaplain at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. He is involved in the Cambridge Theological Federation, in writing, and in spiritual direction.
After twenty five years as a college professor and university chaplain and almost forty years in ministry, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Rankin has founded Spiritual Maturity Project, a teaching ministry that links people hungry for good resources with scholarship deeply rooted in historic orthodox Christianity. A graduate of Northwestern University, Saint Paul School of Theology and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Steve’s research and advocacy efforts focus on the integration of pedagogy and discipleship in church and academy. He is author of Aiming at Maturity: The Goal of the Christian Life and a number of similarly themed book chapters and articles and is currently working on a project that advances a theological vision for higher education in the Wesleyan tradition. Steve is married to Joni Leeper and they have four grown children and seven grandchildren. Working in the garden is a new hobby and a spiritual discipline.
Dan grew up in Japan, where his parents were missionaries. After receiving his Ph.D in Biblical Studies, he returned to Asia where he taught at Asian Theological Seminary in the Philippines. In 1986 he joined InterVarsity Press USA as Reference & Academic Editor, and retired in 2017 as Senior Academic Editor and Director of IVP Academic. During his more than 30 years with IVP, Dan acquired and edited well over 200 academic and general-reader books, and was involved in the initiation, conceptualisation, and editing of more than a dozen reference works including, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments, Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, and many others. He is currently researching and writing about the history and context of his family’s missionary history in China and Taiwan, focusing on the U.S. Protestant experience there from 1889 to 1982. He and his wife live in Port Townsend, Washington State, have two adult children, and three delightful grandchildren. A lover of the outdoors, Dan is passionate about mountain climbing, hiking, backpacking, skiing, cycling, sailing, and trail running.
Michael J. Rhodes is the co-author of Practicing the King’s Economy: Honoring Jesus in How We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give, and a lecturer in Old Testament at Carey Baptist College. Michael’s passion is to help the church hear and respond to Scripture’s call to embody God’s justice and mercy on behalf of the marginalized. This passion inspired Michael and his wife Rebecca’s decision to live, work, and worship in an economically impoverished community in his hometown of Memphis for the ten years prior to his coming to Carey, as well as Michael’s academic research on moral formation and economic justice in Scripture. Michael is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
Dr. Megan C. Roberts holds a PhD in Christian Theology (HB/OT) from McMaster Divinity College (2020). Her doctoral research explored the connection between collective memory formation and the promises of comfort in Isaiah 40–55, and she is currently exploring how this research informs her Anglican sacramental and liturgical theology and practice. A native of Colorado, she enjoys climbing 14ers (mountain peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation) and gardening/landscaping. She discovered her gift and love for teaching during her fives years at Logos International School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (2007–2012), and hopes to make teaching her long-term vocation. When she’s not teaching or researching, she enjoys singing, making music with others, finding good food from all over the world, and spending time with her very large family of siblings, nieces, and nephews.
Dr. Bob Roberts, Jr. is the founder of GlocalNet, a church planting family of churches and co-founder of Multi-Faith Neighbors Network, an organization committed to creating international religious freedom through intentional cross-cultural relationships.
Known for his energetic rhythms, rich harmonic language, and striking colors, Josh Rodriguez (b. 1982) continues to gain recognition as an emerging composer and collaborator on a national and international scale. Born in Argentina and raised in Guatemala and Mexico, Rodriguez’s musical imagination has been formed by the colors and cultures of his childhood. Rodriguez is composer-in-residence of the Corona Symphony Orchestra, and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the Collinsworth School of Music at California Baptist University. He regularly contributes to various arts & culture blogs and is co-director of Deus-Ex-Musica an initiative that brings musicians, pastors, and non-musicians together for concerts and conversations about the intersection of faith and new music.
Mark Roques taught Philosophy and Religious Education at Prior Park College, Bath, for many years. As Director of RealityBites (Thinking Faith Network) he has developed a rich range of resources for youth workers and teachers. He has spoken at conferences in the UK, Holland, South Korea, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. Mark is a lively and engaging storyteller and the author of four books, including The Spy, the Rat and the Bed of Nails: Creative Ways of Talking about Christian Faith. His work is focused on imaginative storytelling and how this can help us to communicate the Christian faith. He has written many articles for the Baptist Times, RE Today, Youthscape, Direction magazine and the Christian Teachers Journal. He is married to Anne and has a daughter, Hannah and a son, Emile.
Janice grew up in Surrey in south London. She went to Wimbledon and Bristol Colleges of Art, followed by a diploma in art education at Bristol University. During this time she first became acquainted with Hans Rookmaaker, Professor of Art History at the Free University of Amsterdam. In 1969 after marrying Richard she went with him to Trinity Christian College (Chicago) and taught sculpture, painting and art history. She was also a Fellow of the Institute for Christian Art which had just been established by Prof. Calvin Seerveld. After returning to the UK she continued painting and was actively involved in various Christian groups in the arts, teaching and mentoring. After some protracted illness she continues to paint, working out of the English landscape tradition, exploring the countryside around her in north Somerset. Richard and Janice have two son, Gabriel and Simon, who have both successfully made their careers in the arts.
Revd. Richard Russell spent his childhood in rural Somerset. He studied philosophy at Aberystwyth University (Wales) and McMaster University (Canada), and apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia). Then he taught philosophy at Manchester College (Oxford) and then, after marrying Janice in 1969 , atTrinity Christian College(Chicago).Then followed an MA in sociology of religion, a PGCE and and M.Ed. at Bristol University. After came teaching sociology at Derby Technical College and a Ph.D. in philosophy of education at Nottingham University. This was not completed due to moving to Trinity College (Bristol) for ordination training. Then after a curacy in Hartlepool(Durham Diocese) he became vicar of Widcombe in Bath, while also doing some part time teaching for Trinity College(Bristol) and Bristol University. Also with Janice he directed the Christian Studies Unit which involved much mentoring, networking, conferences and distributing Christian academic books in all disciplines within the Kuyperian tradition. This has continued in retirement at Radstock.
James Rusthoven is a retired practicing medical oncologist. He received broad undergraduate instruction in Reformational thinking at Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, Illinois. After graduation from medical school in Chicago, he and his wife Thea moved to Canada where he completed his general and oncology medical training in Toronto. He subsequently gained extensive experience in cancer patient care, teaching, and clinical research in academic positions at the University of Toronto and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. After 16 years, Dr Rusthoven obtained an MHSc degree in bioethics from the University of Toronto, then a PhD in theology from Trinity College, University of Bristol. His PhD research explored a covenantal ethical framework from a Reformational perspective. This work was published as Covenantal Biomedical Ethics for Contemporary Medicine (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2014). In his final four years before retirement, he was a medical officer and evaluator of new cancer biologics at Health Canada. He enjoyed exploring how a Reformational worldview could provide guidance for himself and for colleagues in identifying and responding to ethical issues arising during the evaluation of new cancer drugs. Dr Rusthoven continues to speak about bioethics from a Reformational perspective to university students, church goers, and to whoever else is interested.
Derek Schuurman worked as an electrical engineer for several years and later completed a Ph.D. at McMaster University in the area of robotics and computer vision. He has taught computer science at both Dordt College and Redeemer University and is currently professor of computer science at Calvin University. He is a fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation and has written about faith and technology issues in a variety of publications. He is the author of the book Shaping a Digital World: Faith, Culture and Computer Technology published by InterVarsity Press.
Nigel spent the greater part of his life lecturing in church history at what became the University of Gloucestershire. He studied at McGill and Bristol Universities, earned a PhD in church history at the University of Aberdeen, and has been involved in church planting and led a C of E Fresh Expressions Church for thirteen years while lecturing full-time. From 2006-2017 he taught theology students at Bristol Baptist College and Trinity College Bristol. Nigel has authored more than twenty books, the most controversial being The New Passover Rethinking the Lord’s Supper for Today (Wipf and Stock) in which he argued that the Eucharist/New Passover was intended to be a domestic sacramental meal based in homes and small groups in the same way that the Jewish Passover was, and still is, kept to this day. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in Religious Studies at the University of Gloucestershire and still does some lecturing at the Gloucester hub of Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He and his wife live in Woodmancote on the outskirts of Cheltenham in the UK and worship locally.
Esgrid was a Mathematics Lecturer in Guatemala, where he’s from, before moving to the UK to study Philosophy and Theology at the University of Edinburgh. His research concentrates on Philosophical Hermeneutics and the possibilities it opens for the multilayered nature of the various science and religion discourses, mostly in western contexts and of western provenance, with the view of contextualising whatever insights such discourses may have to non-western contexts and simultaneously feeding back to western discourses from these proceses of contextualisation. Also, as an engineer and an educator, he’s interested in showing as artificial the divisions between the humanities, the arts, and the sciences by way of attending to the spiritual nature of knowing and learning. Esgrid currently works in the UK as a Professional Development Expert, supporting apprentices in their Data Analysis apprenticeships.
J. Aaron Simmons is professor of philosophy at Furman University and holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University. In addition to publishing more than 100 articles, essays, and reviews, he is author or editor of numerous books including: God and the Other; The New Phenomenology; Kierkegaard’s God and the Good Life; Christian Philosophy; and Kierkegaard and Levinas. He is the former president of the Søren Kierkegaard Society (USA) and the South Carolina Society of Philosophy, and he has held official positions with the Society of Christian Philosophy, and the American Academy of Religion. A professional drummer and avid trout fisherman, Simmons loves hiking and spending time in the mountains with his wife, Vanessa, and son, Atticus.
Vuyani Sindo is a Head of Biblical Studies and a Senior Lecturer at George Whitefield College (GWC) in Cape Town, South Africa. He joined the Faculty of GWC as a junior lecturer in 2014. Having completed his undergraduate degree at the college in 2008, Vuyani went on to work as a curate at Holy Trinity Church in Gardens, Cape Town, later serving as Assistant Minister there. During his term at the church, Vuyani also worked at the Student YMCA on the CPUT campus and still nurtures his interest in student ministry. Vuyani Sindo completed his PhD studies at Stellenbosch University in 2018. His thesis is entitled: “The interrelationship between leadership and identity formation in the Corinthian correspondence: A study of 1 Corinthians 1-4”. His main area of interest is the exploration of the relevance of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians for the South African context, with a particular focus on the subjects of Paul and slavery, and Paul’s theology of reconciliation, identity and leadership. Vuyani is married to Ronel and they have two daughters.
Joshua is a theologian researching the ethics of AI and robots. His work on the ethics of technology seeks to build an interdisciplinary community that will work towards the regulation of technology that leads to human and ecological flourishing. He hosts a podcast (The Dolores Project) that dialogues with international scholars about the possibilities and pitfalls of robot regulation. He serves as a senior pastor in Mississippi, where he lives with his wife and three children. He has two works forthcoming, Robot Theology with Wipf & Stock and On Violent Technologies with Trivent Transhumanism.
Dr. R. Lucas Stamps serves as Associate Professor of Christian theology at Anderson University and the Clamp Divinity School in Anderson, South Carolina. He is the co-editor of Baptists and the Christian Tradition: Towards an Evangelical Baptist Catholicity and the author of the forthcoming Thy Will Be Done: A Contemporary Defense of Dyothelite Christology. He has published numerous articles and essays in the area of systematic theology, focusing especially on the Trinity and the Incarnation. Dr. Stamps currently serves as the chair of the KLC Scripture and Doctrine Seminar.
J. David Stark is the Winnie and Cecil May Jr. Biblical Research Fellow at Faulkner University’s Kearley Graduate School of Theology, where he teaches for the institution’s fully online, face-to-face, and ATS-accredited MA, ThM, and PhD in Biblical Studies. David specializes in Pauline studies and biblical theology. David also runs an educational website (jdavidstark.com) where he helps emerging biblical scholars hone their craft so that they can invest in work and relationships that really matter.
Rev. Dr. Todd Statham is the Christian Reformed Chaplain at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus (Kelowna, Canada). After completing a PhD in theology (McGill University), Todd served as a lecturer at Zomba Theological College in Malawi and pastor in the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, and then as a sessional lecturer at the Universität Lüneburg (Germany). His teaching and research ranges from missiology and global Christianity to modern Protestant theology and history, especially in the Reformed and Lutheran traditions. As a university chaplain he seeks to be catalyst for students and professors to faithfully engage culture and ideas under the lordship of Christ.
Brendan Steven has spent nearly a decade as a professional writer, a career which includes founding a student newspaper at his alma mater, Canada’s McGill University; serving as speechwriter for a former Canadian Finance Minister; and working as a senior creative copywriter within one of Canada’s leading communications agency families. Today Brendan is chief writer at a leading Canadian charity, ranked by Maclean’s and MoneySense magazines as one of Canada’s best charities in 2020. Brendan is passionate about Christian community-building and is an active leader within several Catholic organizations based in Toronto, including as executive director of Catholic Conscience—a non-partisan Catholic civic and political leadership lay apostolate, with the mission of forming faithful citizens through Catholic social teaching, and in turn, forming the Catholic community into a more impactful force for political love within civil society.
Michelle A. Stinson is a broadly-trained biblical scholar whose research interests span the fields of biblical studies, agrarian studies, and rhetorical studies. She served as an Associate Professor of Old Testament (Simpson University) until 2020 and presently is a “Visiting Scholar in Old Testament” at Denver Seminary. Her current research considers topics related to food, land care, and the Psalms and her work has appeared in a variety of edited collections and academic journals (CBQ, Word&World, BN). Michelle serves as co-chair of the SBL “Meals in the HB/OT and Its World” programme unit and is a board member of the “Religion and Bible Society of the Rocky Mountains Great Plains.” In addition to scholarly pursuits, Michelle has enjoyed gaining practical training in all things “farm to table,” including experiences as an amateur vintner, agricultural field worker, and formal training as a chef.
Mitch Stokes is a Senior Fellow of Philosophy at New St. Andrews College. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Notre Dame and an M.A. in religion from Yale. He also holds an M.S. in mechanical engineering and, prior to his academic career, worked for an international engineering firm where he earned five patents in aeroderivative gas turbine technology. In addition to biographies of Newton and Galileo, his books include A Shot of Faith (to the Head), How to Be an Atheist: Why Many Skeptics Aren’t Skeptical Enough, and Calculus for Everyone. He is currently working on a project funded by the Temple Religion Trust investigating the use of beauty as a guide to truth in contemporary physics.
Rev. Dr. Walter R. Strickland II is the Founder and President of The Strickland Institute LLC, and also serves as Assistant Professor of Systematic and Contextual Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC (USA). Born in Chicago and raised in Southern California, Walter’s passion is to equip people to flourish in their context from a deep commitment to God’s design. He has written and contributed to over 10 books and holds a PhD in Theology from the University of Aberdeen (Scotland).
Dr. Robert Tatum is the Cary Caperton Owen Distinguished Professor in Economics at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. His teaching and research traditionally concerned international and development macroeconomics, supported in part through a Fulbright-Hays Award to Brazil. In recent years, he has begun exploring a new area of scholarship in theology-oriented economics-supported policymaking. Publications in this line of research can be found in the Journal of Markets and Morality, Faith and Economics, and the Journal of Economics, Theology, and Religion. Complementing this new scholarship, Robert has developed an interdisciplinary course on “Morality and Material Progress” with support from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities. Along with KLC, he considers one of his intellectual homes to be the Cambridge-based Association for Christian Economics. In his free time, Robert loves spending time with his wife and two children and enjoys traveling and exploring the great outdoors through hiking and trail running.
Jenny is our Research Fellow in Communication, Media and Journalism. She specialises in religious literacy and pioneered religious literacy in journalism. She has a doctorate in religion from the School of Oriental and African Studies, and has been published many times in academic journals and the mainstream and on-line media including the Guardian, the Times and, in translation, the European press. Her books include Faith and Power: Christianity and Islam in ‘Secular’ Britain with Lesslie Newbigin and Lamin Sanneh (SPCK 1998 and Wipf&Stock 2005), and A Wild Constraint (Continuum 2008), an extended essay on contemporary sexuality.
Jason Thacker serves as chair of research in technology ethics and director of the research institute at The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. He also serves as an adjunct instructor of philosophy, ethics, and worldview at Boyce College in Louisville, KY. He is the author of “Following Jesus in the Digital Age” and “The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity.” He also serves as the editor of “The Digital Public Square: Christian Ethics in a Technological Society” with B&H Academic and co-editor of a forthcoming series on essentials in Christian ethics. He is a graduate of The University of Tennessee in Knoxville and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is currently pursuing a PhD in Ethics and Public Theology. He is married to Dorie and they have two sons.
Michael is an Associate Research Scholar at Princeton University’s Work, Ethics, and Faith Initiative and the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. He has held visiting fellowships and lectureships at Yale Divinity School, Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions, and the Département de Philosophie at l’École normale supérieure, Paris. He was a recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt award, spending three years at Universität Tübingen in the Institute für antikes Judentum und hellenistische Religionsgeschichte. Michael’s academic interests and focus are informed and complemented by his prior business experience where he counseled corporate clients on matters relating to brand equity, communication strategy, and corporate trust. He is the author of two monographs: Remembrance of Things Past?, comparing the “historical Jesus” genre with recent trends in social memory theory; and The Godman and the Sea, where he reads varying representations of the sea in antiquity, Judaism, and early Christianity through the rubrics of desolation and trauma. Current works include a volume on “smell” and moral reasoning, and a second that engages the so-called attention economy. He is also co-editing a volume on the history of corporate responses to racial unrest and another on the future of work.
Dr. Heath Thomas (Ph.D., University of Gloucestershire) was installed as the 16th President of Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU) in January 2020. He also serves as Professor of Old Testament at OBU. Dr. Thomas served as Dean of the Hobbs College and Professor of Old Testament from 2015-2019 and as Director of Ph.D. Studies and Associate Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina from 2007-2015. His academic expertise lay in biblical books of Lamentations and the Minor Prophets, and he has written or edited major volumes on Lamentations (Bloomsbury, 2021; Sheffield Phoenix, 2013; Pickwick Press, 2011), Habakkuk (Eerdmans, 2018; Lexham, 2016), and the Minor Prophets (IVP Academic, forthcoming; Baker Academic, forthcoming). He also has a deep interest in theological reading, co-editing with Dr. Craig Bartholomew A Manifesto for Theological Interpretation (Baker Academic, 2016).
Fritz lives in Cape Town, South Africa, where he works as the director of the Student YMCA Christian Study Centre at the University of Cape Town. He arrived there with undergraduate degrees in economics (University of Stellenbosch) and theology (North West University). During his two-decade stint at the UCT Student YMCA, he completed a Master of Arts degree in interdisciplinary studies at Wheaton College, combining core course from the missions & intercultural studies and biblical studies programs respectively, and started (though, unfortunately, not completed) a PhD under the supervision of Dr Michael Goheen and Dr Craig Bartholomew during a year-long sabbatical in Canada. His theology and practice of mission was also profoundly shaped by several educational pilgrimages, most notably to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I studied under Dr René Padilla; to Jerusalem (and Palestine) where he read and did research at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute; and to Kampala, Uganda, where I participated in the Great Lakes Initiative (GLI, linked to Duke Divinity School Center for Reconciliation). He is married to Dr Tshilidzi van der Lecq (Ophthalmologist) and has a delightful little daughter.
Fellipe do Vale (PhD, Southern Methodist University) is an assistant professor of biblical and systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, north of Chicago. He specializes in the junction where theological anthropology and moral theology meet, and his work focuses on gender. He is the author of Gender as Love: A Theological Account of Human Identity, Embodied Desire, and Our Social Worlds.
Emma lives and works at the St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker House in South Bend, Indiana. She shares in the community work of hosting a drop-in shelter, tending a community garden and accompanying the marginalized and houseless through offering hospitality in her house. Emma grew up in Scotland, where she developed an interest in the connections between geographical places and interior landscapes. Spending her early years in a Scottish terrain, she became attuned to the borders and intersections between the wild and the gardened, habitable space. She has companioned herself to poetry, and finds there the enduring invitation both through fragility and rest to inhabit these border spaces. She seeks those poems that wire together the open edge of language with a trust of the earth.
Mary Vanhoozer is a creative and engaging multi-instrumentalist (piano, violin, hurdy gurdy, and hammered dulcimer) and melodist. A classical pianist by trade, she has performed solo recitals and taught workshops throughout the United States. She is dedicated to the craft of live music and loves to organise concerts around themes, oftentimes lending a dramatic, almost narrative element to her performances. Mary released her debut album for solo piano, From Leipzig to LA, in 2018. Mary received her degrees in piano performance: her BM from Wheaton College Conservatory, her MM from the Eastman School of Music, and her DMA from the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Rev. Dr. Michael R. Wagenman is Senior Research Fellow and founding chair of the Scripture and Church Seminar at KLC. Michael completed his PhD at the University of Bristol on the nature of ecclesial power in the worldview of Abraham Kuyper. He studies and writes on issues related to power within the church’s engagement with culture and society, especially the use of Scripture and proclamation as forms of communication. He is chaplain to Western University (London, Ontario) and teaches part time at Redeemer University (New Testament Interpretation), the Institute for Christian Studies, and Huron University College’s faculty of theology.
Professor Steve Walton is Senior Research Fellow in New Testament at Trinity College, Bristol. He holds degrees from the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, and Sheffield. He has authored a number of books, most recently Reading Acts Theologically (T&T Clark, 2022), a collection of essays. He is working on the Word Biblical Commentary on Acts, which will appear in three volumes, the first, covering Acts 1–9 (hopefully) in 2024. He has taught in Nottingham, Cambridge, London and Bristol, and has supervised 16 PhD theses and two MTh theses to successful completion. He was elected as a member of the international Society for New Testament Studies in 2017, and co-chairs an SNTS seminar on ‘God in the New Testament’. He has served as a seminar chair and as Secretary of the British New Testament Society. Steve is a retired international volleyball referee, and lives in Loughborough with his wife Ali, an ordained Anglican minister, and their Border Terrier, Flora.
Genevieve studied Theology at King’s College London, before doing an MA in European Classical Acting at Drama Centre London. She formed her own production company, touring the acclaimed one-woman drama Asena against sex trafficking (BBC Radio Northampton). She worked for three years as Development Officer at KLICE, which has now become The Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge and of which she has recently become a Fellow. Alongside managing her father’s small business, in the last year she has been presenting for Radio Maria England, including Faith and Family in the Time of Covid-19, Questions of Faith, and co-producing and presenting Women Together, which is now entering its second series.
Daria has 20 years of experience in the fields of mental health counseling, social work, and peacebuilding. Her work has been focused on individuals who have experienced personal and communal, current and transgenerational trauma, understanding cultural and individual barriers to, and resources for resilience. In her research and approach, she uses restorative justice and peacebuilding frameworks integrated with mental health counseling theory and practice. The populations she has worked with are ethnic minorities in the Balkans; refugees; domestic violence and sexual assault survivors; immigrants; the homeless. Daria received the Women and Gender Studies Feminist Scholarship Award at James Madison University for her work with Bulgarian elderly women and the Outstanding Scholarship Award from the Department of Graduate Psychology at James Madison University for her dissertation research on joy and awe in four countries. Dr. White is a native of Bulgaria and since 2014 – an American citizen.
Andrew White holds a Ph.D. in English from Washington State University (2003) and has held faculty positions at Wheaton College, the American University in Bulgaria, and Eastern Mennonite University. His research interests include early American literature, early modern English literature, spiritual life writings, and Balkan studies. Andrew recently completed an M.Div. (biblical studies) and is seeking ordination in the Anglican Church in North America (Diocese of Christ Our Hope). He currently resides in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, but is a native of the “evergreen” Pacific Northwest.
Fr Dominic White is Acting Director of Research at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge. A Dominican friar and Catholic priest, he is assigned to the Priory of St. Michael at Blackfriars, Cambridge. He studied Classics at Pembroke College, Cambridge, followed by a PhD at Imperial College London, meeting the Dominicans as organist of their London church. His theological interests focus especially on theology of the arts, and the arts’ implications for metaphysics, liturgy and spirituality. He is the author of The Lost Knowledge of Christ: Christian Cosmology, Contemporary Spiritualities and the Arts (Liturgical Press, 2015), and How Do I Look? Theology in the Age of the Selfie (SCM, 2020). He is a composer, and co-founder of the Friends of Sophia group.
Matthew Wiley is a theologian and writer in Chicago. He is a PhD Student in systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and his research is on ecclesial disunity and pneumatology. He is the managing editor of Sapientia and the digital content manager for the Henry Center for Theological Understanding. Matt and his wife Ellyn belong to Boulevard Presbyterian Church, where they lead the youth ministry. He loves good coffee, Wendell Berry’s poetry, and theology for the sake of the local church.
After receiving an MA in Theology from McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Canada, Hal went on to earn a BA in philosophy from the University of Toronto and then went on to read for the BPhil at the University of Oxford. Hal’s philosophical work focuses on ancient and contemporary ethics, the relationship between ethics and literature, and the philosophy of economics and the nature and place of the humanities in our contemporary age. He and his wife Hannah live in the little village of Great Haseley, South Oxfordshire.
Rev Dr Chris Wright is Global Ambassador and Ministry Director of Langham Partnership (www.langham.org). After ordained ministry in Tonbridge, Kent, he taught the Old Testament in India for five years (1983-88) and then at All Nations Christian College in England, where he was also Principal from 1993-2001. In 2001 he took over the leadership of the Langham at the invitation of the founder, John Stott. Chris’s PhD (Cambridge) was in the field of O.T. economic ethics. His books include commentaries on Exodus, Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, Lamentations and Ezekiel, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God; The Mission of God; The God I Don’t Understand; and The Mission of God’s People. Chris and his wife Liz, who come from Belfast, have four adult children and eleven grandchildren, and live in London as members of All Souls Church, Langham Place, where Chris serves as an honorary curate. Chris enjoys a bit of light running, birdwatching occasionally, and following Ireland’s fortunes in the rugby Six Nations.
John is a doctor, author, speaker and research scientist. His background is as a consultant neonatologist and academic researcher focussing on the mechanisms, treatment and prevention of brain damage in newborn infants. He is now engaged in addressing new ethical, philosophical and theological challenges caused by advances in medical science and technology. He is also fascinated by the issues raised by rapid advances in AI and robotics, and the interface between cutting-edge science and Christian faith. John’s academic title is Emeritus Professor of Neonatal Paediatrics, Ethics & Perinatology at University College London. He is also a senior researcher at the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge. He worked as a paediatrician specialising in the care of newborn babies at a leading neonatal intensive care unit for more than 25 years. Through his clinical experience he became increasingly aware of the ethical maelstrom caused by advancing technology and contentious debates about the nature of humanity at the beginning and end of life. He has now retired from frontline medical practice and is focussing on the ethical, philosophical and theological issues raised by rapidly advancing technology.
Trevor Yoakum, PhD, DMin is the theological education consultant for West Africa with the International Mission Board, the missionary sending agency of the Southern Baptist Convention. He also serves on the faculty at the West Africa Baptist Advanced School of Theology (WABAST) in Lomé, Togo. Besides teaching and consulting work, Trevor writes theological education curricula as well as books and articles in various journals. Trevor lives in Lomé, Togo with his wife, Kimberly. They have four children.
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