Raymond Carr is President of the Society for the Study of Black Religion. He served as a professor of theology and ethics at Pepperdine University in California from 2012-19, and has served as visiting lecturer and professor in Heidelberg, Germany, Lausanne, Switzerland, and Shanghai, China. Most recently, Carr served as a visiting scholar/professor at Harvard Divinity School (Spring-Fall 2023). He has published and presented papers on theological aesthetics, theomusicology, and black religion. His forthcoming trilogy in theological aesthetics, Theology in the Mode of Monk: An Aesthetics of Barth and Cone on Revelation and Freedom (Cascade, 2024), employs the music of Thelonious Monk as a form of parabolic suggestiveness in order to advance the thinking of Karl Barth and James Cone. Carr serves on the board for the International Thomas Merton Society (ITMS), and is a veteran of the United States Air Force.
Rebecca Catto is associate professor of sociology and criminology at Kent State University, Ohio, USA. A native of Great Britain, Catto comes from a background in the sociology of religion and is interested in science in society, science and religion, and belief and nonreligion. She is the co-author of "The Social Imaginary of Science and Nonreligion: Narrating the Connection in the Anglophone West" (2023) and "Secularism and Secularization. In Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations" (2016).
Jan-Olav Henriksen is professor of systematic theology, and teaches and does research in all areas of that discipline, although his main subject is Philosophy of religion. His present research topic focuses on different dimensions in the relationship between God and human experience, as well as on religion interpreted from a pragmatist angle. He works at the interface of theology, philosophy, sociology of religion and psychology of religion, and has published more than 50 books as well as a number of scholarly articles. He also holds a keen interest in the conditions for religion in a post-secular society and questions related to religion and climate change.
Volker Leppin is Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology at Yale Divinity School. He was previously Professor at the University of Jena (2000-2010) and the University of Tübingen (2010-2021), where he also directed the Institute for Late Middle Ages and Reformation. Leppin is the author of 20 monographs, the editor or co-editor of 53 books, and the author of more than 300 scholarly articles and chapters, altogether covering a broad range of interests from antiquity to the modern area. His scholarship is particularly interested in medieval and Reformation studies. He argues that the Reformation should be understood as a transformation of the medieval world rather than as a stark rupture. He has also worked on theories of secularization, such as “Friedrich Gogarten’s Theology of Secularization.” (2018)
Marius Mjaaland is professor of theology and philosophy of religion at the University of Oslo. He is the author of The Hidden God: Luther, Philosophy and Political Theology as well as Autopsia: Self, Death, and God after Kierkegaard and Derrida. His current research is especially focused on phenomenology, religion and society. He has interdisciplinary interests as well, such as bio ethics, organ donation, and the gift of life, as well as in ecology and eco-philosophy.
Derek Nelson is Professor of Religion and Stephen S. Bowen Professor of the Liberal Arts at Wabash College in Indiana. The author or editor of twelve books, he writes in the areas of contemporary systematic theology (particularly doctrines of creation, sin and incarnation) and late medieval/early modern theology and religion. Works in progress include a book on Nicholas of Cusa’s mystical theology and contemporary pastoral ministry; essays in Martin Luther’s relationship to Islam and the Ottoman Empire and the lingering effects of monastic theology on Luther’s post-monastic life and work; and a book on interpreting the contemporary experience of and estrangement from materiality, especially as it relates to consumption and the making of a “home.” His recent interest in “Scandinavian Creation Theology” has occasioned new thoughts on Christianity as an interpretation of universal human experience, and thus open to post-secular rearrangements, rather than a delineated community of belief.
Kathryn Reklis is Associate Professor of Theology at Fordham University in New York City, where she also serves as Co-Director of the Comparative Literature Program, and an affiliate in American Studies. Her first book, Theology and the Kinesthetic Imagination: Jonathan Edwards and the Making of Modernity (Oxford, 2014), examines Jonathan Edwards’s contribution to the public debates around the ecstatic and excessive bodily performances of 18th century religious revivals and the formation of modern subjectivity. Her interests in theology and beauty can be seen in her edited volume challenging the bromide that "protestants did away with aesthetics," Protestant Aesthetics and the Arts (Routledge, 2020). She is currently at work on projects exploring what "world" means in World Literature and World Religion.
Andrew Root is Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, where he has served since 2005. He is often mentioned as one of the leading scholars in youth ministry and practical theology in the world. He is most recently the author of the six volume, Ministry in a Secular Age series, (The Church in the Age of Secular Mysticisms, Church After Innovation, Churches and the Crisis of Decline, The Congregation in a Secular Age, The Pastor in a Secular Age, and Faith Formation in a Secular Age), and The End of Youth Ministry?. He has also authored Christopraxis: A Practical Theology of the Cross (Fortress, 2014) and Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker (Baker, 2014). Root puts together theology and storytelling to explore how ministry leads us into encounter with divine action. His book The Relational Pastor (IVP, 2013) as well as a four book series with Zondervan called, A Theological Journey Through Youth Ministry, (titles include Taking Theology to Youth Ministry, Taking the Cross to Youth Ministry, Unpacking Scripture in Youth Ministry, and Unlocking Mission and Eschatology in Youth Ministry) break new ground in this direction.
Petruschka Schaafsma is Professor of Ethics at the Protestant Theological University in the Netherlands. She publishes research broadly in the field of ethics and theology. Her focus in recent years has been the meaning of family, with special attention to aspects of givenness and dependence. Starting from an approach to the family as ‘mystery’ (Gabriel Marcel), she makes interdisciplinary connections with philosophy, social anthropology, medical ethics and social work in particular. She is also project leader of the Moral Compass Project.
Ulla Schmidt is Associate Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Her current research interests include research on the foundation of practical theology as a discipline, especially in terms of practice theory, empirical research in religious practices of contemporary Christian religion in the Nordic countries, and their theological meanings and implications, and research on church organization and its ecclesiological implications. Most recently, she has been particularly active in researching practices and rituals pertaining to death, such as funerary and memorializing practices.
Ulrich Schmiedel is Professor of Global Christianities at Lund University, Sweden. Specializing in public and political theology, he is interested in the role of religions in the public square, both their problems and their potentials for contemporary societies. He concentrates especially on the significance of the diversity of religions for migrant and post-migrant societies. Methodologically, his research is located at the intersection of theology with sociology, anthropology, and philosophy. Prior to his appointment at Lund, Ulrich was Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in Theology, Politics and Ethics at Edinburgh University, where he also served as Co-Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues.
Joseph Tucker-Edmonds is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at Indiana University’s School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI and the Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and Economics from Brown University, his Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and his PhD in Religious Studies from Duke University. His research interests are black and womanist theologies, alternative Christianities in the black Atlantic, and the role of scripture in African and African American religious traditions. Tucker Edmonds’ recent book, The Other Black Church: Alternative Christian Movements and the Struggle for Black Freedom highlights the variety and vibrancy of the African American Christian sphere during the latter half of the twentieth century.
Björn Vikström is Professor of Theology at Åbo Akademi University in Finland. From 2009 to 2019 he served as bishop of the diocese of Borgå, Finland. His theological interests include nationalism and populism in theological perspective, the work of diaconal ministry. He is the author of “Minority theology: Theological Perspectives on a Complex Field” in Studia Theologica in 2023.
