Welcome

I do theology for the church, striving to unite the often severed practices of theological reflection and confession, study and witness. I am an associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Northwestern College, Iowa, where my focus is systematic, constructive, and historical theology.

My current research considers the contribution of Swiss theologian Karl Barth. My book manuscript, Karl Barth on Friendship with God explores an inconspicuous yet far-reaching motif in Karl Barth’s theology, friendship with God. Barth’s appeals to friendship paint a distinctive picture of the Christian life as mutual love and shared agency, in contrast to common portraits of our life with God that, consciously or unconsciously, valorize domination and coercion, always at the expense of those on the margins. I argue that this distinctive picture is threatened by Barth’s occasionalist doctrine of sanctification, where our life with God resembles less a friendship than a relationship of paternalism.

As a teacher, I am interested in the writing process as a tool for the learning and formation of theology students.

I am an ordained minister of word and sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA).