Curriculum

My research interests lie at the intersection of religion and society, focusing more specifically on how theologies shape and reflect the specific contexts of their emergence in complex ways. The kinds of questions I purse and the methods I employ thus tend to be highly interdisciplinary. My formal academic training is in the fields of Systematic Theology and Religious Studies. But I have always enjoyed returning to the history of philosophy, on the one hand, while on the other hand, engaging with new forms and contexts of religious communication (e.g., digital and intercultural). 

Since 2025 / Research Fellow, University of the Free State, South Africa

Since 2025 / Guest Professor of Systematic Theology and Ethics, Leuphana University Lüneburg

2025 / Habilitation and venia legendi for Systematic Theology
Protestant Theological Faculty, RFW University of Bonn, BONN
2022 / Ordination (Presbyterian Church (USA))
2015 / Doctor of Philosophy 
Dept. of Religious Studies, Northwestern University, EVANSTON
2011 / Master of Arts
Dept. of Religious Studies, Northwestern University, EVANSTON
2009 / Master of Divinity 
Divinity School of the University of Chicago, CHICAGO
2004 / Bachelor of Arts
Depts. of Philosophy & Ancient Languages, Wheaton College, WHEATON

Research interests

My areas of research focus include:

• Intercultural Theology, World Christianity Studies, Christian Ecumenism
• Religion and Social Transformation (including religion in connection with pluralism and (super)diversity and Digital Religion / Digital Theology)
• Philosophy and theology during the Enlightenment and Romantic periods

Topics in Systematic Theology that I have worked on or in which I am developing new projects:

• Social theory and ecclesiology
• Communication, hermeneutics of proclamation and homiletics
• Theological Method: Intercultural Theology, Liberation Theologies and Contextual Theologies (Prolegomena)
• “The Holy” in relation to the science of awe and emerging discourses on the weird (doctrine of God, pneumatology)

Topics in Ethics that I have worked on or in which I am developing new projects:

• Friedrich Schleiermacher’s ethics
• Friendship, hospitality and tolerance
• Youth, peace and conflict
• Diversity and conviviality
• Digital religious communication
• The ambivalent place of loyalty in religion and politics

I am open to supervising doctoral researchers, whether in connection with one of the topics listed below or potentially working in a different direction. Please send me an email outlining your project and relevant experience.

• Intercultural Theology, Christian Ecumenism, Interreligious Studies (with co-supervision)

• Digital Religion / Digital Theology
• Classical theories of religion, in particular Friedrich Schleiermacher, William James, Rudolf Otto
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothee Sölle
• Theology, religion, and society in the United States

Teaching

Systematic Theology (including Intercultural Theology and Ecumenics) and Theological Ethics