Academic Resources
My research has centered around theological anthropology (understanding what it means to be human in light of who God is and says we are); divine and human agency; the role of the Spirit in Jesus's life and our own; how we understand power and authority within the family of God; how we think about gender roles in light of how we understand the image of God; and what we can learn theologically from Indigenous and Pacifica perspectives.
Featured Resource
Discovering Biblical Equality: Biblical, Theological, Cultural, and Practical Perspectives (Chapter)
Download the full chapter, "Imago Dei and Divine Presence: A Critique of Gender Essentialism” (with gratitude to IVP), from Discovery Biblical Equality: Biblical, Theological, Cultural & Practical Perspectives (see below to purchase).
I wrote this chapter mainly to engage a theological paradigm that I believe has major weaknesses (hard gender essentialism). I seek to reframe how we think about our gendered bodies in light of the image of God which is an embodied reality. While I affirm the goodness of maleness and femaleness, such an affirmation is not nuanced enough to answer our questions about gender and gender identity. That is a much bigger conversation!
This chapter is my small contribution to that conversation and I would love for you to be able to read it for yourself. Click on the button to the left to download the chapter.
Studies in Christian Ethics (Journal Article)
Jesus, Agency, and the Life Led Well
In this article, I talk about our need to make volitional choices (have agency) and how we might think of Jesus's own human agency. In order to be the kinds of flourishing creatures I believe God intends for us to be, how we think of agency is critical.
God's Provision, Humanity's Need: The Gift of Our Dependence (Book)
In my first book, I was especially interested in finding a productive way of talking about what it means to be human that could be universally applicable and yet not undermine our particularities. I found a fruitful way to do this is through the concept of "fundamental need." In looking across the Protestant Christian canon, I propose what I believe this need is, and why this is significant theologically.
The Pacific Journal of Theological Research (Journal Article)
In this collaborative essay with a Samoan scholar, pastoral theologian, and systematic theologian, we engage how the Samoan concept of Ifoga might enrich our understanding of the atonement.
Perichoresis (Journal Article)
Did Jesus Need The Spirit? An Appeal For Pneumatic Christology to Inform Christological Anthropology
In this article, I explore some of the historical conceptions of Jesus's relation to the Spirit and bring this into conversation with my thinking on fundamental need. While I am not a historian, and would now nuance those sections a bit, I still find this a good overview of some of my thinking on Jesus, the Spirit, and being human.
Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible (Chapter)
Era of Kings: Huldah: Malfunction with the Wardrobe-Keeper’s Wife
I loved writing this book chapter during my Th.M. program and was honored to be trusted to handle the story of this remarkable and often unnoticed prophet--Huldah. As a contemporary of Jeremiah and Zephaniah, only Huldah is consulted when the Book of the Law is discovered by King Josiah (2 Kings 22 and 2 Chron 34). She is not consulted because good men were hard to find, but because she was trusted to speak for God.
Religious Studies (Journal Article)
This review article interacts with a stellar theologian, Joanna Leidenhag, while also being in dialogue with Māori scholar, Eugene Fuimaono. We look at the idea of panpsychism and think through its benefits, weaknesses, and possible synergies with Indigenous thought.
The Priscilla Papers (Journal Article)
Who’s in Charge? Questioning Our Common Assumptions About Spiritual Authority
I love that my first-ever academic article was co-written with my partner, Matthew. In this early work, we both sought to interrogate how we think about authority in light of the language given in the New Testament. So many of these early ideas have stayed with me as I continue to work on power and authority in the church today.
The Pacific Journal of Theological Research (Journal Article)
Autonomy and Flourishing: the Interplay of Divine and Human Freedom
In seeking to integrate a social psychological theory on human flourishing with how we conceive of God, this short article discusses the importance of understanding God's freedom to choose relationship with us for how we think of relating to God.