Alex Jean-Charles

Dr. Alex Jean-Charles earned his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, with a focus on Educational Technology, Technology Studies, and Progressive Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Jean-Charles has conducted research on black youth in the Chicago area. In that study, he examined how technology (as an autonomous object of control) that is used to oppress can also be the technology (as a neutral tool, artifact, and art) used to liberate those who are oppressed or marginalized. His research interests include the use of technology in education. More specifically, how technology influences identity formation in educational settings. He is also interested in exploring the design of immersive digital environments for teaching, learning, and assessment. Dr. Jean-Charles is a vice president for the International Association of Educators. He is also the Editing Manager for the International Journal of Progressive Education.

Cody J. Sanders

The Rev. Cody J. Sanders, Ph.D., is associate professor of congregational and community care leadership at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, MN. Prior to Luther he served as the pastor to Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, American Baptist Chaplain to Harvard University, and Advisor for LGBTQ+ Affairs in the Office of Religious, Spiritual, and Ethical Life at MIT. He is a pastoral theologian with teaching and research interests in the areas of LGBTQIA pastoral care and counseling, death and dying, corpse care and natural burial, narrative therapeutic theory, and practical theological approaches to care in the Anthropocene.

Dr. Sanders has also taught courses in pastoral care and counseling at the Center for Chaplaincy Studies, Andover Newton Theological School, Fordham University, and Brite Divinity School. He serves as a Faculty Advisor in the International Diploma Program in Social Construction and Professional Practice at the Taos Institute and as an Andover Newton Fellow at Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School.

Monya Stubbs

Monya A. Stubbs holds a bachelors degree from Spelman College, Atlanta, GA. She holds the MTS degree and Ph.D in New Testament Studies and Early Christianity from Vanderbilt University. Stubbs is the author of Indebted Love: Paul’s Subjection Language in Romans (Wipf & Stock, 2013) and co-author of A Contextual Introduction to the Gospel of Matthew and its Readings (Abingdon Press, 2003). Her published essays include works on “Romans” (in Navigating Romans Through History, T&T Clark, 2004), “Philippians” (in True to Our Native Land, Fortress Press, 2007), “1 Thessalonians” (in Women’s Bible Commentary, Westminster John Knox Press, 2012) “1 and 2 Corinthians” (in Covenant Bible Study, Abingdon Press, 2014) and “John” (in Feasting on the Gospels, Westminster John Knox Press, 2015).

Reginald Williams, Jr.

Dr. Williams is a highly motivated servant seeking to bridge gaps between academy, sanctuary, and the streets in an effort to serve God’s people in the prophetic tradition of Black Church and Black people. Affirming and employing everything from holy texts, to hymns to hip hop, Dr. Williams preaches, teaches, and serves through a spiritually centered and culturally relevant praxis. Whether engaging in constructing social justice ministries, or the construction of sermons, his focus centers around a theology of authenticity which grounds one in their story in order that they may stand in their person and for their people!

“So often in public and private spaces, we are told and taught to be something other than that which we are. These standards and expectations have served in society to limit and even lock up people, instead of liberating them to be free. I understand education as a pathway to liberation. In my class, it is important that students understand that they have permission from the Creator to come fully as themselves, in partnership with others as we journey together in a spirit of Ubuntu.”

“Give light, and the people will find a way” ~Ella Baker~

“There is in you something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself…” ~Howard Thurman~

Teresa J. Hornsby

Dr. Teresa J. Hornsby is Professor Emerita of Religion at Drury University. Dr. Hornsby holds the MTS degree from Harvard Divinity School, and the MA and Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from Vanderbilt University. Her most recent book, Transgender, Intersex, and Biblical Interpretation, co-authored with Deryn Guest, was published in July 2016. She is a co-editor (with Ken Stone) of Bible Trouble: Queer Reading at the Boundaries of Biblical Scholarship, and author of Sex Texts from the Bible, as well as numerous essays, chapters, and encyclopedia entries. When she isn’t teaching or writing, Dr. Hornsby codes, plays drums, restores old drum kits, and brews beer.

Cynthia Stewart

Dr. Cynthia Stewart is an Affiliated Assistant Professor of Church History. Her M.A. and PhD. From Vanderbilt focused on the history of Christian thought, particularly on heretical thought; Dr. Stewart says that she has always had an affinity with people running around doing whatever they weren’t supposed to do. Her research interests have led to work in world religions, sacred texts and mysticism. Dr. Stewart also works in ministry and has served as a chaplain in both prison and hospital settings, and has particular interest in issues of death and dying, moral injury, and transformative community.

Michael Montgomery

Professor Michael Montgomery is an accredited interim minister in the United Church of Christ and has served churches in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. He has also served as the site manager for a housing shelter for people who are homeless for twelve years.

In addition to his work with congregations. Dr. Montgomery has served Chicago Theological Seminary as a Fellow in the PhD program and adjunct professor since 2003.  He has taught or lectured at Trinity Christian College, Philips Theological Seminary, Liverpool Hope University, Ripon College, Cuddlesdon (Univeristy of Oxford), and the Programme for Theolgoical Education at Manchester, U.K. His research interests include church revitalization strategies, contemporary ecclesiology and congregational studies.

Seung Ai Yang

Professor Yang’s research deals with the value of using diverse methods and lenses in biblical interpretation. Her work pays special attention to the convoluted role of biblical interpretation related to the several binary “isms” in our society, which divide people into the superior in-group and the “inferior” other.

Professor Yang’s teaching areas include the Synoptic Gospels, Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics, Biblical Languages, Second Temple Judaism, and the Hebrew Bible. She believes that a proper use of multiple interpretive methods and lenses will lead the reader in multifaceted ways to hear the essential biblical call for justice and peace.  From this vantage point, Yang is currently working on a research project that examines the notion of the “other” in the Bible.

“Raised in a society which was nurtured by Confucian wisdom traditions, I believe that the ultimate purpose of learning is to bring peace to the world.  As a Christian, however, I interpret bringing peace to the world from the perspective of establishing the reign of God. Therefore, for seminarians I explicitly relate biblical studies to Christian life and ministry, while for all other graduate students I relate biblical studies to responsible citizenship and commitment to the betterment of society.”

Susan B. Thistlethwaite

The Reverend Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, PhD is Professor of Theology Emerita and President Emerita at CTS. She was President of the seminary from 1998-2008. Upon completing two five-year terms as President, she returned to full-time teaching on the seminary faculty. She has a PhD from Duke University, a Masters of Divinity (Summa Cum Laude) from Duke Divinity School and a BA from Smith College. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ since 1974, she is the author or editor of numerous books and has been a translator for two different translations of the Bible.

Thistlethwaite has been a frequent media commentator on religion and public events. She has written for the Washington Post On Faith section as well as for the Huffington Post and the Chicago Tribune. She currently writes for her local newspaper. She is the author or editor of 13 academic books and since retiring from Chicago Theological Seminary she has written five novels.

Some of her best known academic works include Lift Every Voice: Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside with Mary Potter Engel (Orbis, 1998), Sex, Race and God: Christian Feminism in Black and White (reprinted, 2009), Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States with Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock (Fortress, 1996), The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Translation (Oxford University Press, 1995) and Interfaith Just Peacemaking: Jewish, Chritian and Muslim Perspectives on the New Paradigm of Peace and War (Palgrave Macmillan 2011).

She has been a Fellow of the Center for American Progress Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative, and she has served as a trustee of Faith in Public Life, and the Interfaith Youth Core.

JoAnne Marie Terrell

Professor Terrell’s current research interests are interreligious in scope, and focus on soteriological principles in Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity, the genre of spiritual autobiography, and the power of the visual and performing arts to effect personal, social, and cosmic transformation.

“The world’s unfolding narrative reveals too many burdensome predicaments that wreak personal, familial, social, and cosmic destruction, strain belief, challenge religious communities and demand prophetic witness. As a black, womanist, spiritually eclectic theologian, my response has been to delve into the sustaining theological traditions, look to the arts, privilege creativity in the classroom and utilize drama as public pedagogy. I have done so for as long as I have been a teacher, because I understand that through art the Ineffable can be broached and push us towards new thoughts, new habits, new ways of being with and for each other. Despite the wretched conditions humankind continuously faces, I believe in the beauty that is, and it is my scholarly and pastoral duty to pursue and find it.”