JOEL B.G. LOOPER

A dynamic communicator and impassioned writer and researcher with more than a decade of teaching experience at the secondary and collegiate levels, I strive to impart the desire necessary for lifelong learning to students from every background. 

EDUCATION                 

Ph.D. in Divinity from the University of Aberdeen (Scotland)                                 2019

Dissertation: What Dietrich Bonhoeffer Saw in America

M.A. in Theology from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Mass.)                  2010

M.A. in New Testament from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Mass.)     2010

 B.A. in English (Writing) from Taylor University (Ind.)                                           2005

EMPLOYMENT                     

Adjunct Professor at Baylor University                                                        August 2019 to Present

Teaches World Cultures I and III in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core               

 Shalom Mission Communities Denominational Coordinator                    February 2019 to Present

 Manages SMC’s finances, plans churches’ biennial reunion, coordinates              

  denominational projects, and edits denominational newsletter

 Freelance Editor for Joel Looper Editing Services                                        March 2020 to Present

 Edits books, articles, and dissertations                                                                                        

Grade 10 and 11 Teacher at Live Oak Classical School                                July 2015 to May 2018

Taught literature and writing as well as Christian theology and world religion      

 Grade 6 Core Teacher at Live Oak Classical School                                     July 2011 to July 2017

 Taught literature, grammar, writing, and religion and led grade 6 team        

  Administrative Assistant in Baylor University’s Academic Support          August 2010 to July 2011

  Performed administrative tasks and rewrote the department’s literature                     

   Staff Writer at the Daily Reporter, Coldwater, MI                                       Sept. 2005 to April 2006

   Wrote ten articles per week on city events, sports, and other events         

BOOKS                  Bonhoeffer’s America: A Land Without Reformation, 

(Waco: TX: Baylor University Press, 2021). 

In this book on theologian and anti-Nazi conspirator Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s trips to America, a provocative mix of history and theology helps the reader rethink the church’s place in today’s society. 

EDITED                    “Theological Engagements” in the T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Christian Theology

VOLUMES                                                  (London: T&T Clark, forthcoming).

ACADEMIC           • “The American Appropriation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Legacy,” The Journal of the 

ARTICLES                                American Academy of Religion, (forthcoming).

• “Reading the Luther Bible with Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” The Bonhoeffer Legacy 7, no

2, (forthcoming 2021). 

• “How Would Dietrich Bonhoeffer Vote?” in The God Beat, 

ed. Costica Bradatan and Ed Simon (Minneapolis: Broadleaf, 2021).

• “Renarrating the History and Etiology of American Protestantism with Dietrich

Bonhoeffer,” The Bonhoeffer Legacy 5, no 1, (2018). 

ARTICLES                               

The AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING COMPANY

• “The Logical—and Theological—Problem with Red Letter Christians,” (May 5, 2020). 

• “Jordan Peterson is Wrong About Identity Politics: It Came Not from Marxism, but Christianity,” (August 31, 2018). 

• “Sex was Never Safe: Why Consent is Not Enough in the Post-Weinstein Era,” (March 12, 2018). 

• “Can ‘Gentle Ethnocentrism’ Remain Gentle? Richard Rorty and Our Political Crisis,” (November 23, 2016). 

 The LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS

• “How Would Bonhoeffer Vote?” (July 31, 2019).

•      Bonhoeffer Co-Opted.” Rev. of Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Charles Marsh, (September 10, 2014).

   ARC DIGITAL (selected)

• “The Beirut Explosion and the Dangers of Ammonium Nitrate” (August 5, 2020).

• “COVID-19 Will Ravage Immigration Detention Centers” (March 26, 2020).

• “How to Avert a Trump-Created Humanitarian Crisis in El Salvador” (February 28, 2019).

• “Liberty University Theology,” (February 17, 2019).

• “To Change the Church: Ross Douthat’s War with Catholic Liberalism,” (May 30, 2018).

• “The Irony of Trump,” (March 14, 2017).

• “An American Reichstag Fire,” (February 13, 2017).

OTHER NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES (selected)

• “Scapegoating, Responsibility, and Neighborly Love in the Plague,” Sojourners, 

(March 30, 2020).

• “Mental Illness in Light of the Theophany Icon,” Church Life Journal, (August 5, 2019). 

• “Will Love Cast Out Fear? The Syrian Refugees and Christian America,” The Other Journal, (March 31, 2016). 

• “Why We Should All Practice Confession,” Relevant Magazine, (August 19, 2015). 

• “Fear from the Pulpit: Is it Driving Millennials Away?,” PARSE from Leadership Journal, (January 20, 2015).  

REGULAR                                • Arc Digital                            

CONTRIBUTOR                    • The Washington Independent Review of Books

TO THESE                               • Publishers Weekly 

REVIEWS &

MAGAZINES

LANGUAGES                          

• Koine (New Testament) and Attic versions of ancient Greek (High reading fluency)

• German (High reading fluency)

AFFILIATIONS                    

 • Senior Fellow in Theology at the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute (Washington D.C.)

 • Member of the American Academy of Religion

 • Member of the International Bonhoeffer Society

 • Member of the Society for Classical Learning