Co-hosts Jon Stovell and Candace Smith speak with Matthew Croasmun about his research and writing, including his new book, co-authored with Miroslav Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most (The Open Field, 2023).

Matthew is the director of the Life Worth Living program at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, a lecturer in humanities at Yale College, and the faith initiative director at Grace Farms Foundation. He is the author of The Emergence of Sin and Let Me Ask You a Question.

Co-host Beth Stovell speaks with Meghan Henning and Nils Neumann about their research and writing, including their new book, Vivid Rhetoric and Visual Persuasion: Ekphrasis in Early Christian Literature (Eerdmans, 2024).

Meghan Henning is associate professor of Christian origins at the University of Dayton. Her previous books include Educating Early Christians through the Rhetoric of Hell and Hell Hath No Fury: Gender, Disability, and the Invention of Damned Bodies in Early Christianity.

Nils Neumann is professor of biblical theology at Leibniz University Hannover. His previous books include Armut und Reichtum im Lukasevangelium und in der kynischen Philosophie and Lukas und Menippos.

Co-hosts Candace Smith and Jon Stovell speak with Catherine Meeks about her research and writing, including her new book, A Quilted Life: Reflections of a Sharecropper's Daughter (Eerdmans, 2024).

Catherine Meeks recently retired as executive director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing. She is also the retired Clara Carter Acree Distinguished Professor of Socio-Cultural Studies at Wesleyan College. A sought-after teacher and workshop leader, Dr. Meeks works with people who have been marginalized because of economic status, race, gender, or physical ability as they pursue liberation, justice, and a more abundant life.

Co-hosts Beth and Jon Stovell speak with Jennifer Powell McNutt and David W. McNutt about their research and writing, including their new book, Know the Theologians (Zondervan, 2024).

Jennifer Powell McNutt (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is the Franklin S. Dyrness Chair of Biblical and Theological Studies and Associate Professor of Theology and History of Christianity at Wheaton College, Fellow in the Royal Historical Society, award-winning author and professor, and Reformation scholar. David W. McNutt (PhD, University of Cambridge) is Senior Acquisitions Editor of Theology for Zondervan Academic with HarperCollins, Lecturer in Core Studies at Wheaton College, and Theology and the Arts scholar. Both are ordained ministers in the Presbyterian Church and co-founders of McNuttshell Ministries, which seeks to bridge the church and the academy with faith in a nutshell.

Co-hosts Jon Stovell and Candace Smith speak with Rick Ostrander about his research and writing, including his new book, Academically Speaking: Lessons from a Life in Christian Higher Education (Eerdmans, 2024).

Dr. Rick Ostrander is Executive Director of the Michigan Christian Study Center. He holds a doctorate in American History from the University of Notre Dame. He also holds a master’s degree in history from the University of Notre Dame, a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor’s degree in theology from Moody Bible Institute.

As a scholar of American religion and an academic administrator, Dr. Ostrander maintains an active interest in Christian higher education. His publications include The Life of Prayer in a World of Science (Oxford, 2001), Head, Heart, Hand: John Brown University and Evangelical Higher Education (University of Arkansas, 2003), and “Spirituality and the Discipline of History,” in Searching for Spirituality in Higher Education (Peter Lang, 2007). A Fulbright Scholar to Germany in 2004, Dr. Ostrander complements his interest in American higher education with an active interest in global affairs and international education.

Dr. Ostrander’s book, Why College Matters to God: Academic Faithfulness and Christian Higher Education, was published in 2009 by Abilene Christian University Press and revised in 2012. It is one of the leading texts used by Christian college and universities for first-year seminars and new faculty orientations.

Rick and his wife Lonnie have four children. He is an avid cyclist who logs thousands of miles a year on his road bike.

Co-hosts Candace Smith and Jon Stovell speak with Debra J. Mumford about her research and writing, which focuses on African American Prophetic Preaching, Prosperity Preaching, Eschatology and the Reign of God, and preaching and health.

Debra J. Mumford, is ordained minister in American Baptist Churches, USA and affiliate minister with the Alliance of Baptists. She joined the Louisville Seminary faculty in 2007. She majored in mechanical engineering at Howard University and worked in engineering before answering her call to ministry. Mumford served as a youth pastor, associate minister and church administrator in several congregations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her scholarly interests include African American prophetic preaching, prosperity preaching, eschatology and the reign of God, and preaching and health.

Mumford’s publications include Exploring Prosperity Preaching: Biblical Health, Wealth, & Wisdom, Judson Press; “Slave Prosperity Gospel” for Homiletic; “The Gospel of Prosperity: Jesus, Capitalism and Hope” in Homiletical Theology: Theologies of the Gospel in Context, forthcoming; The Journal for the Society of Pentecostal Studies; “Preaching on Homosexuality in the Black Church” for the African American Lectionary; “Preaching and Plagiarism” for The Presbyterian Leader; “Prosperity Preaching and African American Prophetic Preaching” for the Review and Expositor: A Consortium Baptist Theological Journal; “Trayvon Martin: A Tragic Catalyst for Change” and “Obamacare: the Good, the Bad, and the Hope for the Future” for The Thoughtful Christian.

Since 2008, Mumford has served as a mentor for the Louisville Youth Group, a grassroots organization that provides resources and a safe space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people ages 14 to 20.

Co-hosts Claudia Herrera-Montero and Kevin Hill speak with Christopher M. Hays about his new book, Eight Million Exiles: Missional Action Research and the Crisis of Forced Migration (Eerdmans, 2024).

Christopher joined Scholar Leaders as President in 2022 after serving as a missionary and professor of New Testament at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia in Medellín. A Biblical scholar committed to the transformation of theological knowledge into missional practice, he has worked in projects ranging from authoring scholarly volumes to establishing church-based ministries to victims of forced migration. He holds degrees from Wheaton and Oxford. His most recent book in English is Eight Million Exiles. He and his wife Michelle have three children and live in North Carolina.

Co-host Kevin Hill and guest co-host Ross Von Hausen speak with Alan J. Torrance and Andrew B. Torrance about their new book, Beyond Immanence: The Theological Vision of Kierkegaard and Barth (Eerdmans, 2023).

Alan J. Torrance is professor emeritus of systematic theology at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of Persons in Communion: Trinitarian Description and Human Participation. He has also edited The Doctrine of God and Theological Ethics (with Michael Banner) and Scripture's Doctrine: Studies on the New Testament's Normativity for Christian Dogmatics (with Markus Bockmuehl).

Andrew B. Torrance is a senior lecturer in theology at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of The Freedom to Become a Christian: A Kierkegaardian Account of Human Transformation in Relationship with God. He has also edited several volumes, including Knowing Creation and Christ and the Created Order: Perspectives from Theology, Philosophy, and Science (with Thomas H. McCall) and Soren Kierkegaard: Theologian of the Gospel (with Greg Marcar and Todd Speidell).