Thanks for visiting our blog. We the writers for Christ and University come from a variety of academic and ecclesial backgrounds. What draws us together though is a commonly held concern for the Christian vocation of teaching and the passion for developing a consistently theological understanding of the purpose of university education. We invite you to join us in this conversation. Allow us to introduce ourselves:

Jack Baker, Ph.D.

Jack Ray Baker is an Assistant Professor of English at Spring Arbor University and a colleague of Jeffrey Bilbro. Baker hails from rural Shelby, Mich., earning his B. A. in Philosophy and Worldview studies from Cornerstone University, his M. A. in Medieval Studies from Western Michigan University, and his Ph. D. in English Language and Literature from Purdue University. His teaching is marked by his study of theology, the liberal arts, philosophy, the history of the English language, and the works of Wendell Berry and J. R. R. Tolkien. A sometime woodworker, his home is with his wife Kelly and their three wonderful children, Owen, Silvia, and Griffin.

Bethany Bear, Ph.D.

Bethany Bear is an Assistant Professor of English and Assistant Director of the Honors Program at the University of Mobile. In her doctoral work (Baylor University, 2012), she studied the influence of Samuel Taylor Coleridge on George MacDonald, a project that gave her an excuse to explore connections between some of her favorite things: fairy tales and parables, poetry and Scripture, literary traditions and the universal Church. She has published several articles on the relationship between literature and religion, and she is also interested in children’s books, allegorical traditions, and textiles in literature. She enjoys making a home for herself on the Alabama Gulf Coast, where the gardens grow year-round, and “safe harbor” is more than a metaphor.

Kyle David Bennett, Ph.D.

Kyle David Bennett is a recent PhD graduate from Fuller Seminary in philosophy of religion and philosophical theology. Before moving to NYC last year he taught philosophy at Azusa Pacific University and theology and ethics at Providence Christian College. He now teaches religion and philosophy in The King’s College online program. He lives in Hoboken, NJ with his wife, Andrea, and their daughter and son.

Megan Von Bergen, M.A.

Megan Von Bergen teaches writing and literature at Emmaus Bible College in northeast Iowa, where she moved after earning her degree from Kansas State University in 2010. Her academic work looks into how literary texts, especially T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets and C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, depict the human journey towards God. Her other academic interests include the medieval mystics (such as Julian of Norwich) and best practices in teaching composition. When she is not working, you can find her reading a good book, trying out a new recipe, or running. (She finished her first marathon in June 2014). She blogs at Goes Well With Wine.

Jeffrey Bilbro, Ph.D.

Jeffrey Bilbro is an Assistant Professor of English at Spring Arbor University in southern Michigan. He grew up in the mountainous state of Washington and earned his B.A. in Writing and Literature from George Fox University in Oregon and his Ph.D. in English from Baylor University. His first book, Loving God’s Wildness: The Christian Roots of Ecological Ethics in American Literature, considers how Christian theology shaped the way American authors imagined ethical ways of inhabiting the new world. He and Jack Baker have a book forthcoming from the University Press of Kentucky, An Education in the Virtues of Place: Wendell Berry and the University, that explores how Berry’s vision could shape a more healthy form of higher education, one that encourages students to live placed lives.

Daniel W. McClain, Ph.D. (ABD)

Dan McClain writes on Systematic and Historical Theology as they relate to Aesthetics, Education&Christian Formation, and Politics. He is currently completing a dissertation on education in St. Bonaventure’s manual for Franciscan preachers, the Breviloquium. He is also the Director of Program Operations for the Master of Theological Studies at Loyola University Maryland where he teaches on Creation and Evolution in Darwin and early Christian Hexaemeral Commentaries.

Matthew A. Moser, Ph.D.; Founding Editor

Matt Moser received his Ph.D. in Theology from Baylor University in 2013. An award winning professor, he currently is Visiting Assistant Professor of Theology at Loyola University Maryland. His larger intellectual project focuses on theological humanism, but he is currently writing on the intersection of religious epistemology, theological aesthetics, and Jesuit spirituality in the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar. He is also interested in the theology of the imagination, theologies of culture, and Greek patristics. Outside his academic work, he is a hiker, a pipe smoker, an incredibly amateur photographer, and pretty stiff competition at any number of board games.

Matthew Vest, Ph.D. (Doctoral Thesis Candidate)

Matthew Vest is the Assistant Director of Graduate Education at The Ohio State University Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities. After twelve years teaching humanities and Great Books on the secondary and post-secondary levels, he is now researching in bioethics and will soon complete a Fellowship in Bioethics at the OSU Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities (summer 2014). He has a M.A. from St. John’s College and is writing a dissertation on theology and bioethics with the University of Nottingham. He and his wife, Leah, are enthusiasts of endurance trail running and craft beer-both of which help them raise two rowdy boys. The Vests are members at St. Gregory of Nyssa Orthodox Church in Columbus, OH.

David M. Wilmington, Ph.D. (ABD)

Over the course of several lifetimes, David M. Wilmington has taught: music (saxophone and jazz band), high school English and Spanish, Shakespearean performance, middle school Language Arts, the history and appreciation of both jazz and tea, the Bible, a survey of Christian history and theology, and soccer (from 2nd grade through college). In addition to various teaching positions, he also has experience as a Network Engineer, jazz radio announcer, and independent filmmaker. He is currently finishing his PhD dissertation—on apophatic theology, virtues ethics, and Bonaventure—at Baylor University in Waco, Texas while teaching courses on Ancient and Medieval literary, philosophical, and theological traditions. In addition to his broad concerns about the role of Christian theology in shaping the character and future of the university, David is interested specifically in developing a model for intellectual and moral training shaped by music in general and jazz improvisation in particular. In addition to his family, he loves tea, Texas, Mexican food, and the novels of Patrick O’Brian and Douglas Adams.