About the Authors in Special Issue
About the Authors
Sunday Bobai Agang lives and works in Nigeria. Agang is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics Theology and Public Policy. Agang is a onetime Academic Dean of one of Africa’s premier theological seminaries ECWA Theological Seminary Jos (JETS) and currently the President/Provost of ECWA Theological Seminary Kagoro
(ETSK) in Nigeria. Agang holds a BA in Pastoral Theology (JETS) MDiv (Palmer Theological Seminary Philadelphia Pennsylvania) and PhD in Christian Ethics and Theology of Public Policy (Fuller Theological Seminary Pasadena California) under the mentorship of Professors Glen Harold Stassen and Colin Brown. He has published several articles on various theological issues and is a regular contributor to Christianity Today. An ordained minister with the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) as well as a member of the Institute of Global Engagements he is the founder and chair of the International Foundation for Entrepreneurship Education (IFEE) and cofounder and vice president of Gantys Aids to Widows Orphans and the Needy (GAWON). Agang is a just peacemaking advocate. His areas of research are the impact of religious violence the history of Christian peacemaking in Nigeria from Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther to date and the impact of public policy on church and society.
Agnes Chiu is a PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena California originally under the mentorship of Glen Stassen. As she studied in the masters program at Fuller Stassen inspired her and invited her to apply for the PhD program to study Christian Ethics. As a practicing employment law attorney and a native of Hong Kong her dissertation topic is on employment eth
ics comparing Abraham Kuyper and Pope Leo XIII in the formation of a paradigm applicable to the Chinese migrant workers’ employment issues. Since the death of Dr. Stassen she has been mentored by Richard Mouw at Fuller Theological Seminary
Elie Haddad is the President of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) in Beirut Lebanon. Born and raised in Lebanon Elie immigrated to Canada where he lived for 15 years and worked in Information Systems and Management Consulting. During his work Elie felt called to ministry and enrolled in the Masters of Theological Studies program at Tyndale Seminary. Elie returned with his wife to Lebanon in 2005 as Global Field Staff with Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM) and has been serving at ABTS ever since. He is currently completing his PhD in Missional Ecclesiology at the International Baptist Theological Study Centre at the Free University in Amsterdam.
Emily J. Choge Kerama is a senior lecturer at Moi University in Eldoret Kenya. She obtained her PhD in Christian Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2004 where she studied under Glen H. Stassen. The Stassens’ home was her first home in the United States when she arrived in 1998. The members of the Stassen family Dot and David have shared their home with her several times—including while she was writing this article. She co-authored with Glen Stassen the entry “Social Ethics” in The Global Dictionary of Theology. She wrote “Hospitality in Africa” in the Africa Bible Commentary and “Refugees Reconciliation and Hospitality” in the Dictionary of Missions Theology: Evangelical Foundations.
She chairs Uasin Gishu Children’s FORUM an organization that brings together all the organizations that work with vulnerable children in Eldoret Kenya. She is also the chairperson of the Advisory Board of BethanyKids an NGO that helps children with disabilities to access medical care. She is a founding member of African Christian Initiation Program (ACIP) a community-based program that helps young people transition from childhood to adulthood without falling into the ravages of drug abuse HIV/AIDS and negative peer pressure.
Jiyong Lee was one of the last PhD candidates in Christian Ethics mentored by Glen Stassen at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena California. He earned a BA in Theology from Yonsei University in Seoul Korea and holds a Master of Divinity with a special emphasis in Christian Ethics from Methodist Theological University in Seoul Korea. He also earned an STM (Master of Sacred Theology) from Yale Divinity School where he studied the relationship between agape love and justice. His dissertation research focuses on the public theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr. He is an ordained pastor in the Korean Methodist Church and he founded Pacific Methodist Church in Seoul Korea where he served for five years as a senior pastor. He also been a guest preacher for several churches in Korea and the United States.
Parush R. Parushev has a BS/ MS and PhD (Scs) from Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies Mechanics and Optics in Russia; an MDiv from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Kentucky; and a PhD (Th) from Fuller Theological Seminary in California. He is a native of Sofia Bulgaria. He is an ordained Baptist minister. Currently he is the Vice Rector of the International Baptist Theological Study Centre in Amsterdam the Netherlands the Director of the Institute for Systematic Studies of Contextual Theologies at IBTS Centre and the Director of IBTS of the EBF Prague. He is also a senior faculty member at the Free University in Amsterdam and of the Saint Trivelius Higher Divinity School in Sofia. He teaches theology philosophy and ethics. He is currently serving on the editorial boards of the Journal of European Baptist Studies (Prague Czech Republic) Journal of Baptistic Theologies (Prague
Czech Republic) IBTS Occasional Publications and Research Publications Series Theologica Wratislaviensia (Wroclaw Poland) and Jurnal Teologic (Bucharest Romania). He is an author co-author and co-editor of several books and has published a number of academic works in science and theology.
Fyodor Raychynets is the dean of the postgraduate studies program of the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary (Kiev). He is also a Baptist pastor and a member of the steering committee of the Euro-Asian Accrediting Association. He earned degrees from Regional Bible Institute (Polyana Ukraine) Evangelical Theological Seminary (Osijek Croatia) and the MTh in Biblical Studies (University of Wales). He is a PhD candidate at the International Baptist Theological Seminary Prague Czech Republic. He has been a lecturer or dean at Saint James Bible College Kiev Ukraine; Christian Bible College Belaya Tserkov Ukraine; Bible College Tashkent Uzbekistan; Sarajevo Bible Institute in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary; Donetsk Christian University; Lviv Theological Seminary; Kiev Theological Seminary; Slavic Christian Educational Center
Seattle Washington and Slavic Theological Seminary Mukilteo Washington (USA).
He has published articles in English Ukrainian and Russian. He lives with his wife and children in Kiev.
Laura Rector holds an advanced MDiv from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville Kentucky and a BA in Christian Studies from Union University in Jackson Tennessee. She was one of Glen’s last PhD candidates in Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary where she will defend the dissertation she wrote about children’s human rights under Glen’s mentor-ship in front of David Gushee this month. Glen once told her that she had been his TA more than any other student. She now serves as a member of the adjunct faculty at Fuller Theological Seminary. In the past she was a lecturer at Loyola Marymount University and visiting instructor of Christian Ethics at the Southern Philippines Baptist Theological Seminary. She has taught homeless preschoolers and served in cross-cultural ministries in the United States and various countries in Asia. She has published about 45 articles with Associated Baptist Press Ethics Daily and others and she wrote the chapters titled “Children” in A New Evangelical Manifesto: A Kingdom Vision for the Common Good edited by David Gushee (Saint Louis: Chalice Press 2012) and “Delivering Love” in Ethics As If Jesus Mattered: Essays in Honor of Glen Harold Stassen edited by Rick Axtell Michelle Tooley and Michael Westmoreland-White (Macon GA: Smyth & Helwys 2014).
Peter Sensenig was born in Swaziland southern Africa to Mennonite missionary parents. He spent part of his childhood in Mogadishu Somalia before his family moved to Lancaster Pennsylvania. He earned a BA in Culture Religion and Mission from Eastern Mennonite University in
Harrisonburg Virginia (2005). He also holds a Master of
Divinity from Palmer Theological Seminary in Wynnewood Pennsylvania (2008) and a PhD in Theology (Christian ethics concentration) from Fuller Theological Seminary (2013) under the direction of Glen Stassen. He is an ordained minister in the Mennonite Church USA.
Sensenig has taught at the University of Djibouti Fuller Seminary and Underwood
University (Atlanta GA). He was the Wilberforce Scholar for Faith and Public Policy at Palmer Seminary (2005-2008) and a Max De Pree Fellow at Fuller Seminary (20112012). He was also the founding associate director of the Fuller Just Peacemaking Initiative from 20102012 working closely with Stassen to increase the influence of just peacemaking practices. Sensenig has published and presented in the areas of Christian ethics just peacemaking and religious leadership. He is married to Christy Harrison and has one son Moses. In 2015 Sensenig will begin teaching peacebuilding at the University of Hargeisa Somaliland.
Jesse Wheeler is Projects Manager for the Institute of Middle East Studies (IMES) at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) in Beirut Lebanon. In addition to providing administrative support for IMES Jesse directs the Middle East Immersion (MEI Lebanon) summer internship program and acts as managing editor for the IMES blog (IMESLebanon.wordpress.com). Jesse holds a Master of Divinity with special emphasis in Islamic Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts in History specializing in international and Middle Eastern history with a minor in Political Economics from the University of California Berkeley.
Paulus Sugeng Widjaja lives in Jogjakarta Indonesia where he teaches courses related to Ethics and Peace Studies and serves as Director of the Postgraduate Studies
Program at Duta Wacana Christian University. Widjaja has a BTh from Duta Wacana School of Theology a Master of Arts in Peace Studies from the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries in Elkhart Indiana and a PhD in Christian Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary. While at Fuller Widjaja was awarded the Harold Stassen Fellowship and served as Glen Stassen’s teaching assistant. Widjaja is an adjunct faculty member of the Center for Religious and Crosscultural Studies at Gadjah Mada University in Jogjakarta Indonesia and a member of the academic council of the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies. He is the president of Muria Christian Church Synod one of the three Mennonite synods in Indonesia and is the chairperson of the Mennonite World Conference Peace Commission. Widjaja’s PhD dissertation was published in 2010 under the title Character Formation and Social Transformation: An Appeal to the Indonesian Churches Amidst the So-called Chinese Problem (Saarbrucken Germany: VDM Verlag
Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. 2010) while the book Culture of Peace: God’s Vision for The Church (Intercourse PA: GoodBooks 2005) that Widjaja co-wrote with Alan and Eleanor Kreider was chosen for the 2006 Mennonite World Conference Shelf. He has published numerous articles related to peacemaking. He is married to Janti Diredja the lead pastor of the Mennonite Church in Jogjakarta and they have two children Adira Paramitha Wijaya and Aditya Mahardhika Wijaya.
Peter Zvagulis is a senior media analysis lecturer at Charles University (CIEE program) in Prague; he also teaches media communication at the University of New York in Prague. He recently earned his PhD in Applied Theology at IBTS/University of Wales thus becoming the last graduating student of Glen Stassen. He has studied Linguistics and Pedagogy at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the University of Latvia where in 1978 he was awarded the MA? (nos-trified as Mgr. by Charles University
in 2013). His other academic endeavors have been in History of Philosophy and Communication. His early professional career was related to translating classical French philosophers and researching medieval French philosophy at the Academy of Sciences of Latvia. He also had a long journalism career gradually building professional experience from freelance reporter to Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Radio Free Europe service broadcasting to Latvia. The sociological part of his doctoral thesis which he wrote under the supervision of Glen Stassen and Parush Parushev has been accepted for teaching and research purposes by both universities where he is teaching. It also has served for two EU government-funded studies investigating the role of media in exciting ethnic tensions. Peter and his family are part of the community that is continuing the Sharka Valley Community Church tradition in Prague after the departure of IBTS to Amsterdam.
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