Speaker Biographies

Call for Papers

Scholars from all traditions have an opportunity to explore many dimensions of the oft-debated, yet influential, pietist heritage.

Deadline: November 1, 2008

+ Submit your proposal today.

Donald W. Dayton

Dr. Dayton has held positions in theology and church history at North Park University, Northern Baptist Seminary, Drew University, and Azusa Pacific University. Professor Dayton's work has focused on the influence of Pietism on American and Evangelical Christianity in an attempt to show the social and theological implications of the themes of Pietism for contemporary forms of Christianity. With over 150 works credited to his name as either editor or author, his most important works include Discovering an Evangelical Heritage, The Theological Roots of Pentecostalism, and The Variety of American Evangelicalism (edited with Robert K. Johnston).

Emilie Griffin

Emilie Griffin is a gifted author and retreat coordinator on issues of Christian spirituality. In 2006 she edited (with Peter Erb) The Pietists: Selected Writings. She is a member of the board of Renovaré, an infra-church movement committed to Christian renewal and has edited (with Richard Foster) Spiritual Classics, one of Renovaré's major works. Her recent titles include Small Surrenders: A Lenten Journey, Wonderful and Dark is This Road: Discovering the Mystic Path, and Doors into Prayer: An Invitation. She and her husband, William Griffin, were founding members of the Chrysostom Society, a national writers group. They are also on the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs and lecture frequently on C.S. Lewis.

Shirley Mullen

In June 2006 Dr. Mullen became the first woman to be named president of Houghton College. The previous five years she had served as provost of Westmont College, where she had long taught as professor of history (winning the Outstanding Teacher Award three times). A specialist in British intellectual history, she is the author of Organized Freethought: The Religion of Unbelief in Victorian England, as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Mullen has written and spoken extensively on issues of faith-learning integration, and she served a two-year term as president of the Conference on Faith and History.

Roger Olson

Dr. Olson is Professor of Theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University. He is the award-winning author of numerous books, including Reformed and Always Reforming: The Postconservative Approach to Evangelical Theology, as well as The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform, and 20th Century Theology: God and the World in a Transitional Age, for which he and co-author Stanley Grenz won Christianity Today's "Critics' Choice Award" for best book in biblical/theological studies. Dr. Olson is also a consulting editor for Christianity Today, a former editor of Christian Scholar's Review, and has contributed to The Christian Century, Books & Culture, and several other periodicals and journals.

Jonathan Strom

Educated at St. Olaf College, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago (Ph.D., 1996), Dr. Strom is Associate Professor of Church History and Acting Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. A specialist in confessionalization theory and the development of the Protestant clergy, he is the author of Orthodoxy and Reform: The Clergy in Seventeenth Century Rostock. Internationally recognized as an expert in Pietist studies, his current research focuses on the emergence of Pietism and the role of the clergy in early modern Germany.