Our Faculty
John W. Eby, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology

Degrees:

M.S. and Ph.D. Cornell University 1970 and 1972

Major in Development Sociology

Minors in:

Planning Theory

Organizational Behavior and Social Action 

B.A. Eastern Mennonite College 1962

Major in Chemistry

 

Dr. Eby blends a career in academic administration and teaching with service and leadership  in church related mission, service, and community development organizations. He has taught sociology, ethics  and business courses, served as an academic Dean and chaired sociology and business departments at several colleges. He is co-author of "Business Through the Eyes of Faith" which has been used as a text at a number of Christian colleges and universities and has been translated into five languages.   He directed a community development program in Botswana, Africa for three years and has served in administrative positions in mission and service organizations and on a number of national and local boards working with international mission, social and economic development, social service, ministries with persons with  disabilities and programs for the elderly.

 

At Messiah College he helped develop the Agape Center for Service and Learning and served as its first director. He has been involved nationally in Service-Learning through speaking, consulting and writing and began a national conference on Service-Learning for Faith Based Colleges and Universities which is held every other year at Messiah College. He is a Fellow in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

 

Currently his favorite courses are "Created and Called for Community" which is the course all first year students take which introduces them to the faith and theological foundations of the college and "Social Conflict, Justice and Peacemaking," which includes a section on  conflict transformation. His on-going interests relate to exploring the nexus between Christian Faith and culture and in the role of the church in working for social justice and in serving the needs of persons on the margins of society. He  is grandpa to four energetic grandsons and active in the Slate Hill Mennonite Church.

Courses: Introduction to Sociology, Social Conflict, Justice and Peacemaking, Quantitative Research and Statistics, Created and Called for Community