DOUGLAS (JAKE) JACOBSEN

Messiah College
Grantham, PA 17027
717-766-2511
djacobse@messiah.edu

Douglas Jacobsen is Distinguished Professor of Church History and Theology and Co-ordinator of Christian Scholarship and College Identity at Messiah College, Grantham, PA. His research and writing has dealt with a number of topics including American religious history in general, Pentecostalism, Anabaptism, science and theology, the global history of Christianity and the place of faith in American higher education. His most recent publication is Scholarship and Christian Faith: Enlarging the Conversation (with Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen), Oxford Univ. Press (2004). He is a member of the United Church of Christ and serves on the Theological Commission of the UCC Penn Central Conference.

I. Education:

University of Chicago, Ph.D., Church History, 1983
University of Chicago, M.A., Religious Studies, 1977
Wheaton College, B.A., Philosophy, 1973

II. Teaching Positions:

Distinguished Professor of Church History and Theology, 2001-
Professor of Church History and Theology, Messiah College, 1994-2001
Associate Professor of Church History and Theology, Messiah College, 1988-1994
Assistant Professor of Church History and Theology, Messiah College, 1984-1988
Adjunct Professor, College of St. Francis, 1983
Visiting Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Illinois (Urbana), 1981-1982

III. Selected Publications:

Scholarship and Christian Faith: Enlarging the Conversation (with Rhonda H.
Jacobsen), (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Thinking in the Spirit: The Theologies of the Early Pentecostal Movement (Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 2003).

"Latter Rain Revival,"in Hans Hillerbrand, ed., Encyclopedia of Protestantism (New
York: Routledge, 2003)

"A United Church of Christ Response to ‘Word and Spirit, Church and World: The
Final Report of the International Dialogue between Representatives of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and Some Classical Pentecostal Churches and Leaders, 1996-2000,'"Pneuma 23:1 (Spring 2001).

"Multicultural Evangelical Hermeneutics and Ecumenical Dialogue," Journal of
Ecumenical Studies (Spring 2000).

"Pietism and the Postmodern Context of Ecumenical Dialogue," Ecumenical Trends 29:2 (February 2000)

"Anabaptist Autonomy, Evangelical Engulfment and Mennonite Mestizaje," in Gerald J. Biesecker-Mast and Susan L. Biesecker-Mast, Anabaptists and Postmodernity (Pandora Press, 2000).

"Knowing the Doctrines of Pentecostals: The Scholastic Theology of the Assemblies of God, 1930-55," in Edith L. Blumhofer, Russell P. Spittler and Grant A. Wacker, eds., Pentecostal Currents in American Protestantism (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999).

"The Civil Rights Movement," International Encyclopedia of the Church, Vol. I (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998).

Re-Forming the Center: American Protestantism 1900 to the Present (edited with
William Vance Trollinger, Jr.), (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998).

"Beyond the Culture War: The Mundane Wisdom of the Center." Christian Century 112:33 (November 15, 1995).

"The Calvinist-Arminian Dialectic in Evangelical Hermeneutics." Christian Scholar's Review 23 (September 1993), pp. 72-89.

"Historiography of American Protestantism: The Two-Party Paradigm, and Beyond." (co-author William Vance Trollinger, Jr.) Fides et Historia 25:3 (Fall 1993).

"Behind Orthodoxy and Beyond it: Recent Developments in Evangelical Christology." (co-author, Frederick Schmidt) Scottish Journal of Theology 45:4 (1992), pp. 514-41.

"American Puritanisms Observed: New England and New Jersey." New Jersey History 110 (Spring/Summer 1992), pp. 1-17.

'An Unprov'd Experiment': Religious Pluralism in Colonial New Jersey. (New York:
Carlson Press, 1991).

"College, Community, Atheism, and Ethics." (with Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen). Faculty Dialogue 15 (Fall 1991), pp. 63-82.

"From Truth to Authority to Responsibility: The Shifting Focus of Evangelical Hermeneutics, 1915-1986," in M. E. Marty, ed., Modern American Protestantism and its World: Volume 4. Theological Themes in the American Protestant World (Westport CT: Meckler, 1991).

"The Rise of Evangelical Hermeneutical Pluralism." Christian Scholar's Review 16:4 (July 1987), pp. 325-335.

"Conflict, Community, and Religious Affiliation in Colonial New Jersey," in M. R. Murrin, ed., Religion in New Jersey Life Before the Civil War (Trenton, NJ: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1985).

"Johann Bernard van Dieren: Peasant Preacher at Hackensack, New Jersey, 1726-1740." New Jersey History 100:3-4 (Fall/Winter 1982), pp. 15-30.

IV. Recent Academic Presentations:

Respondent, "Scholarship and Christian Faith: Enlarging the Conversation Review
Panel," Christianity and the Soul of the University, March 2004, Baylor University (Waco, TX).

Presenter, "The Art and Culture of Grant Wacker's Heaven Below," Annual Meeting
of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, March 2003 (Lexington, KY).

Presenter. "Inclusion or Interruption?: How Religious Diversity Expresses Itself in the
Classroom" (with Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen), Susquehanna University, Diversity Initiative Project, March 2003 (Selinsgrove, PA).

Presenter, "In Praise and Critique of Grant Wacker's Heaven Below," Seminar in American Religion, Cushwa Center, University of Notre Dame, April 2002.

Presenter, "The Ambivalent Ecumenical Impulse in Early Pentecostal Theology,"
Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, March 2002 (Lakeland, FL).

Presenter, "The Underdeveloped Empiricism of Early Pentecostal Theology with Comparative Reference to the Theology of Douglas Clyde MacIntosh," Pragmatism and Empiricism Group, Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, November 2001 (Denver, CO).

Keynote Speaker, " Sharing Faith: The Politics, Ethics and Etiquette of Evangelism in a Pluralistic World," Drew University Interfaith Community Forum, October 2001 (Madison, NJ).

Presenter, "‘We Cannot Make a Difference Between Flesh for We Be Brethren': The
Anti-Racist Theology of Bishop R. C. Lawson," Annual Meeting of the Society
for the Study of Pentecostalism, March 2001 (Tulsa, OK)

Keynote Speaker, "Off the Charts of Right and Left: New Space for Centrist Faith,"
McCormick Theological Seminary Symposium on the Church of the Left and
the Church of the Right, November 2000 (Chicago, IL).

Presenter, "Public School Virtues: The Religious Grounding of Ernest L. Boyer's Civic Faith," Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion,
October 2000 (Houston, TX).

Presenter, "The Nature and Significance of the Liberal-Conservative Divide in
American Protestantism," Consultation on Theology and the Divided Nature of
American Protestantism, The Johnson Foundation, May 2000 (Racine, WI).

Presenter, "A New Map of First Generation Pentecostal Theologies," Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Pentecostalism, March 2000 (Kirkland, WA).

Presenter, "Theology as Public Performance: Reflections on the Christian Convictions of Earnest L. Boyer, Jr.," Presidential Scholars Lecture Series, Messiah College, February 2000.

Presenter, "Pietism and the Post-Modern Context of Ecumencial Dialogue," Annual
Conference of the North American Academy of Ecumenists, September
1999 (Grantham, PA).

Presenter, "The Varieties of Protestant Centrism," Annual Meeting of the Society for
the Scientific Study of Religion, November 1998 (Montreal, Canada).

V. Other Academic Activities:

Consultation on the History of the World Christian Movement, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Orbis Books (1999-2003)

Science and Religion Program, The John Templeton Foundation (1997/1999)

Religion and Civil Discourse Project, Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith and Ethics (1997-1998)

Co-Director, "Christian Higher Education: Learning from Each Other,"funded by the
Lilly Endowment, Inc.(1998)

Evangelical Theology Group, American Academy of Religion (chair, 1995-8)

"Re-Forming the Center: Beyond the Two-Party System of American Protestantism," research project funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. (co-director, 1993-7).

"Models for Christian Higher Education: Strategies for Survival and Success," research project funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. (research partner, 1994-1995).

"Reclaiming the Center," planning grant funded by the Louisville Institute for the
Study of Protestantism and American Culture (co-director, 1991-992).

Bible in American Cultures Consultation, American Academy of Religion (chair, 1988-1991).

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