Dr. Armour's research interests are in feminist theology, theories of sexuality, race, gender, disability and embodiment, and contemporary continental philosophy. She is the author of Deconstruction, Feminist Theology, and the Problem Of Difference: Subverting the Race/Gender Divide (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999) and co-editor of Bodily Citations: Judith Butler and Religion (Columbia University Press, 2006). Her current book project, tentatively entitled Signs and Wonders: Theology After Modernity , will diagnose and craft a theological response to the shifts in our understanding of "man" and "his" others (sexed/raced, animal, and divine) as modernity declines.

Joseph A. Bracken, S.J., Emeritus Professor of Theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, received his Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg in Germany in 1968 and taught at Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois (1968-1974), and at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1974-1982) before becoming Chairman of the Theology Department at Xavier in 1982.    He has published 10 books and roughly 90 articles in academic journals in the general area of philosophical theology/philosophy of religion. Recent books include Christianity and Process Thought published by Templeton Foundation Press in 2006, God: Three Who Are One published by Liturgical Press in 2008, and Subjectivity, Objectivity and Intersubjectivity: A New Paradigm for Religion and Science to be published by Templeton Foundation Press in 2009.

As a professor of the History of Christianity at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University), Esther seeks to engage cultural contexts of different times and places, particularly in the early modern period in order to understand notions of tradition, change and progress. More specifically, her current research examines the problem of religious authority during the European Reformation. Her forthcoming book Interpreting a New Ancient Tradition (forthcoming, 2010) examines patristic authorities in the midst of debates over the biblical interpretations of the Eucharist.

She is interested in the Transforming Theology conference because it promises to be a forum for addressing the meta questions about the future waves of theology that hope to make a splash and for urging changes through a collaborative enterprise that includes leaders in the church and the academy; and more specifically she hopes to discuss and clarify the role and the future of historical theology in the enterprise of transforming and constructive theologies.

John B. Cobb, Jr. was born in Japan of Methodist missionary parents in 1925. His work in the army in the Second World War was with Japanese language. He used his GI bill to study at the University of Chicago, mainly in the Divinity School. He remains loyal to the "neo-naturalism" of the "Chicago School," and especially to its Whiteheadian version, which he promotes through the Center for Process Studies. This enables him as a theologian to engage critically with the sciences, economics, a public policy--e.g., For the Common Good with Herman Daly, and The Liberation of Life with Charles Birch. He also writes on more narrowly theological topics -- e.g., Christ in a Pluralistic Age, and is interested in helping lay people think theologically -- e.g., Becoming a Thinking Christian.

Harvey Cox is Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard, where he has been teaching since 1965, both at HDS and in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. An American Baptist minister, he was the Protestant chaplain at Temple University and the director of religious activities at Oberlin College; an ecumenical fraternal worker in Berlin; and a professor at Andover Newton Theological School. His research and teaching interests focus on the interaction of religion, culture, and politics. Among the issues he explores are urbanization, theological developments in world Christianity, Jewish-Christian relations, and current spiritual movements in the global setting (particularly Pentecostalism). His most recent book is When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Decisions Today.

Dawn DeVries received her Ph.D. in theology from the University of Chicago and has been involved in theological education at three different institutions for over twenty years. She is currently the John Newton Thomas Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia. Her interests are diverse: historical theology of the Reformation to the Modern eras, feminist theology, religion and childhood studies, ecumenical theology, and interreligious dialogue. Current projects are editing the New Westminster Dictionary of Theology, and editing and translating a volume on Schleiermacher for the Paulist Press series, Classics of Western Spirituality.

Professor McClintock Fulkerson's primary teaching interests are feminist theologies, theology and culture theories, authority in theology, and the theological interpretation of scripture. An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Professor McClintock Fulkerson has been involved in national ecclesiastical bodies and chaired New Hope Presbytery's Task Force on Human Sexuality. She also teaches in the Duke Women’s Studies Program. Her next book, Traces of Redemption: Theology for a Worldly Church, interprets the doctrine of the church in light of racial diversity and the differently abled.

Marion Grau, a native of Germany, is a graduate of the University of Tübingen and Drew University in New Jersey. She is Associate Professor of Theology at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, a member school of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where she has taught since 2001. She is the author of Of Divine Economy: Refinancing Redemption (T&T Clark/Continuum, 2004) and co-editor with Rosemary Radford Ruether of Interpreting the Postmodern: Responses to Radical Orthodoxy (T&T Clark/Continuum, 2006). She has written a number of essays on theology and economy, ecology, colonialism and mission and currently working on a book on theological hermeneutics and missionary encounters.

Dwight Hopkins is a constructive theologian working in the areas of contemporary models of theology, black theology, and liberation theologies. He is interested in multidisciplinary approaches to the academic study of religious thought, especially cultural, political, economic, and interpretive methods. Professor Hopkins is senior editor of the Henry McNeil Turner/Sojourner Truth Series in Black Religion (Orbis Books). He is an ordained American Baptist minister.

Professor Meeks teaches in the area of Constructive Theology, concentrating in modern and post-modern theology. His research interests focus on the relation of Christian doctrine to economic, social, and political theory. Current writing projects include an ecclesiological study of the church in the global market society and a christology in the post-modern setting. Professor Meeks is the author, co-author or editor of 16 books, including Origins of the Theology of Hope (Fortress) and God the Economist: The Doctrine of God and Political Economy (Fortress). He is program chair of the American Theological Society and co-chair of the Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies. For Twenty-five years he chaired the Working Group relating the Evangelische Kirche der Union and the United Church of Christ. His record of professional service includes membership on a variety of academic and ecclesial councils and commissions dealing with theology and economy, religion and science, liberation theology, points at issue between black and white theologies, and theological education. He is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church.

Professor Ottati is the Craig Family Distinguished Professor in Reformed Theology and Justice Ministry. His scholarly interests include contemporary theology and ethics, as well as the history of theology and ethics, particularly in America. He is co-general editor of the multi-volume series, The Library of Theological Ethics. Recent books include Theology for Liberal Presbyterians and Other Endangered Species, Reforming Protestantism: Christian Commitment in Today's World, and Hopeful Realism: Recovering the Poetry of Theology.

Thomas E. Reynolds is Associate Professor of Theology at Emmanuel College, in the Toronto School of Theology, of the University of Toronto. Committed to an interdisciplinary and relational vision of theology, his teaching and research seek to promote mutuality and right relations in contexts of diversity. He has published numerous articles and authored two books-- The Broken Whole: Philosophical Steps Toward a Theology of Global Solidarity (SUNY Press, 2005/2006); and Vulnerable Communion: A Theology of Disability and Hospitality (Brazos Press, 2008). Currently, he is working on a book entitled, Remembering ?Ourselves? Differently: Transforming Theology and Tradition in a Global Era, for which he has received an ATS Scholars Grant. This project seeks to develop a theology of tradition rooted in a postcolonial ethics of remembering.

Mayra Rivera is Assistant Professor of Theology at Pacific School of Religion and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Writing across a wide range of contemporary theological studies, Dr. Rivera engages the symbols of the Christian tradition constructively, drawing from a variety of theoretical sources, including feminist and gender studies, poststructuralist philosophies, postcolonial theories, and ethnic studies. Her publications include The Touch of Transcendence: A Postcolonial Theology of God (2007), which explores the relationship between ideas about God's otherness and models of inter-human difference, and the co-edited anthology Postcolonial Theologies (2004). Her current research interests center on theologies of memory and the body.

Professor Schneider’s research addresses key tensions in contemporary ideas of God. She seeks language and concepts that better reflect the complexity of historical Christian theology and that more effectively address the real ways in which faith, theology, science and culture interact in today’s world.Professor Schneider’s teaching areas include constructive proposals in theology; feminism and postmodernism; the relationships between theological ideas and social organization; queer theory and its intersections with multicultural feminist and womanist approaches to ethics and theology. She is dedicated to the development of stronger, more interesting public theology that understands its historical antecedents and that courageously takes on the critical issues of justice in the world today.

Glen Stassen wrote Living the Sermon on the Mount (Jossey Bass: July, 2006)-for church discussion groups and real people. Editor of Just Peacemaking: The New Paradigm for the Ethics of Peace and War (Pilgrim: 1998/2004/2008). Author with David Gushee of Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context (InterVarsity, 2003), which won Christianity Today's Award for Best Book of 2004 in Theology or Ethics. He cares about peacemaking practices, justice practices, Bonhoeffer, H R Niebuhr, John H Yoder, and church renewal through Christian discipleship. At Fuller Seminary, he won the Award for Outstanding Community Service to Students. At Berea College, he won the Seabury Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Theological Seminary- gstassen@fuller.edu.

John Thatamanil is Assistant Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School. He is the author of The Immanent Divine: God, Creation, and the Human Predicament, a work on Hindu-Christian Dialogue. He is working on a Christian theology of religious pluralism in a book tentatively entitled, Religious Diversity after Religion. He has published op-ed pieces in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. He is also Chair of the AAR’s Theological Education Steering Committee. John is convinced that Tillich was right about many theological matters, most especially his conviction that Christian theology remains hopelessly provincial if it fails to engage religious diversity.

Jonathan Walton’s research addresses the intersections between religion, politics and popular culture. He is particularly concerned with mass mediated religious production in America. Professor Walton is currently working on two book projects: Watch This! Televangelism and Black Popular Culture and Will The Revolution Be Televised? TV Preachers, Profits and the Prophetic. His scholarly work is grounded in the progressive strand of the African American religious tradition and informed by the creative potentiality and rhythmic sensibility of hip-hop culture.