Skip to content

The image is of the Pohutukawa tree from where I grew up. The longer I am away from it, the more I miss it.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4228-6644

A good number of the below publications are available for download here: ResearchGate

Monographs

  • With Henning Wrogemann, Questions of Context: Reading a Century of German Mission Theology. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020.
  • Apostolicity: The Ecumenical Question in World Christian Perspective. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016.
  • The Witness of God: The Trinity, Missio Dei, Karl Barth, and the Nature of Christian Community. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010.

Edited works

  • With Upolu Vaai, Naomi Wolf, Te Aroha Rountree and Stephen Burns. Theologies of Oceania: A Reader. Uniting Academic Press. Forthcoming
  • Safety Last: The Challenge of J. C. Hoekendijk. Leiden: BRILL. Forthcoming
  • With Dorottya Nagy, T&T Clark Handbook to Intercultural Theology and Mission Studies. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark. Forthcoming
  • ‘For I Was Hungry…’: Congregations and Church Agencies in Relationship. Bayswater, VIC: United Academic Press, 2022.
  • With David W. Congdon, Converting Witness: Theology for a Pilgrim People. Minneapolis, MN: Lexington Books-Fortress Academic, 2019.
  • Collision Crossroads: The Intersection of Modern Western Culture with the Christian Gospel. Auckland: The DeepSight Trust, 1998.

Research Articles

  • “Contextualizing Theology in Oceania.” Theologische Literaturzeitung. Forthcoming
  • “Contextual Theologies in Ozeania and Australia.” Verkündigung und Forschung. Forthcoming
  • With Stephen Burns, “Christ, the Earth’s Womb, and the Tree of Life: A Coconut Communion,” Uniting Church Studies. Forthcoming
  • “The Ever Newness of the Gospel: Difference as Catholicity.” In According to All? Postcolonial Perspectives on Catholicity, edited by Stephen Burns, and Bryan Cones. Lanham, MD: Lexington Fortress Press. Forthcoming
  • “And They Will Call the Name of Him Emminanuel: Constricting the World Christian Voice in the Methodologies and Structuring Fundamental to ‘Theology Proper’.” The International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church. Forthcoming
  • With Jason A Goroncy, “The Heresy of Nicaea and the Jesus of Colony.” In Receiving Nicaea Today: Global Voices From Reformed Perspectives, edited by Hanns Lessing, and Daniel Rathnakara Sadananda, 179–200. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2025.
  • “The Function of Theology in Faith-Based Agencies: A Post-Colonial Perspective From Australia.” In Diaconia in Contexts: Regional Case Studies and Linking Perspectives, edited by Johannes Eurich, Beate Hofmann, and Thorsten Moos, 35–54. Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2025.
  • “Ecumenical Unity and the Necessary Contribution of Pasifika Hermeneutics.” The Journal of Contemporary Pasifika Theologies 1, no. 1 (2025): 21–40.
  • “Wicked Problems.” Uniting Church Studies 27, no. 1 (2025): 106–8.
  • With John K. Bottomley, and Brendan Byrne, “Neoliberalism, Toxic Work and the Shadow of Death: Hidden Suicidality Among Australia’s Nance Sector Workers,” Journal of Industrial Relations (2025). https://doi.org/10.1177/00221856251358996
  • “The Mission of Crisis.” In Mission in Crisis: The Unfinished Homework of the Church, edited by Ralph Kunz, and Henning Wrogemann, 131–48. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt: Leipzig, 2024.
  • “‘The Heavens Declare…’ (Psalm 14:1, 19:1): Creation, Mission, and the Embodied Knowing of God.” In The T&T Clark Companion to the Doctrine of Creation, edited by Jason Goroncy, 516–33. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2024.
  • “The Non-Elect Bear the Salvation of the Elect: The Living History of Election.” In The T&T Clark Companion to Election, edited by Edwin Chr. van Driel, 501–17. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2024.
  • “Plotting an Oceanic Voice: A Longitudinal Review and Analysis of Regional Theologising.” Colloquium 54, no. 1 (2022): 5–60.
  • “Introduction: Differentiation, the Secularised Church, and Mission,” in ‘For I Was Hungry…’: Congregations and Church Agencies in Relationship, edited by John G. Flett, 11–27. Melbourne: Coventry Press, 2022.
  • “Evil, Demons, and Exorcism,” Cursor_ Zeitschrift Für Explorative Theologie 6 (2022). https://cursor.pubpub.org/pub/issue6-daemonen-flett
  • “Missio Dei: The Livingness of God and Christian Existence in the Resurrection,” 미션네트워크 9 (2021): 15–41.
  • “(Any?) New Approaches in the Theology of Mission,” Verkündigung und Forschung 66, no. 2 (2021): 104–19.
  • “Natural Theology and the Different Bodies of the Christian Gospel: Part 2: History, the Resurrected Jesus Christ and the Living Spirit,” Melanesian Journal of Theology 37 (2021): 3–20.
  • “Natural Theology and the Different Bodies of the Christian Gospel: Part 1: What Is the Problem for Which Natural Theology Seems a Solution,” Melanesian Journal of Theology 36 (2020): 3–32.
  • “Multiculturalism as Theology and Policy: The Challenges and Future Possibilities,” in Theological and Hermeneutical Explorations from Australia: Horizons of Contextuality, edited by Jione Havea, 55–68. Lanham: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2020.
  • With David W. Congdon, “Darrell L. Guder: A Life of Continuing Conversion,” in Converting Witness: Theology for a Pilgrim People, edited by John G. Flett, and David W. Congdon, 1–16. Minneapolis, MN: Lexington Books–Fortress Academic, 2019.
  • “Method in Mission Studies: Comparing World Christianity and Intercultural Theology,” Theologische Literaturzeitung 143 (2018): 717–31.
  • “Prayer and Missionary Movement Beyond the Self,” Spiritus 18 (2018): 246–59.
  • “Versammlung, Auferbauung und Sendung der christlichen Gemeinde: Die Ekklesiologie in Karl Barths Versöhnungslehre,” in Karl Barth als Lehrer der Versöhnung (1950–1968): Vertiefung – Öffnung – Hoffnung, edited by Michael Trowitzsch, Michael Beintker, and Georg Plasger, 117–37. Zürich: TVZ, 2016.
  • “Contextualisation and Human Rights Law: A Future Area of Contest?,” in Living in the Family of Jesus: Critical Contextualization in the Melanesia and Beyond, edited by William Kenny Longgar, and Tim Meadowcroft, 371–94. Auckland: Archer Press, 2016.
  • “What Does it Mean for a Congregation to be a Hermeneutic?,” in The Gospel and Pluralism Today: Reassessing Lesslie Newbigin in the 21st Century, edited by Scott Sunquist and Amos Yong, 195–214. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2015.
  • “A Theology of Missio Dei,” Theology in Scotland 21, no. 1 (2014): 69–78.
  • “Justification contra Mission: The Isolation of Justification in the History of Reconciliation,” Zeitschrift für Dialektische Theologie Supplement Series 6 (2014): 58–80.
  • “‘Who is Jesus Christ?’: The Necessary Missionary Form of the Confession of the Trinity,” in Theology in Missionary Perspective: Lesslie Newbigin’s Legacy, edited by Mark T. B. Laing, and Paul Weston, 260–76. Oregon, WA: Pickwick Publications, 2012.
  • Bishop J. E. Lesslie Newbigin and the Missionary Challenge to Doctrinal ‘Identity’,” in Reformierte Theologie weltweit: Zwölf Profile aus dem 20. Jahrhundert, edited by Marco Hofheinz and Matthias Zeindler, 150–69. Zürich: TVZ, 2012.
  • “Failure in Intercultural Hermeneutics: A Case Study,” in Theologie in Freiheit und Verbindlichkeit: Profile der Kirchlichen Hochschule Wuppertal / Bethel, edited by Henning Wrogemann, 225–42. Neukirchener Verlag: Neukirchen-Vluyn, 2012.
  • “’Jesus Christ is…the Gentiles are Fellow Heirs of the Promise’ (Eph. 3:1-6): Toward a Christological Rationale for a Living History of Cross-Cultural Community,” in Glauben leben – vielfältig, international, interkulturell Migrationsgemeinden und deutsche Gemeinden auf dem Weg, 11–22. Hannover: Haus kirchlicher Dienste der Evangelisch-lutherischen Landeskirche Hannovers, 2012.
  • “The Resurrection from the Dead as the Declaration of God’s Eternal Being and the Christian Community’s Eschatological Reality,” Princeton Seminary Bulletin 31 (2010): 7–26.
  • “The Bastard in the Royal Family: Wither Mission?,” Princeton Theological Review 16, no.1 (2010): 17–30.
  • “A Critical Response to ‘Fullness of Life: Search for a New Vision of Ecumenical Mission Thinking and Practice in the 21st Century,’ by Jooseop Keum,” in Centenary of the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference: Retrospect and Prospect of Mission and Evangelism, edited by Kook-Il Han, 188–93. Seoul: PCTS, 2009.
  • “Communion as Propaganda: Reinhard Hütter and the Missionary Witness of the ‘Church as Public’,” Scottish Journal of Theology 62, no.4 (2009): 457–76.
  • “Missio Dei: A Trinitarian Envisioning of a non-Trinitarian theme,” Missiology 37, no.1 (2009): 6–17.
  • “In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: A Critical Reflection on the Trinitarian Theologies of Religion of S. Mark Heim and Gavin D’Costa,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 10, no. 1 (2008): 73–90.
  • “Yocum’s ‘Ecclesial Mediation in Karl Barth’,” Zeitschrift für Dialektische Theologie 20, no. 1 (2005): 147–51.
  • “From Jerusalem to Oxford: Mission as the Foundation and Goal of Ecumenical Social Thought,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 27, no. 1 (2003): 17–22.
  • “Alasdair Macintyre’s Tradition-Constituted Enquiry in Polanyian Perspective,” Tradition and Discovery: The Polanyi Society Periodical 24, no. 2 (1999): 6–21.
  • “Unpacking Gospel & Culture,” in Collision Crossroads: The Intersection of Modern Western Culture with the Christian Gospel, edited by J. Flett, 8–14. Auckland: The DeepSight Trust, 1998.

Academic Translation

  • Lienemann-Perrin, Christine. “European Christianity Put to the Test: Observations Concerning the Use of the Term “Christendom” in the Study of World Christianity.” In Converting Witness: Theology for a Pilgrim People, edited by John G. Flett, and David W. Congdon, 59–80. Minneapolis, MN: Lexington Books-Fortress Academic, 2019.
  • Busch, Eberhard. “The Sending of the Whole Christian Church: Reflections after Karl Barth.” In Converting Witness: Theology for a Pilgrim People, edited by John G. Flett, and David W. Congdon, 45–58. Minneapolis, MN: Lexington Books-Fortress Academic, 2019.
  • With David MacLachlan, “Conversation with Methodist Preachers (5.16.1961),” in Barth in Conversation: Volume 1, 1959-1962, edited by Eberhard Busch, Karlfried Froehlich, Darrell L. Guder, and David C. Chao, 116–41. Westminster John Knox Press, 2017.
  • Sauter, Gerhard. “Argue Theologically With One Another: Karl Barth’s Argument with Emil Brunner.” In Theology as Conversation: The Significance of Dialogue in Historical and Contemporary Theology: A Festschrift for Daniel L. Migliore, edited by Bruce McCormack, and Kimlyn J. Bender, 30–47. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009.

Non-academic Articles

  • “Differentiation, The Secularised Church and Mission.” Zadok Perspectives 135 (2017): 14–15.
  • “Hope and Joy.” Crosslight 289 (2018): 18.
  • “Uniting, Horizons, and the Surprising Future.” Crosslight 282 (2017): 22.
  • “Political Populism and Theological Discourse.” Crosslight 273 (2017): 17.
  • “House Pet Jesus: A Christmas Story.” Crosslight 272 (2016): 15.
  • “Mission as World Christianity and Intercultural Theology.” Crosslight 268 (2016): 23.
  • “The Relationship of Congregations and Agencies.” Crosslight 265 (2016): 16.
  • “Together Towards Life.” Crosslight 260 (2015): 18.
  • “The First Impressions of an Outsider.” Crosslight 255 (2015): 15.
  • “Why We Care about the Jesus Seminar.” Stimulus 6 (1998): 4–5.
  • “The Workaday World and its Implications for Lay-theology.” Stimulus 8 (2000): 8–10.

Media Interviews

Reviews

  • “A Review of Tanya Riches’, ‘Worship and Social Engagement in Urban Aboriginal-led Australian Pentecostal Congregations: (Re)imagining Identity in the Spirit’.” Theologische Literaturzeitung, no. 11 (2021): 1114–15.
  • “A Review of “The Mission of the Church: Five Views in Conversation”.” International Bulletin of Mission Research 41, no. 1 (2017): 88–89.
  •  “A Review of William R. Burrows, et al., (eds.) ‘Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls’.” Mission Studies 30, no. 1 (2013): 109–10.
  •  “A Review of Kim, Sebastian C. H. Kim’s, ‘Theology in the Public Sphere: Public Theology as a Catalyst for Open Debate’.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 37, no. 3 (2013): 186.
  • “A Review of Martin Reppenhagen’s ‘Auf dem Weg zu einer missionalen Kirche: Die Diskussion um eine “Missional Church” in den USA’.” International Review of Mission 102, no. 2 (2013): 270–74.
  • “A Review of Mark Noll’s ‘The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith’.” Scottish Journal of Theology 65, no. 4 (2012): 495–6.
  •  “A Review of Elmer John Theissen’s ‘The Ethics of Evangelism: A Philosophical Defense of Proselytizing and Persuasion’.” Missiology 40, no. 1 (2012): 97.
  • “A Review of Paul Barnett’s ‘Paul: Missionary of Jesus: After Jesus, vol. 2’.” Theology Today 66, no. 3 (2009): 385–6.
  • “A Review of David F. Ford (ed.). ‘The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology Since 1918 (3rd ed.)’,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 8, no. 3 (2006): 329–31.
  • “A Review of Graham Ward’s ‘Cultural Transformation and Religious Practice’,” Missiology 34, no. 4 (2006): 536–7.
  • “A Review of Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen’s ‘Trinity and Religious Pluralism’,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 8, no. 1 (2006): 112–5.
  • “A Review of John C. McDowell and Mike Higton (eds.) ‘Conversing with Barth’,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 8, no. 1 (2006): 115–18.
  • “A Review of Samuel Escobar’s ‘Changing Tides’,” Koinonia Journal 17 (2005): 127–32.
  • “A Review of Daniel Migliore’s ‘Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology (2nd ed.)’,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 7, no. 3 (2005): 322–4.
  • “A Review of Henrique Pinto’s ‘Foucault, Christianity and Interfaith Dialogue’,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 7, no. 3 (2005): 337–9.
  • “A Review of Adam Hood’s ‘Baillie, Oman and Macmurray: Experience and Religious Belief’,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 7, no. 2 (2005): 104–6.
  • “A Review of Colin Gunton’s ‘Act and Being’,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 6, no. 1 (2004): 79–82.
  • “A Review of Marjorie Reeve’s ‘Christian Thinking and Social Order: Conviction Politics from the 1930’s to the Present Day’,” Tradition and Discovery: The Polanyi Society Periodical 25, no. 3 (1998): 32–3.

Lectures

  • UCA VicTas Synod Bible Studies, 2025: 1. Jesus the Same; 2. Let us be Friends; 2. The image of its Creator.
  • “Methodology amidst Coloniality,” PTHU, Utrecht, The Netherlands, January 18, 2025.
  • “Missio Dei: The Livingness of God and Christian Existence in the Resurrection,” Missio Dei and Missional Church conference in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Juan International University, Incheon, South Korea, December 4, 2021.
  • “The Ever Newness of the Gospel: Difference as Catholicity,” Inaugural Professional Lecture, Pilgrim Theological College, Melbourne, May 18, 2021.
  • “Diaspora and Reconciliation,” Bi-annual conference of The Council on Overseas Korean Churches for Education & Ministry, Han Bit, Melbourne, February 18, 2020.
  • “How Do We Theologise Our Pre-Christian Heritages? A Problem of Time and Embodiment,” Theology and Ethics Seminar, Divinity School, University of Edinburgh, January 29, 2020.
  • Keynote lectures at the Melanesian Association of Theological Schools annual conference on Natural Theology, Christian Leaders Training College, Mt Hagen, PNG, July 2-4, 2019: “I. What is the Problem for which Natural Theology Seems a Solution?”; “II. Natural Theology and Intercultural Violence: A Case Study of the 1930s German Missionary Approach to Natural Theology”; “III. History, Resurrected Jesus Christ and the Living Spirit.”
  • “Prayer and the Missionary Movement Beyond the Self,” Pray Without Ceasing: Perspectives in Spirituality Studies, University of Zurich, June 26-29, 2017.
  • Co-organiser and presenter, Karl Barth’s Pneumatology and the Global Pentecostal Movement, 2016 Annual Karl Barth Conference, Princeton Theological Seminary, June 9-22, 2016.
  • “Apostolicity and Conversion,” International Association of Mission Studies Quadrennial Conference, Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary, Seoul, August 12-15, 2016.
  • “What Does It Mean for a Congregation to Be a Hermeneutic?” Still Pluralist: 25th Anniversary of J. E. Lesslie Newbigin’s The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Fuller Theological Seminary, 13-15 November, 2014. 
  • “Versammlung, Auferbauung und Sendung der christlichen Gemeinde – Die Ekklesiologie in Karl Barths Versöhnungslehre,”Karl Barth als Lehrer der Versöhnung (1950 – 1968): Vertiefung – Öffnung – Hoffnung, Internationales Symposion in der Johannes a Lasco Bibliothek, Emden, 1-4 May, 2014.
  • “The Theology of missio Dei,” Day-conference on Mission and Church, Divinity School, University of Edinburgh, 10 May, 2013.
  • “The ‘Moratorium on Missions’ and Baptism, Eucharistic and Ministry: A Comparison,” South African Mission Society Congress, Stellenbosch University, 12-15 March, 2013.
  • “World and Church in ‘World Christianity’,” ‘Kirche’ und ‘Welt’: Innertheologische Umbauten im Verhältnis von Religion und Politik in internationalen Kontexten, Bochum Universität, 3-5 December, 2012.“Justification contra Mission: The Isolation of Justification in the History of Reconciliation,” 6th Princeton-Kampen Barth Consultation, 2-5 September, 2012.
  • Arbeitsgruppen Leitung, 43 Internationale Karl Barth Tagung: Mission Impossible: Kirche Mission, Pluralität der Religionen nach Karl Barth, Leuenberg, Schweiz, 16-19 July, 2012.
  • “‘Jesus Christ is…the Gentiles are Fellow Heirs of the Promise’ (Eph. 3:1-6): Toward a Christological Rationale for a Living History of Cross-Cultural Community,” Glauben leben ­­– vielfältig, international, interkulturell, Migrantionsgemeinden und deutsche Gemeinden auf dem Weg, Evangelische Akademe Loccum, 1-3 March, 2012
  • “Bishop Lesslie Newbigin and the Missionary Question of Reformed Identity,” Reformierte Identität in globalen Kontexten. Theologische Porträts aus dem 20. Jahrhundert, Bern Universität, 4 April, 2011.
  • “How Mission Got Left Out of Systematic Theology and How to Put It Back,” 44th International Ecumenical Seminar 2010: Mission and Ecumenism in the Global Village: 100 Years after the Conference of Edinburgh, Ecumenical Institute Strasbourg, July, 2010.
  • “‘I am the Resurrection and the Life’ (John 11:25): The Resurrection from the Dead as the Declaration of God’s Eternal Being and the Christian Community’s Eschatological Reality,” ‘The Church is as Such A Missionary Church’: Barth as a ‘Missional’ Theologian. Princeton Theological Seminary, 20-23 June, 2010.
  • “Missio Dei: A Trinitarian Envisioning of a non-Trinitarian Theme,” Envisioning Apostolic Theology: As the Father Sends…, American Society of Missiology Annual Conference, Techny, 20-22 June, 2008.
  •  “The Living God and the Reconciled Life: On the Absence of ‘creatura verbi divini’ from Social Trinitarian Ecclesiologies,” 17th Annual Theology Conference: Rediscovering the Trinity: Classic Doctrine and Contemporary Ministry, Wheaton College, 10-12 April, 2008.