New York Theological Seminary

President
Professor of World Christianity

Office phone: 212-870-1223
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Background

Dale T. Irvin is the eleventh President of New York Theological Seminary and Professor of World Christianity. He was elected to this position by the Seminary's Board of Trustees on July 19, 2006 after serving as Acting President since January 1, 2006, and his permanent appointment became effective on August 1.

Previously, he served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean of the Seminary and is a long-time member of the Seminary's Faculty. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1981) and Union Theological Seminary in New York (Ph.D., 1989), he has been a member of the New York Theological Seminary Faculty since 1989. he is the co-author with Scott W. Sunquist of History of the World Christian Movement, a two-volume project that is being written with a consulting team of more than 50 scholars from around the world and published by Orbis Books of Maryknoll, NY. Volume 1, Earliest Christianity to 1453, is now in its fifth printing. Dr. Irvin's previous books include Christian Histories, Christian Traditioning: Rendering Accounts (Orbis Books,1998), and The Agitated Mind of God: The Theology of Kosuke Koyama (Orbis Books, 1996), which he edited with Akintunde E. akinda. His articles have appeared in a number of journals, among them Christianity Today, The Ecumenical Review and The Journal of Pentecostal Studies.

Dr. Irvin has held visiting or adjunct appointments at the University of Uppsala, Sweden; Drew University Theological School; Union Theological Seminary, New York; Wake Forest University Divinity School; New Brunswick Theological Seminary; and Regent University School of Divinity. He is currently the Executive Vice President and member of the Editorial Board of The Living Pulpit, a higly acclaimed journal for preaching. He is also a regular teacher and preacher in churches throughout the New York City region. An ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches USA, he is a member of The Riverside Church in New York City.

Publications

Christian Histories, Christian Traditioning: Rendering Account. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998.

The Agitated Mind of God: The Theology of Kosuke Koyama. Co-edited with Akintunde E. Akinade. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996. (Book was named by the Overseas Ministries Study Center as one of the fifteen best books in missiology published in 1996.)

Hearing Many Voices: Dialogue and Diversity in the Ecumenical Movement. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1994.

Chapters in books

“Power in Mission.” Co-written with Kevin Mannoia. In Faith and Order: Toward a North American Conference (Study Guide), edited by Norman A Hjelm. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005.

“The Terror of History and the Memory of Redemption: Engaging the Ambiguities of the Christian Past.” In Surviving Terror: Hope and Justice in a World of Violenc, edited by Victoria L. Erikson and Michelle Lim Jones. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brazos Press, 2002.

“Charles Price Jones and the Sufficiency of Jesus.” Portraits of the First Generation: Essays on the Centennial Celebration of the Pentecostal Movement, edited by James R. Goff, Jr. and Grant Wacker. Little Rock: University of Arkansas Press, 2002.

“New Directions in Faith and Order for the Twenty-first Century: Building a New Common Table.” Concord Makes Strength: Essays in Reformed Ecumenism, edited by John W. Coakley. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002.

“Strangers and the Homecoming: Church and Community in the Grammar of Faith.” In The Courage to Hope: From Black Suffering to Human Redemption, edited by Quinton Hosford Dixie and Cornel West. Boston: Beacon Press, 1999.

“Mission as Dialogue: The Contribution of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy.” In Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy: Studies in His Life and Thought, edited by M. Darrol Bryant and Hans R. Huessy. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mullen Press, 1986.

Articles, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews

“Ecumenical Dislodgings.” Mission Studies (Forthcoming 2006).

“Pentecostal Historiography.” Pneuma: Journal of the Society for Pentecostal (Forthcoming 2005).

“Christ and Spirit: Dogma, Discernment, and Dialogical Theology in a Religiously Plural World.” With Amos Yong, Frank D. Macchia and Ralph Del Colle. Journal of Pentecostal Theology 12:1 (October 2003).

“The Gift of Mission.” Christianity Today 43:14 (Dec 6, 1999).

One of five scholars invited to write in response to the question, “Where Would Civilization Be Without Christianity?” Article republished in The British Columbian Catholic 70:47 (Dec. 2000).

Guest Contributing Editor’s “Introduction.” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 52:1-2 (1998).

(James Melvin Washington memorial volume.)“‘Holiness Unto the Lord’: Toward a Holiness Christian Dialogue with Judaism.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 34:1 (Winter 1997): 13-38.

“Open-Ended Pedagogy in a Multicultural Classroom: The Case for Theological Education.” Religious Studies News 4:1 (Feb. 1996).

“Toward a Hermeneutics of Difference at the Crossroads of Ecumenics.” The Ecumenical Review, 47:3 (Oct. 1995).

“Contextualization and Catholicity: Looking Anew for the Unity of the Faith,” Studia Theologica 48: 2 (1995).

“‘Drawing All Together in One Bond of Love’: The Ecumenical Vision of William J. Seymour and Azusa St.” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 6:1 (Spring 1995).

“From One Story to Many: An Ecumenical Reappraisal of Church History.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 28:4 (Fall 1991).

“The Banquet of Ecumenical Theology.” The Ecumenical Review 43:1 (1991).

“John R. Mott and World-Centered Theology.” Missiology 12:2 (1984).

” Social Witness Policies: An Historical Overview.” Journal of Presbyterian History 57:4 (1979).

“History of World Christianity.” In Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity, edited by Daniel Patte. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

“History of Christianity.” In Gateways: Encyclopedia of World Christianity, edited by John Bowden. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, forthcoming.

“Fundamentalism.” In Encyclopedia of Pentecostalism, edited by Stanley Burgess. New York: Berkshire/Routledge Publishers, forthcoming.

“Millennialism.” In Encyclopedia of Religious Rituals, edited by F. Salamone. New York: Berkshire/Routledge, 2003.

“Holiness Movement,” “Camp Meeting,” and “Shakers.” In Encyclopedia of Millennial Movements, edited by R. Landes. New York: Berkshire/Routledge, 2000.

Review of An Introduction of Christianity, by Linda Woodhead. International Bulletin of Missionary Research, forthcoming.

Review of Sidewalks in the Kingdom, by Eric O. Jacobsen. Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture, forthcoming summer 2005.

Review of Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies, A Reader, edited by William K. Kay and Anne E. Dyer. Pneuma: Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, forthcoming.

Review of The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, by Philip Jenkins. Journal of Pentecostal Theology 13:2 (2005).

Review of Occupy Until I Come: A.T. Pierson and the Evangelization of the World, by Dana L. Robert. Church History 73:4 (Dec. 2004).

Review of Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel beyond the West, by Lamin Sanneh; and Enlarging the Story: Perspectives on Writing World Christian History, edited by Wilbert R. Shenk. The Christian Century July 27, 2004.

Review of Beyond the Impasse: Toward a Pneumatological Theology of Religions, by Amos Yong. Journal of Pentecostal Theology 12:2 (2004).

Review of The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History, by Andrew F. Walls. International Bulletin of Missionary Research 26:4 (Oct. 2002).

Review of Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief, by Huston Smith The Christian Century (June 20-27, 2001).

Review of Spiritus Ubi Vult Spirat: Pneumatology in Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue (1972-1989), by Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen. Journal of Pentecostal Theology 6:1 (April 2000).

Review of Listening to the Least: Doing Theology from the Outside In, by Ian McFarland. International Journal of Systematic Theology 2:2 (July 2000).

Review of Pentecostal Currents in American Protestantism, edited by Edith L. Blumhofer, Russell P. Spittler, and Grant A. Wacker. Pneuma: Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 22:1 (Spring 2000).

Review of Exporting the American Gospel: Global Christian Fundamentalism, by Steve Brouwer, Paul Gifford, and Susan D. Rose. International Bulletin of Missionary Research 21:3 (Summer 1997).

Review of The Reformation and Liberation Theology, by M. Richard Shaull; and Luther and Liberation: A Latin American Perspective, by Walter Altmann. Lutheran Partners (Nov. 1992).Regular contributor to The Living Pulpit

Books

A History of the World Christian Movement: Volume I, Earliest Christianity to 1453. Co-written with Scott W. Sunquist. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books/Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 2001; Bangalore, India: Theological Publications India, 2004. (Volume was named to the “Outstanding Title” list of Choice magazine in 2002; selected by the Catholic Book Association as the outstanding book in theology and history for 2001; and listed by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research as one of the fifteen outstanding books in mission studies for 2001.)

História do movimento cristão mundial. Volume I: do christianismo primitive a 1453. Trad. J. R. Vidigal. São Paulo: Paulus, 2004. (Portuguese translation of A History of the World Christian Movement.)

A History of the World Christian Movement: Volume II, 1453 to 2000. Co-written with Scott W. Sunquist. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, forthcoming 2005.