Princeton Theological Seminary Appoints New Faculty and Names New Trustee

Princeton, NJ, June 26, 2007–Princeton Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the appointment of four new faculty members and the election of a new trustee. 

Kenneth G. Appold was named the James Hastings Nichols Associate Professor of Reformation History with tenure, effective July 1, 2007. Appold earned his B.A. (1987), and his M.A. (1990), his M.Phil. (1992), and his Ph.D. (1994) from Yale University, and his Dr.theol.habil. from the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg in Germany in 2001. His previous position was as a research professor for the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France. His areas of interest include the history and legacy of the Reformation, the history of higher education, and the history of theology.

John R. Bowlin was named the Rimmer and Ruth de Vries Associate Professor of Reformed Theology and Public Life with tenure, effective July 1, 2007. Bowlin earned his B.A. from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, in 1981, his M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York in 1985, and his M.A.  and Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1987 and 1993 respectively. He previously taught as associate professor of religion at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Christian Ethics, and the Society for Values in Higher Education. His areas of specialization are Christian moral thought, moral philosophy, medieval religious thought, social ethics and criticism, and modern religious thought. He is the author of Contingency and Fortune in Aquinas’s Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

Yolanda Pierce was named the Elmer G. Homrighausen Associate Professor of African American Religion and Literature and Liaison with the Princeton University Afro-American Studies Program with tenure, effective July 1, 2007. Pierce earned her A.B. from Princeton University in 1994, her M.A. from Cornell University in 1997, and her Ph.D. in English from Cornell University in 1999. She previously taught as associate professor and was the director of graduate studies in the Department of English at the University of Kentucky. Her area of research lies in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century African American literature and culture (spiritual and slave narratives, memoirs and autobiographies, and religious writing), religious studies (Black church traditions, womanist theology, and contemporary Black thought), nineteenth-century American literature (race, religion, and early American culture), and women’s studies (women writers of the African Diaspora). She is the author of Hell without Fires: Slavery, Christianity, and the Antebellum Spiritual Narrative (The History of African American Religion Series, University of Florida Press, February 2005).

Luke A. Powery was named the Perry and Georgia Engle Assistant Professor of Homiletics, effective July 1, 2007. Powery earned his A.B. from Stanford University in 1996 and his M.Div. from Princeton Seminary in 1999, and his Th.D. with a specialization in homiletics through Emmanuel College, University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada in 2007. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Academy of Homiletics. His areas of interest are speech and performance studies, Holy Spirit in preaching and worship, theologies of preaching, homiletical theory and method, African American preaching and worship, preaching and worship across cultures, liturgical theology, and worship and ethics.  

The Reverend Dr. Cephas Narh Omenjyo has been appointed the John A. Mackay Professor of World Christianity for the 2007–2008 academic year. He is a senior lecturer in the Department for the Study of Religions at the University of Ghana, Legon.

In addition, Sally A. Brown was promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure, Robert C. Dykstra was promoted to the rank of professor, and Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger was promoted to the rank of professor, all effective July 1, 2007. Bo Karen Lee was promoted to the rank of assistant professor following completion of the Ph.D. degree.

In other news, the Seminary’s Board of Trustees announced the election of a new trustee, the Reverend Dr. William L. Bowers, at its May meeting. Bowers was elected by Princeton Seminary alumni/ae to serve as an alumni/ae trustee in the Class of 2010. A 1970 graduate of the Seminary, he has served as minister of Dundee Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, since 1993. He is past president of the board of directors of Presbyterians for Renewal, former chair of the executive committee of Logos Systems, and served on the advisory board of Literacy and Evangelism International.

Princeton Theological Seminary was founded in 1812, the first seminary established by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. With an international student body and faculty, it is the largest Presbyterian seminary in the country, with more than 700 students in seven graduate degree programs.