President Jonathan Lee Walton

Dr. Jonathan Lee Walton has published widely across various academic journals, books, magazines, and newspapers. His insights have been featured in the New York Times, CNN, Time Magazine, and PBS.

Latest Release

Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World (Westminster John Knox Press, 2018)

In order to engage the Bible in the spirit of justice, compassion, and love, Jonathan L. Walton suggests reading the Bible in its world for our world. Perfect for individual or group study, A Lens of Love helps Christians to read and interpret the Bible morally and confidently as they engage society's pressing issues. Walton provides interpretive tools to help understand the context of the Scriptures along with the Scriptures themselves in order to engage the richness of the Bible as they strive to live in the world in a biblically grounded, theologically sound, and socially responsible way.

Other Books

• Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism (New York University Press, 2009)

Select Journal Articles, Book Chapters, Book Reviews

• “Have the Sons of Africa Have No Souls?: Manliness, Freedom, and Power in the Cultural Roots of Afro-Phallic Protestantism,” in The Sexual Politics of Black Churches, edited by Josef Sorett, Columbia University Press, 2020.
• “Luminous Darkness: Africanist Presence and the American Soul,” in Goodness and the Literary Imagination: Harvard’s 95th Ingersoll Lecture with Essays on Morrison’s Moral and Religious Vision, by Toni Morrison, edited by David Carrasco, Stephanie Paulsell, and Mara Willard, University of Virginia Press, 2019.
• “Afterword: Dignity as a Weapon of Love,” in To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Tommie Shelby and Brandon M. Terry, Harvard University Press, 2018, pp. 339-350.
• “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Consumerism, in The Protestant Reformation of the Church and the World, edited by John Witte Jr. and Amy Wheeler, Westminster John Knox Press, 2018, pp. 240-253.
• “Stationed in the King’s Court: Evangelicals in the Age of Obama,” in Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 16, numbers 1-2, 2014, pp. 79-98.
• “Stop Worrying and Start Sowing! A Phenomenological Account of the Ethics of ‘Divine Investment’” in Pentecostalism and Prosperity: The Socio-Economics of Global Charismatic Movements, edited by Amos Yong and Katy Attanasi, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, pp. 107-129.
• “The Greening of the Gospel (and Black Body): Rev. Ike’s Gospel of Wealth and Post- Blackness Theology,” in Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, Vol. 33, number 2, 2011, pp. 181-199.
• “For Where Two or Three (Thousand) Are Gathered in My Name! A Cultural History and Ethical Analysis of African-American Megachurches” in Journal of African American Studies, Vol. 15, number 2, 2011, pp. 133-154.
• “Preachers’ Blues: Religious Race Records and the Reclamation of Authority on Wax” in Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation, Vol. 20, number 2, 2010, pp. 205-232.

Select Lectures & Addresses

• Inaugural Address, Princeton Theological Seminary, 10/13/23
• Geddes W. Hanson Lecture, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ, 10/16/19
• Keynote Address: 50 Years Since MLK, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 4/19/18
• Midwinter Lectures, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Austin, TX, 1/28-29/18
• Alonzo McDonald Lecture in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Reformation, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 4/3/17
• Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities, The Center for Ideas and Society, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, 3/23/17
• Baccalaureate Address, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA 5/14/16
• The Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture, Brown University, Providence, RI, 2/2/16
• Daryl Schmidt Lecture on Religion and Public Life, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, 9/29/15
• The Boardman Lecture, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 3/20/2015
• Keynote Address: Pentecostal and Prosperous: Empowering Marginalized Protestant Bodies,” International Society for Religion Media and Culture, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, 8/4/2014
• Princeton Doll Family Lecture on Religion and Money, Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University, 4/24/2014