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Featured Books

Activism and the Literary Self in 20th and 21st Century Literature: Poetics of Justice  Book

Activism and the Literary Self in 20th and 21st Century Literature: Poetics of Justice (2025)

Jeff will be exploring the way in which literature contributes to discussions regarding justice, identity, activism, and the human condition. Using critical analysis of current modern and contemporary texts, Jeff will examine the role that narrative plays in creating our social imagination and public dialogue.


Topics: Literature, Justice, Culture, Identity, Social Engagement

Live the Questions: How Searching Shapes Our Convictions and Commitments

Live the Questions: How Searching Shapes Our Convictions and Commitments (2019)

In today's world, where we are constantly bombarded by answers to everything, this book encourages us to take time to reflect upon the importance of thoughtful questioning. Jeff will explore how curiosity, investigation, and reflection assist individuals in developing their convictions, growing as a person of faith, and forming commitments to serve others.


Topics: Faith, Spiritual Development, Leadership, Personal Growth

A Poetics of Jesus: The Search for Christ in Nineteenth-Century Writing

A Poetics of Jesus: The Search for Christ in Nineteenth-Century Writing (Revised Edition, 2018)

In this interdisciplinary approach to theology and literature, Jeff will analyze how nineteenth century authors grappled with questions related to Christ, faith, imagination, and meaning.


Topics: Theology, Literature, Christology, Culture

Blur: A New Paradigm for Understanding Youth Culture

Blur: A New Paradigm for Understanding Youth Culture (2014)

Using his research experience working with adolescents and young adults Jeff provides insight into the emerging culture of youth and the changing methods they use to connect with faith, community, identity and belonging.


Topics: Youth Culture, Leadership, 

Your Neighbor’s Hymnal: What Popular Music Teaches Us About Faith, Hope and Love

Your Neighbor’s Hymnal: What Popular Music Teaches Us About Faith, Hope and Love (2011)

Popular music has always explored the very same questions that have been asked by theologians, philosophers and spiritualists for centuries. This book is an analysis of popular music as a means to access deeper meanings and understandings of hope, love, longing and faith.


Topics: Popular Culture, Music, Theology, Spirituality

Self: Kenosis, Cultural Identity and Mission at the Crossroads

Freedom of the Self: Kenosis, Cultural Identity and Mission at the Crossroads (2010)

Jeff uses his training in both theology and philosophy to create a framework for understanding identity, mission/culture/self.


Topics: Identity, Culture, Theology, Mission

Edited and Collaborative Works

Defiant Hope, Active Love: What Young Adults Are Seeking in Places of Work, Faith, and Community

Defiant Hope, Active Love: What Young Adults Are Seeking in Places of Work, Faith, and Community (2024)

A joint study of what young adults believe in and are hoping for as it relates to their experiences in the workplace, communities and within a place of faith.

Paul Ricoeur and the Hope of Higher Education: The Just University

Paul Ricoeur and the Hope of Higher Education: The Just University (2020)

Along with co-author Daniel Boscaljon this book will explore how institutions of higher learning can create social justice and promote civic duty and wisdom.


The Sacred and the Profane: Contemporary Issues in Hermeneutics (Revised Edition, 2017)

The Sacred and the Profane: Contemporary Issues in Hermeneutics (Revised Edition, 2017)

A multi-disciplinary look at interpreting, making meaning and understanding today's hermeneutical issues.


Paul Ricoeur and the Call to Interdisciplinarity (2013)

A scholarly contribution that examines how interdisciplinary thinking enhances dialogue among theologians, writers, philosophers and cultural thinkers.


Scholarship in Service of Community

Jeff sees writing as much more than just an academic task. He believes it is a means by which he can explore some of the most important issues of the day, generate real conversation, and help people (and their communities) make sense of all the complex issues we face today.


He hopes to use his writings to link together scholars, leaders, clergy, and ordinary people who want to understand themselves, others, and the world better -- to create more space for thinking critically and acting thoughtfully.


Why Writing Matters

Writing (in the form of books) and researching (the same), have the ability to influence how we talk about things; to challenge our thinking; and to reveal new ways of seeing who we are, and the world around us.

Jeff continues to write invitingly for all types of audiences to enter into conversations related to faith, culture, leadership, imagination, identity and all the questions that relate to being human.