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Stephen Sours, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Religion and History; Professor of Religion
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Education
- Ph.D., Systematic Theology, Duke University, with minor fields in New Testament and Islam
- M.Div., summa cum laude, Duke Divinity School, Duke University
- B.A., French Literature, Departmental Honors, Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y.
- Hamilton College Junior Year in France, Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris
Biography
Dr. Stephen Sours joined the Huntingdon College faculty in 2013 after teaching with the Southwestern College Professional Studies program, serving as a visiting fellow in the Southwestern College Institute of Discipleship, and serving as a preceptor for Duke Divinity School. Dr. Sours moderated the local study group and participated in the European group for the Center of Theological Inquiry. Teaching has been part of his life since 1993, when he began four years of service as a middle and upper-school teacher of French and English for Moorestown Friends School. An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, Dr. Sours served as pastor for Christ United Methodist Church in Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, serving on the District Committee on Superintendency and the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, as well as a conference task force member for Path-1 New Church Starts. He mentored for Duke Divinity School’s Duke Youth Academy during summer 2006. He served as minister for youth and young adults for the American Church in Paris, France, from 2001 to 2004. He is married to Dr. Sarah Conrad Sours.
Memberships, Awards, and Honors
- John Wesley Fellow
- Dempster Graduate Fellow
- Duke University Graduate School Summer Research Grants
Academic Presentations
- “What to Do with the Book and The Son? Simplicity and Tri-unity in Muslim and Christian Doctrines of God.” American Academy of Religion, Chicago; November 2012.
- “Eucharist and Evangelism: the Church’s Antidote to Empire.” Wesleyan Theological Society, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University; March 2011.
- “Truth-Telling and the Body of Christ.” Spring Lecture Series, Green Lake Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Seattle, Washington; April 2010.
- “Binding and Unbinding the Qur’an:Qur’anic Interpretation and Political Theory in Sayyid Qutb and Maulana Azad.” American Academy of Religion, Atlanta; November 2009.
- “All the Treasures of Sacrifice and Sanctification: Christology in the Eucharistic Theology of the Wesleys.” Wesleyan Theological Society, Anderson University; March 2009.
- “Eschatology without Ecclesiology: Israel and the Church in the Letter to the Hebrews.” American Academy of Religion, systematic theology section, Chicago; November 2008.
- “Anthropology and Transcendence: John Wesley’s Sacrificial Eucharistic Theology in Ecumenical Context.” John Wesley Fellows Conference, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University; December 2007.
Research and Teaching Interests
- Wesleyan theology and tradition
- Christian leadership, church renewal, and discipleship
- Systematic theology
- Methodist ecumenism and interfaith dialogue
- United Methodist history, doctrine, and polity
- Topics in Ecclesiology: sacraments, worship and moral formation, authority and unity
- Scripture and theology; scripture and ethics
- Islam: Qur’anic hermeneutics and authority; Islamic law and ethics
- Israel-Church in the New Testament; Contemporary Jewish-Christian relations
