Dr. Matt Jantzen

Dr. Matt Jantzen is the faculty director of the Emmaus Scholars Program, a living-learning community on campus that combines the practices of intentional Christian community with academic and practical explorations of the relationship between faith and justice in contemporary global society.

Dr. Jantzen teaches coursework in the areas of Christian theology and ethics, and his research explores the relationship between Christian theology, politics and race in the modern world. He is the author of God, Race, and History: Liberating Providence (Lexington Books, 2021), which explores the relationship between the doctrine of providence and race in modern Protestant theology.

Listen to an interview with Dr. Jantzen about his book God, Race, and History: Liberating Providence 

Areas of expertise

• Christian theology
• Christian ethics
• Political theology
• Race/whiteness studies
• Christianity and democracy
• Theologies of liberation

Education

• Th.D., Duke University, 2017
• M.Div., Duke University, 2012
• B.A., Wheaton College, 2009

Published work

• God, Race, and History: Liberating Providence, Lexington Books, 2021
• “Neither Ally, Nor Accomplice: James Cone and the Crisis of White Anti-Racism,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 40, no. 2, 2020
• “Immigration and the Theological Problem of Sovereignty: Catholic Social Teaching and the Modern State,” The Meaning of My Neighbor’s Faith: Interreligious Reflections on Immigration, ed. Laura Alexander and Alexander Hwang, Lexington Books, 2018
• “I am as Thou are Not: Christological Correspondence and the Problem of Whiteness in Church Dogmatics III/2,” Zeitschrift für Dialektische Theologie 33, no. 2, 2017

Outside the college

Dr. Jantzen and his wife live in Holland with their two sons. He is an aspiring soccer coach (3–5 year olds) and a devoted fan of the blues. He also has a background in broad-based community organizing with the Industrial Areas Foundation.