Current news about ETSS faculty members

The Very Reverend Douglas Travis email
Dean and President
Sixth-generation Texan and a fourth-generation clergyman, the Rev. Douglas Travis joined the ETSS community as Dean-elect at the beginning of 2007. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he holds five academic degrees including a Master of Sacred Theology in Spiritual Direction and a Doctor of Ministry. Travis’ academic interests focus on Christian formation, spirituality and leadership. He describes himself as a moderate who is deeply committed to the unity of the Anglican Communion. Devoted to Anglicanism in its essentials, Travis thinks that the great challenge of the Episcopal Church in a postmodern and largely post-Christian world is to remember and embrace heartily the essentials of our tradition – especially as expressed in the historic creeds and the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral – while also being responsive to the developing needs of an emerging culture. Douglas came to the seminary after being rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in The Woodlands, Texas. Prior to that he served three parishes in the Diocese of Dallas and was Dean of the Anglican School of Theology in Dallas.
B.A., Trinity University. M.A., McCormick Theological Seminary. M.A., University of Chicago Divinity School. S.T.M., General Theological Seminary. D.Min., Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.

The Reverend Alan P. R. Gregory email
Frederic and Alma R. Duncalf Associate Professor of Church History. Academic Dean.
Professor Gregory taught historical and systematic theology and served as Director of Academic Studies at Salisbury and Wells Theological College, England, before coming to the U.S. for doctoral studies at Emory University in the late 1980s. He earned his Ph.D. in historical theology, specializing in Romanticism and the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Dr. Gregory is the author of Moving Gnomes by Midnight, a volume of sermons, and Coleridge and the Conservative Imagination, in addition to being a contributor to Oxford Guide to Romanticism and Coleridge’s Assertion of Religion. Professor Gregory has complemented his teaching and research with service in several parochial ministries in Britain and Atlanta, Georgia . His third book, Quenching Hell, an introduction to the Anglican mystic, William Law, will be published September 2008. Currently, Dr. Gregory is working on a theological study of science fiction. He also has a particular interest in the integration of theology and spirituality, and in Christian responses to technological change. He joined the Seminary of the Southwest faculty in 1995 and became Academic Dean in 2004.
B.D., Kings College, University of London. M.Th., University of London. Ph.D., Emory University.

Dr. Anthony D. Baker email
Assistant Professor of Theology.
Professor Baker taught religious studies at the joint campus of Indiana and Purdue universities in Indianapolis before joining the seminary faculty in 2004. His academic interests center on theological critiques of modern and postmodern culture, and his publications include articles on Darwinism, German philosophy, and Russian Orthodoxy. He is currently at work on a book entitled Christian Perfection and the Perfect God. Professor Baker was a Doctoral Fellow of the Center on Religion and Democracy during his studies at the University of Virginia. He has also been director of youth and children’s ministries at a United Methodist Church in Virginia, and has taught adult education classes in Indianapolis and in churches around the Austin area.

B.A., M.A., Olivet Nazarene University. Ph.D., University of Virginia.

The Reverend Paul T. Barton email
Associate Professor of Hispanic Church Studies.
Professor Barton joined the seminary faculty in the fall of 1999, following the completion of his Ph.D. studies at Southern Methodist University. The heart of his MDiv program at Perkins School of Theology and his doctoral studies at SMU was the historical, cultural and theological investigation of Latino/a Christianity. His book, Hispanic Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists in Texas, was published in 2006. Professor Barton is writing two books on the history of Hispanic Christianity in North America. He brings his Latino perspective to bear on the courses he teaches in History, Hispanic Church Studies and Missiology, in addition to administering a website (www.latinoreligion.com) he has developed for Hispanic Theological Education and Hispanic Ministry. A second generation Mexican-American, he is an ordained elder in the Rio Grande Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. Professor Barton was pastor of three Hispanic congregations and a campus minister after completing his MDiv degree.
B.A., Southwestern University. MDiv, Perkins School of Theology. Ph.D., Southern Methodist University.

Ms. Molly Bennett email
Director of the Certificate Programs in Youth Ministry and Christian Education. Lecturer in Christian Education.
A veteran director of religious education and consultant throughout Province VII, Ms. Bennett has worked in the field of Religious Education for more than 20 years. She is a strong supporter of theological education for everyone – not just persons intending ordination. Ms. Bennett views lifelong learning about the presence of God in our lives as a necessity for the living out of vows undertaken at baptism. She has taught at both the Seminary of the Southwest and the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest. Ms. Bennett leads workshops and consults regularly with churches throughout Province VII.
B.A., Western Washington University.

Dr. Steven Bishop email
Assistant Professor of Old Testament
Dr. Bishop came to the Seminary of the Southwest from the Boston area in 2004 where he earned three graduate degrees and taught at several universities. Formerly an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, he served churches in Texas and Massachusetts before beginning graduate studies in the early 1990s. Dr. Bishop’s academic interests include the poetry of the Hebrew Bible and literary translations of it into English, and the influence of Hellenistic thought on Hebrew wisdom literature. In addition to writing book reviews and presenting scholarly papers, Dr. Bishop assisted the well known Old Testament scholar Bernhard Anderson in editing and revising two books: Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak for us Today and Contours of OldTestament Theology. Dr. Bishop worked again with Anderson as an editor and contributor for the fifth edition of Understanding the Old Testament. That book was published in spring 2006.
B.S., Abilene Christian University. M.S., Texas A&M University. M.T.S., Boston University School of Theology. M.A. and Ph.D., Boston University.

The Reverend Charles James Cook email
Joe and Jessie Crump Chair of Cultural Research. Professor of Pastoral Theology.
Professor Cook teaches a variety of pastoral theology courses. He also created the seminary’s St. Luke’s, Atlanta, program where students take part in that church’s extensive outreach work during the seminary’s January Term every year. Professor Cook served in churches in Texas, North Carolina and St. Louis before joining the seminary faculty in 1984. He works frequently with dioceses, parishes and vestries throughout Province Seven and other parts of the country on pastoral and planning issues, in addition to being active in several Episcopal Church groups in the Austin metropolitan area.
B.A., Drake University. MDiv, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest.

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