The following is a representative list of twenty-eight members of the Graduate Theological Union faculty, and some of their areas of expertise. The complete faculty of the GTU consortium totals over one hundred and fifty, and offers a wealth of resources for stories related to ethics, religion, and spirituality.

GTU-affiliated research centers focus on specific fields. These centers include the Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, and the Center for the Arts, Religion, and Education. A complete list of GTU centers can be found here.

Contact information for the faculty experts is supplied below. To access other faculty members, please contact Joanne Brown in the Communications Office at 510/649-2422.

Jerome Baggett
Associate Professor of Religion and Society
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
Phone: 510/841-8804
E-mail: jbaggett@jstb.edu

• civil society
• civic participation
• public religion
• Habitat for Humanity
• social justice
• sociology of religion and social theory

Judith Berling
Professor of Chinese and Comparative Religions
Graduate Theological Union
Phone: 510/649-2455
E-mail: jberling@gtu.edu

• pedagogy—how to teach
• Buddhism
• immigration
• China and religion
• lesbian/gay spirituality
• feminist theology

Luke Buckles
Associate Professor of Theology
Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
Director of Theological Field Education
Phone: 510/883-2081
E-mail: frlukebuck@earthlink.net

• Roman Catholic Sacramental Theology
• Mariology (Mary, the blessed virgin, mother of Christ)
• Christian mysticism, especially John of the Cross and Catherine of Siena
• ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue

Rigoberto Caloca-Rivas
Instructor of Multi-Cultural Theology and Social Anthropology
Franciscan School of Theology
Phone: 510/848-5232
E-mail: rcaloca@mionline.org

• intimacy with God
• threatened peoples and environments in the Americas
• racial identity development
• cultural pluralism
• relationship of faith and health
• the Hispanic American experience

Jana Childers
Associate Professor of Speech-Communication and Homiletics
San Francisco Theological Seminary
Phone: 415/258-6500
E-mail: jchilders@sfts.edu

• religion and media
• women in ministry
• co-host of “Mosaic,” KPIX, channel 5
• theatre, worship, and preaching

James A. Donahue
President and Professor of Religion and Society
Graduate Theological Union
Phone: 510/649-2410
E-mail: jdonahue@gtu.edu

• ethics in journalism and the media
• religion and politics
• institutional and professional ethics
• management and spirituality
• social ethics
• sexual ethics

Ibrahim Farajajé
Dean and Professor of Cultural Studies
Starr King School for the Ministry
Phone: 510/845-6232

• queer theory
• transgender issues
• erotic spiritualities
• social history of epidemics
• performance/ritual studies
• African expressions of the divine
• AIDS

William McKinney
President and Professor of American History
Pacific School of Religion
Phone: 510/848-0528
E-mail: wmckinney@psr.edu

• religion, faith communities, and public life
• American mainline religion
• church leadership
• social trends in religion

Michael Morris, OP
Professor of Religion and the Arts
Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
Phone: 510/849-2030
E-mail: mmorrisop@compuserve.com

• Roman Catholicism in the media
• religion and film
• religion and art
• art and mysticism
• apocalypse
• Christian iconography, symbols, legends
• images of Mary

Eisho Nasu
Rev. Yoshitaka Tamai Professor of Jodo Shinshu Studies
The Institute of Buddhist Studies
Graduate Theological Union
Phone: 650/938-7192
E-mail: eishonasu@earthlink.net

• Shin Buddhist history and thought
• History of Pure Land Buddhist thought
• Works of Shinran
• Mahayana texts

Christopher Ocker
Associate Professor of Church History
San Francisco Theological Seminary
Phone: 415/258-6500
E-mail: cocker@sfts.edu

• Christianity in the late Middle Ages and Reformation
• the church and anti-Semitism
• Jewish-Christian relations
• medieval mysticism
• religion and culture

William O’Neill, SJ
Associate Professor of Social Ethics
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
Phone: 510/549-5036
E-mail: woneill@jstb.edu

• human rights
• social trends in religion
• social ethics
• international and domestic justice
• welfare reform
• immigration and refugee policy
• the common good

Rebecca Parker
President
Starr King School for the Ministry
Phone: 510/845-6232
E-mail: rparker@sksm.edu

• sexual and domestic violence
• critique of spirituality of obedience, self-sacrifice and surrender
• same-sex unions
• gay and lesbian issues
• world AIDS crisis
• Unitarian Universalism

Ted Peters
Professor of Systematic Theology
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
Phone: 510/524-5264
E-mail: tpeters2ct@aol.com

• stem cell research
• cloning
• genetics
• bioethics
• science and religion
• cults and new religious movements
• Trinity

Rosemary Radford Ruether
Professor of Feminist Theology
Graduate Theological Union/Pacific School of Religion
Phone: 510/849-8215
E-mail: rruether@psr.edu

• feminist theology
• women and religion
• environmental ethics
• church and family life
• Catholic church history

Robert J. Russell
Founder and Director, Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences
Professor of Theology and Science in Residence
Graduate Theological Union
Phone: 510/848-8152
E-mail: rrussell@ctns.org

• evolution and creation
• the Big Bang
• life in the universe/Mars
• quantum cosmology
• neuroscience and the person
• science and God’s action in the world
• science and the problem of evil
• how will the universe end?

Naomi Sheindel Seidman
Koret Professor of Jewish Culture
Director of the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies
Phone: 510/649-2482
E-mail: naomi@gtu.edu

• Hebrew and Yiddish literature
• modern Jewish thought
• Eastern European Jewish culture
• queer studies
• feminist theory
• God and the American novel

Martha Ellen Stortz
Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Ethics
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
Ph: 510/559-2732
E-mail: mstortz@plts.edu

• death and dying—ethical issues
• abortion
• marriage
• friendship
• same-sex union
• Simone Weil
• Iris Murdoch

Edmond Yee
Professor of Asian Studies
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
Phone: 510/559-2739
E-mail: eyee@plts.edu

• the afterlife and the soul in Chinese religion
• religion of the people in Chinese society
• Asian religions in America
• spirituality of aging
• Christianity and Chinese culture