Candler School of Theology
One of the thirteen United Methodist schools of theology.
Candler is a large, well-resourced divinity school inside Emory, in Atlanta, and it is one of the few places where getting certified as a candidate is worth money: certified UMC candidates who apply by the priority deadline receive full tuition. Its curriculum is unusually flexible, which is the best and the most demanding thing about it. Four of the nine ¶324.4 areas are guaranteed; the other five you assemble yourself out of a generous elective block and a set of choices.
The Discipline's requirements, at this school.
¶324.4 asks for nine areas of basic graduate theological study, three semester hours each, with a minimum of six hours in United Methodist studies. Not pass/fail. ¶335.3(d) asks for them again at full connection, so they cannot be put off.
University Senate standing
Approved — a United Methodist school
One of the 13 United Methodist schools of theology; part of Emory University.
As of July 2026 · source ↗
Do online classes count?
Yes — a fully online M.Div. here meets the requirement
Candler offers the M.Div. in residential or hybrid/online format, and GBHEM approves all thirteen UMC schools to deliver a fully online M.Div. that meets the ordination requirement.
As of July 2026 · source ↗
Old Testament
Two required courses, at the 500 and 600 level.
New Testament
Two required courses, at the 500 and 600 level.
Church history
Two required History of Christianity courses, from different eras.
Theology
ST 501 Systematic Theology plus a 600-level systematic theology course.
Mission of the church in the world
The Religion and Society requirement is one course chosen from Mission (M), Sociology of Religion (SR), or Church and Community (CC). Mission is one of three options, not the requirement itself.
Preaching
Preaching (P) is one of nine subject areas from which you choose three Practical Theology / Arts of Ministry courses. It is entirely possible to satisfy that requirement without taking preaching.
Worship / liturgy
Worship (W) is likewise one of the nine Practical Theology options.
Evangelism
Evangelism (EV) is likewise one of the nine Practical Theology options.
United Methodist studies (doctrine, polity, history)
Candler's own curriculum page says the four elective courses “may be used to complete courses that fulfil denominational requirements.” That is where United Methodist history, doctrine, and polity live — in the twelve elective hours, not the core.
As of August 2026 · source ↗
Candler is a United Methodist school with a large, distinguished faculty, and only four of the nine ¶324.4 areas are guaranteed by its required curriculum. Scripture, history, and theology are locked in. Mission sits inside a three-way choice. Preaching, worship, and evangelism are three of the nine subject areas from which you pick three Practical Theology courses — so a student could complete the seventy-two hours without a preaching course. And United Methodist studies lives in the twelve elective hours, which Candler's own page names as the place denominational requirements get done.
None of this is hidden and none of it is a criticism: Candler built a flexible curriculum on purpose. But flexibility means the ¶324.4 list is your responsibility from the first semester, not the registrar's.
Map the nine areas onto your plan of study in your first advising meeting. At Candler the elective block and the Practical Theology choices are where five of the nine get satisfied — which is enough room, but only if it is spent deliberately.
Candler has an Assistant Dean of Methodist Studies and runs a United Methodist Course of Study school and a Licensing School. That is the office that will know exactly which course numbers satisfy which requirement.
Take the plan to your conference's Board of Ordained Ministry registrar and get their agreement in writing before your second year, while the elective hours are still unspent.
Confirm all of this with your conference’s Board of Ordained Ministry registrar before you enroll. They decide which courses satisfy which requirement — not the catalogue, and not us.
The faculty, by what they work on.
53 faculty, grouped by field rather than alphabetically — because the useful question is not who is here, it is who is here who works on the thing you care about.
Systematic theology
Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones
Assistant Professor of Theology and Africana Studies
PhD, Duke University, 2016
Recent work (5)
- Immaculate Misconceptions: A Black Mariology
- Couwenbergh’s The Rape of the Negress: Visual Violence, Theological Erasure, and Black Feminist Fugitivity
- If Favor Were Fair
- A Miracle Among Us
- Aesthetics of Resistance: Black Theology and the Visual Culture of The Shrine of the Black Madonna #9
Antonio Eduardo Alonso
Aquinas Associate Professor of Theology and Culture
PhD, Emory University, 2017
Recent work (5)
- Open Our Hearts: Music for Contemplative Worship
- Bendito Sea Dios: Aclamaciones, Himnos y Tropos para el Ritual de la Iniciación Cristiana
- Liturgy, Ecology, and Ethics at the End of the World: Toward an Apocalyptic Liturgical Theology
- Blessed Be God: Acclamations, Hymns and Chants for the OCIA
- Catholic Community Hymnal: Second Edition
Steffen Lösel
Professor in the Practice of Systematic Theology
ThD, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, Germany, 1999
Recent work (5)
- Theological Anthropology in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Sin, Grace, and Conversion
- Monostatos: Racism
- Church, Theology, and the Holiness of God
- Clemency and Conversion: Theological Reflection on Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito
- Reformed Sacramentality
Joy Ann McDougall
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology
PhD, University of Chicago, 1998
Recent work (5)
- An Anglican Theology of hope for a Common Future
- Book Panel on Katherine Sonderegger
- Rising with Mary: Re-visioning a Feminist Theology of the Cross and Resurrection
- A Trinitarian Grammar of Sin
- Closed Eyes and Blocked Vision: Gendering Tanner’s Theology of Sin and Grace
Ian A. McFarland
Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Theology
PhD, Yale University, 1995
Recent work (5)
- The Hope of Glory: A Theology of Redemption
- Being Trinitarian: A Response to Thomas Joseph White’s The Trinity
- Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Relgionsphilosophie
- Response or Remedy? A Reflection on the Role of Contrition in the Economy of Salvation
- Eschatology
R. Kendall Soulen
Bishop Mack B. and Rose Y. Stokes Professor of Systematic Theology
PhD, Yale University, 1992
Recent work (5)
- Irrevocable: The Name of God and the Unity of the Christian Bible
- The Father’s Voice: Recovering a Neglected Aspect of the Doctrine of the Trinity
- Supersessionism
- Christian Theology after the Holocaust
- Gregory W. Lee, Today When You Hear His Voice: Scripture, the Covenants, and the People of God
Church history
Sarah Bogue
Associate Professor in the Practice of the History of Christianity
PhD, Emory University, 2016
Anthony A. Briggman
Dr. Andrew J. and Georgia L. Ekonomou Distinguished Associate Professor of Patristic Theology
PhD, Marquette University, 2009
Recent work (5)
- God and Christ in Irenaeus
- Irenaeus: Creation & the Father’s Two Hands
- Theological Speculation in Irenaeus: Perils and Possibilities
- Literary and Rhetorical Theory in Irenaeus, Part 2
- Irenaeus on Natural Knowledge
Alison Collis Greene
Associate Professor of American Religious History
PhD, Yale University, 2010
Recent work (5)
- Reckoning with Southern Baptist Histories
- Religion and the Great Depression
- The Welfare of Faith
- Pine Knot Woman
- The Great Depression and Religion in Mississippi
Terrence L. Johnson
Mary Lee Hardin Willard Dean; Professor of Church History
PhD, Brown University
Recent work (5)
- Torn Asunder: Race and Religion in the Shadow of Law and Justice
- Blacks and Jews in America: An Invitation to Dialogue
- We Testify with Our Lives: How Religion Transformed Radical Thought from Black Power to Black Lives Matter
- Race, Politics, and Religion
- Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People
Helen Jin Kim
Associate Professor of American Religious History
PhD, Harvard University, 2017
Recent work (5)
- Race for Revival: How Cold War South Korea Shaped the American Evangelical Empire
- Jesus and John Wayne and the Shifting Grounds of Evangelical Historiography
- Generational Transitions and New Conceptions
- Reconstructing Asian America’s Religious Past: A Historiography
- Asian American Women’s History is American Religious History
Jonathan Strom
Mary Lee Hardin Willard Dean; Professor of Church History
PhD, University of Chicago, 1996
Recent work (5)
- German Pietism and the Problem of Conversion
- Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions
- Pietism
- Pietism and Conversion in Dargun
- Krisenbewusstsein und Zukunftserwartung bei Friedrich Breckling
New Testament
Musa W. Dube
William Ragsdale Cannon Distinguished Professor of New Testament
PhD, Vanderbilt University, 1997
Recent work (5)
- Theology, Gender and Pandemics Special Issue. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa
- Introduction: Theology, Gender and Pandemics
- Mothering African Women Theologies: Stories of Founding Members of the Circle
- The Palgrave Handbook of Ubuntu, Inequality and Sustainable Development
- John 1:1-18: Reading the 4th Gospel in the Context of Climate Change
Susan E. Hylen
Charles Howard Candler Professor of New Testament
PhD, Emory University, 2004
Recent work (5)
- Revelation
- Book review
- Social History: Connecting Historical Methods and Social Concerns
- Gender Mobility: 7 Ideas about Gender in the New Testament Period
- Las Mujeres en el Mundo del Nuevo Testamento
Jon-Paul Lapeña
Visiting Assistant Professor of New Testament
PhD, Yale University, 2026
Recent work (2)
- Embodied Hermeneutics in the Borderlands: Reading New Testament Healing through Early Latino Pentecostalism
- The Hemorrhaging Woman Embodies Violence: Reading Gendered Health Barriers in Mark 5:26
Joel M. LeMon
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs; The Rev. Dr. Donald Allen Harp, Jr. Distinguished Associate Professor of Biblical Studies
PhD, Emory University, 2007
Recent work (5)
- Picturing Righteous Violence in the Psalms and Ancient Near Eastern Iconography
- Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, Vol. 23: Parable, Parables – Peshat
- Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, Vol. 22: Og (King of Bashan)–Papyrus, Papyri
- The Garments of God: Iconographic Case Studies from Isaiah 6:1; 59:17; and 63:1-10
- Religion in Eighth-Century Judah: The Case of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud (and Beyond)
Jennifer Quigley
Associate Professor of New Testament
ThD, Harvard Divinity School, 2018
Recent work (5)
- The Minutiae of Progress and the Detritus of Change: On Bond’s Labor History of the Ancient Mediterranean
- Philippians
- Assembling Futures: Economy, Ecology, Democracy, and Religion
- Intimate Labour: Gender, Labour, and the Letters of Paul
- The Costs of Citizenship: Politeuma in the Letter to the Philippians
Walter T. Wilson
Professor of New Testament
PhD, University of Chicago, 1990
Recent work (5)
- Law, Wisdom, and the Poetics of Precarity in the Book of Baruch
- Memory, Trauma, and Liturgies of Exile in Baruch 1:1–3:8
- The Wisdom of Sirach
- The Gospel of Matthew, Volume I
- The Gospel of Matthew, Volume II
Congregational leadership
Gregory C. Ellison II
Associate Professor of Transformative Leadership and Communal Care
PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2008
Recent work (5)
- Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice (Korean Translation)
- Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman as Educator, Activist, Guide, and Prophet
- Impractical?: The Curious Life of a Scrappy Pastoral Theologian
- From Idea to Book: A Conversation with authors Duane Bidwell, Pamela Cooper- White, and Greg Ellison, hosted by Eileen Campbell-Reed
- Holy Activist and Wholly Other: Youth, Vocation, and the Problem of Fit
Robert M. Franklin, Jr.
James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor in Moral Leadership
PhD, University of Chicago, 1985
Recent work (5)
- Religious Faith in Public Leadership, Religion in the Classroom
- The Role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Cultivating the Next Generation of Social Justice and Public Service-Oriented Moral Leaders During the Racial Reckoning and COVID-19 Pandemics
- Moral Leadership: Integrity, Courage, Imagination
- RFK’s Still a Leadership Role Model for Youth
- Rehabilitating Democracy: Restoring Civil Rights and Leading the Next Human Rights Revolution
Soren Hessler
Assistant Professor in the Practice of Leadership and Administration
PhD, Boston University, 2021
Recent work (5)
- Where Now for Visible Justice? Curriculum and Methodology Booklet North America – Turtle Island – Regional Ecumenical Theological Institute (NATI-RETI) 2026
- The Order for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper to the Sick: A History of the Development of the Ritual in the American Methodist Context
- Relics in the Chapel: On the Dangers Inherent in Experiential Learning
- Building Interfaith Leadership Initiative (BILI): A Student Leadership Development Model
- The Consortium Institutional Archive: A Model for Preserving Memory at a Historically Black Seminary
Brett Opalinski
Assistant Dean of Methodist Studies; Assistant Professor in the Practice of Spiritual Formation and Church Leadership
PhD, Iliff School of Theology, 2008
Joanne Solis-Walker
Associate Dean of La Mesa Academy for Theological Studies; Professor in the Practice of Leadership
PhD, Regent University (organizational leadership and development), 2014
John Thompson-Quartey
Professor in the Practice of Church Leadership
BS, Rutgers University, 1993
Hebrew Bible / Old Testament
Ryan Bonfiglio
Professor in the Practice of Old Testament
PhD, Emory University, 2014
Recent work (5)
- Iconography and the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible
- Ritual Objects and Artifacts
- Genesis 9:8-17
- Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
- Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Joel B. Kemp
Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible
PhD, Boston College, 2017
Recent work (5)
- Amos” in New Oxford Annotated Bible
- Chaos, Community, and Creativity
- Review of Jason Gile
- Beloved Daughter, Beleaguered Wife, and Covenant Fidelity in Ezekiel 16
- Other, Otherness
Joel M. LeMon
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs; The Rev. Dr. Donald Allen Harp, Jr. Distinguished Associate Professor of Biblical Studies
PhD, Emory University, 2007
Recent work (5)
- Picturing Righteous Violence in the Psalms and Ancient Near Eastern Iconography
- Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, Vol. 23: Parable, Parables – Peshat
- Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, Vol. 22: Og (King of Bashan)–Papyrus, Papyri
- The Garments of God: Iconographic Case Studies from Isaiah 6:1; 59:17; and 63:1-10
- Religion in Eighth-Century Judah: The Case of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud (and Beyond)
Roger S. Nam
Professor of Hebrew Bible
PhD, UCLA, 2008
Recent work (5)
- The Theology of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah
- Biblical Studies, COVID-19, and Our Response to Growing Inequality
- The Economy of Late Achaemenid and Seleucid Babylonia
- ‘Half Speak Ashdodite and None Can Speak Judean’: Code-Switching in Ezra- Nehemiah as an Identity Marker for Repatriate Judeans and Koreans
- Design and Analysis Kinesthetic Language Learning: How an Oversight Led to a Revelation
Jacob L. Wright
Professor of Hebrew Bible
DrTheol, University of Göttingen, Germany, 2003
Recent work (5)
- Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins
- War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible
- ’Fear (not)!’ –Emotion and Ethics in Deuteronomy
- Rahab: Between Faith and Works
- Archaeology and History of Eighth-Century Judah
Ethics & public theology
Elizabeth M. Bounds
Associate Professor of Christian Ethics
PhD, Union Theological Seminary, 1994
Recent work (5)
- Treating Moral Harms as Social Harms: Toward a Restorative Ethics of Christian Responsibility
- The Conflict Skills Classroom as Social Microcosm
- Opening My Eyes: Teaching in a Women’s Prison
- Criminal Justice and Christian Community
- Round Table Discussion: William F. May, Testing the National Covenant: Some Thoughts in Response
Letitia M. Campbell
Associate Professor in the Practice of Ethics and Society
PhD, Emory University, 2017
Recent work (5)
- Tráfico Humano: Uma Proposta Indecente
- Human Trafficking and Slavery
- Christian Ethics and Human Trafficking Activism: Progressive Christianity and Social Critique
- Christian Engagement in US Anti-trafficking Activism: Precedents and Contexts (Parts 1 and 2)
- Review of The Extended Case Method: Four Countries, Four Decades, Four Great Transformations and One Theoretical Tradition, by Michael Burawoy
Craig Ford
Assistant Professor of Ethics
PhD, Boston College, 2018
Recent work (5)
- A Sketch of a Liberative Natural Law Anthropology
- Transgender Bodies, Catholic Schools, and a Queer Natural Law Theology of Exploration
- Virtue Ethics and Moral Knowledge in a Racist and Hetero/Sexist World
- Natural Law in Catholic Family Teaching
- Our New Galileo Affair
Ellen Ott Marshall
Professor of Christian Ethics and Conflict Transformation
PhD, Vanderbilt University, 2000
Recent work (5)
- Accounting for Agency by Attending to Time
- Art Lessons: Slow Pedagogy for the Moral Life
- ”Christian Arguments for Gun Violence Prevention: Reflections on Moral Claims in the Context of Advocacy
- Parenting for a Better World: Social Justice Practices for Your Family and the Planet
- Meditation with Collage
Nichole R. Phillips
Associate Professor in the Practice of Religion and Society
PhD, Vanderbilt University, 2012
Recent work (5)
- Rituals of Commemoration: Sites for cultural memories as traumatic silences and memorial cries for social change
- Book Review: Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide
- Patriotism Black and White: The Color of American Exceptionalism
- A ‘Spirituality of Improvisation’: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ in Rearticulating American National Identity
- Qualitative Research at Emory: Ethnographic Insights and Notes from the Field
Practical theology
Thomas W. Elliott, Jr.
Professor in the Practice of Practical Theology and Methodist Studies
DMin, Emory University, 1997
Recent work (5)
- The Quick and Easy Guide to United Methodist Polity, Second Edition
- Missio Dei and the United States: Toward a Faithful United Methodist Witness
- The Quick and Easy Guide to United Methodist Polity
- Jubilee
- Wesleyan Traditions Shape a Pastor’s Life
Kevin Murriel
Assistant Professor in the Practice of Practical Theology
DMin, Duke University, 2014
P. Alice Rogers
Associate Professor in the Practice of Practical Theology
DMin, Emory University, 1998
Recent work (2)
- Equipping the Saints: Best Practices in Contextual Theological Education
- Contextualizing Theological Education
Danielle Tumminio Hansen
Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Spiritual Care
PhD, Boston University, 2014
Recent work (5)
- Sarah Mullally breaks the Anglican Communion’s glass ceiling
- Trauma-Informed Spiritual Care
- Speaking of Rape: The Limits of Language in Sexual Violations
- Anglican Theologies of Reproductive Choice: Guest Editor’s Introduction
- Surrogacy, Secrecy, and the Sin of the Autonomous Self
Damon Williams
Assistant Professor in the Practice of Practical Ministry
PhD, University of Michigan, 2009
Christian education & formation
Jennifer R. Ayres
Associate Dean of Faculty; L. Bevel Jones III Professor of Religious Education
PhD, Emory University, 2007
Recent work (5)
- Field Trip
- Paying Attention
- A Pedagogy for Precarious Times: Religious Education and Vulnerability
- Recovering Mystery: Ecological Encounter and Practical Theological Knowing
- Inhabitance: Ecological Religious Education
Theodore Brelsford
Affiliate Associate Professor of Religion and Education
PhD, Emory University, 1999
Recent work (5)
- Religious Imagination as Problem
- Believing Political Lies Reveals Lack of Faith
- Educating For Formative Participation in Communities of Faith
- In Memoriam: Terence Copley (1947-2011)
- Contextualizing Theological Education: Integrating Ecclesial and Academic Practices in Teaching and Learning
Lauren Calvin Cooke
Visiting Assistant Professor in the Practice of Religious Education
PhD, Emory University, 2023
Recent work (1)
- Reimagining the Takeaway as an Invitation to Wonder
Elizabeth Corrie
Professor in the Practice of Youth Education and Peacebuilding
PhD, Emory University, 2002
Recent work (5)
- Journal of Youth and Theology
- Report on the IASYM Bi-Annual International Conference
- Journal of Youth and Theology
- Journal of Youth and Theology
- Youth Ministry as Peace Education: Overcoming Silence, Transforming Violence
Pastoral care & counseling
Gregory C. Ellison II
Associate Professor of Transformative Leadership and Communal Care
PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2008
Recent work (5)
- Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice (Korean Translation)
- Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman as Educator, Activist, Guide, and Prophet
- Impractical?: The Curious Life of a Scrappy Pastoral Theologian
- From Idea to Book: A Conversation with authors Duane Bidwell, Pamela Cooper- White, and Greg Ellison, hosted by Eileen Campbell-Reed
- Holy Activist and Wholly Other: Youth, Vocation, and the Problem of Fit
Geoffrey Goodman
Associate Professor of Psychology and Religion
PhD, Northwestern University, 1991
Recent work (5)
- Spiritual Interventions and Attachment: Alternative Models for Clergy and Mental Health Professionals
- Practical Applications of Transforming the Attachment Relationship to God
- Using Psychoanalytic Techniques to Transform the Attachment Relationship to God
- Pastoral Psychology
- Junk in the Trunk
Emmanuel Y. Lartey
Charles Howard Candler Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spiritual Care
PhD, The University of Birmingham (England), 1984
Recent work (5)
- Spiritual Care in African Religious Cultures: Sacred Wisdom for the Care of Persons in an Intercultural World
- What is Spiritual Care? Perspectives from different Professions and Religious Traditions
- Postcolonial Practices of Care: A project of togetherness during Covid-19 and Racial Violence
- International Handbook of Practical Theology
- Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care: Challenges of Care in a Neoliberal Age
Danielle Tumminio Hansen
Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Spiritual Care
PhD, Boston University, 2014
Recent work (5)
- Sarah Mullally breaks the Anglican Communion’s glass ceiling
- Trauma-Informed Spiritual Care
- Speaking of Rape: The Limits of Language in Sexual Violations
- Anglican Theologies of Reproductive Choice: Guest Editor’s Introduction
- Surrogacy, Secrecy, and the Sin of the Autonomous Self
Wesleyan & Methodist studies
Thomas W. Elliott, Jr.
Professor in the Practice of Practical Theology and Methodist Studies
DMin, Emory University, 1997
Recent work (5)
- The Quick and Easy Guide to United Methodist Polity, Second Edition
- Missio Dei and the United States: Toward a Faithful United Methodist Witness
- The Quick and Easy Guide to United Methodist Polity
- Jubilee
- Wesleyan Traditions Shape a Pastor’s Life
Geordan Hammond
Associate Professor of Methodist and Wesleyan Studies
PhD, University of Manchester, 2008
Recent work (5)
- Social Engagement in the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements
- Wesley and Methodist Studies, volume 18:1
- The Imitation of Christ
- We Believe in One God: Sixty Years of Methodists and Catholics Walking
- George Whitefield in America: A Documentary Journey
Brett Opalinski
Assistant Dean of Methodist Studies; Assistant Professor in the Practice of Spiritual Formation and Church Leadership
PhD, Iliff School of Theology, 2008
Black church studies
Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones
Assistant Professor of Theology and Africana Studies
PhD, Duke University, 2016
Recent work (5)
- Immaculate Misconceptions: A Black Mariology
- Couwenbergh’s The Rape of the Negress: Visual Violence, Theological Erasure, and Black Feminist Fugitivity
- If Favor Were Fair
- A Miracle Among Us
- Aesthetics of Resistance: Black Theology and the Visual Culture of The Shrine of the Black Madonna #9
Chandra C. Plowden
Visiting Assistant Professor of Black Church Studies and African American Religion and Culture
PhD, Harvard University, 2026
Recent work (3)
- A Case for Half-Lives: Ten Years after a Charleston Shooting
- Standing up for ‘Good-Work
- Child Care Assistance in Minnesota: Addressing Structural Racism
Mission & social justice
Elizabeth Corrie
Professor in the Practice of Youth Education and Peacebuilding
PhD, Emory University, 2002
Recent work (5)
- Journal of Youth and Theology
- Report on the IASYM Bi-Annual International Conference
- Journal of Youth and Theology
- Journal of Youth and Theology
- Youth Ministry as Peace Education: Overcoming Silence, Transforming Violence
Ellen Ott Marshall
Professor of Christian Ethics and Conflict Transformation
PhD, Vanderbilt University, 2000
Recent work (5)
- Accounting for Agency by Attending to Time
- Art Lessons: Slow Pedagogy for the Moral Life
- ”Christian Arguments for Gun Violence Prevention: Reflections on Moral Claims in the Context of Advocacy
- Parenting for a Better World: Social Justice Practices for Your Family and the Planet
- Meditation with Collage
Preaching
Teresa L. Fry Brown
Bandy Professor of Preaching
PhD, Iliff School of Theology and University of Denver, 1996
Recent work (5)
- Alleviating Homiletical Myopia
- African American History & Devotions: Readings and Activities for Individuals, Families, and Communities
- Prophetic Truth Telling in a Time of Fatigue and Fragmentation
- Reestablishing the Purpose and Power of the Preached Word through Black Church Studies
- Matthew 15:1-11, 12-20, 21-28: Homiletic Strategy Entries
Shanise N. Palmer
Visiting Assistant Professor of Preaching
PhD, Emory University, 2026
Spiritual formation
Brett Opalinski
Assistant Dean of Methodist Studies; Assistant Professor in the Practice of Spiritual Formation and Church Leadership
PhD, Iliff School of Theology, 2008
Khalia J. Williams
Associate Dean of Worship and Spiritual Formation; Professor in the Practice of Worship
PhD, Graduate Theological Union, 2017
Recent work (5)
- Theological Foundations of Worship: Biblical, Systematic, and Practical Perspectives
- A Worship Workbook A Practical Guide for Extraordinary Liturgy
- Love Your Flesh: The Power and Protest of Embodied Worship
- Liturgical Undoing: Christ, Communion, and Commodified Bodies
- Psalm 29
Liturgy & worship
Kristine Suna-Koro
Acting Associate Professor of Worship
PhD, Emory University, 2010
Recent work (5)
- Liturgy as Migration: Reimagining the Borderlands of Liturgical and Political Theology
- Borders, Religions, and Migration
- Liturgy, Corpus Mysticum and the Priesthood of All Believers in the Postcolonial World of Migratory Necropolitics
- Don Saliers: A Liturgical Method for All Seasons – In Season and Out of Season – With a Diasporic Twist
- Silence as Liturgical Space for Lament: Praying and Listening on Christmas Eve Amidst Ecological and Migration Emergencies
Khalia J. Williams
Associate Dean of Worship and Spiritual Formation; Professor in the Practice of Worship
PhD, Graduate Theological Union, 2017
Recent work (5)
- Theological Foundations of Worship: Biblical, Systematic, and Practical Perspectives
- A Worship Workbook A Practical Guide for Extraordinary Liturgy
- Love Your Flesh: The Power and Protest of Embodied Worship
- Liturgical Undoing: Christ, Communion, and Commodified Bodies
- Psalm 29
Latino/Hispanic ministry
Jonathan Calvillo
Associate Professor of Latinx Communities
PhD, University of California, Irvine, 2016
Recent work (5)
- When the Spirit Is Your Inheritance: Reflections on Borderlands Pentecostalism
- In the Time of Sky-Rhyming: How Hip Hop Resonated in Brown Los Angeles
- Global Pentecostal Movement
- Diverging Latinidades in Latinx Churches
- Sustaining the Altar Flow: Lived Religion and Latinx Pentecostal Altars
Youth ministry
Elizabeth Corrie
Professor in the Practice of Youth Education and Peacebuilding
PhD, Emory University, 2002
Recent work (5)
- Journal of Youth and Theology
- Report on the IASYM Bi-Annual International Conference
- Journal of Youth and Theology
- Journal of Youth and Theology
- Youth Ministry as Peace Education: Overcoming Silence, Transforming Violence
World Christianity
Jehu J. Hanciles
D.W. and Ruth Brooks Professor of World Christianity
PhD, University of Edinburgh, 1995
Recent work (5)
- A Guide to Christianity Worldwide 1800–2000
- World Christianity: History, Methodologies, Horizons
- Migration and the Making of Global Christianity
- The Twentieth Century: Traditions in a Global Context (The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume IV)
- Introduction
Evangelism & church planting
Arun W. Jones
Dan and Lillian Hankey Associate Professor of World Evangelism
PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2001
Recent work (5)
- Mission in the World of Religions
- Christian Interculture: Texts and Voices from Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds
- Bhakti and Christian Missions
- The Virtues of Mission
- Protestants and Anglicans in South-Central Asia
Four of Candler's fifty-seven faculty are not grouped below: their titles — Anglican Studies, Catholic Studies, Divinity, and Senior Research Fellow — do not map onto the field vocabulary this site uses across schools, and inventing a field for them would be worse than saying so. They are on Candler's own directory. The remaining 53 each have a real per-person profile page at candler.emory.edu/faculty-profiles/ — all 53 carry degrees and 52 a published email; 46 also have a Selected Publications tab the school populates itself, sourced here (a five-item selection, not a CV). The other 7 (Sarah Bogue, Kevin Murriel, Brett Opalinski, Shanise N. Palmer, Joanne Solis-Walker, John Thompson-Quartey, Damon Williams) simply don't have a Selected Publications tab on their own Candler page — a real ceiling on what the school itself publishes for them, not a parsing gap.
Titles and fields are the school’s own; the grouping is ours. Where Candler School of Theologypublishes a page for someone, it’s linked above as “Profile.” Professors answer email from prospective students more often than you would guess. Publication lists come from the school’s own annual listing ↗, are a selection rather than a full CV, and are only shown for people currently on the directory.
The degrees.
Master of Divinity
72 hrsSeventy-two hours for students beginning Fall 2023 or later, including four semesters of Contextual Education taken in sequence and twelve hours of electives.
Three or four years
United Methodist Course of Study
Candler hosts a Course of Study school and a Licensing School for licensed local pastors.
Money, plainly.
Who gets aid
100% of Master of Divinity students receive scholarship assistance; 96% of all students
Candler reports awarding $8.3 million in financial aid in 2025–26.
As of August 2026 · source ↗
Typical award
M.Div. scholarships begin at 50% of tuition and range to full tuition plus a stipend
Certified UMC candidates who apply by the priority deadline are treated separately — see named scholarships.
As of August 2026 · source ↗
- Full tuition for certified UMC candidates — Candler states that M.Div. students who are certified candidates for UMC ordination, or in the process of becoming certified, and who apply by the priority deadline, receive scholarships covering 100% of tuition. Certification is the ¶310 rung — here it carries a price tag and a date. Confirm current terms with admissions before relying on it.
This is the strongest link between the candidacy process and the cost of seminary that any school on this site publishes. Getting certified as a candidate — the ¶310 rung — is not only a step toward ordination at Candler; it is worth full tuition, provided you also make the priority deadline. If Candler is on your list, that turns certification from something to get around to into something with a date attached. Confirm the current terms with admissions before relying on it.
Place, and what else is within reach.
Emory University
Candler is one of Emory's schools, in Atlanta, with Pitts Theology Library and dual-degree routes into other Emory faculties.
Candler hosts both a United Methodist Course of Study school and a United Methodist Licensing School, so the licensed local pastor route and the ordination route are administered on the same campus.
Who this fits, and what to weigh.
- Candidates who have already been certified, or are close, and can hit the priority deadline.
- People who want a research university around them and will use the dual degrees.
- People who plan their own curriculum well and want room rather than a fixed track.
- Only four of the nine ¶324.4 areas are locked in. Preaching, worship, and evangelism are three of nine options for a three-course requirement, so you could finish without any of them.
- United Methodist studies lives in the twelve elective hours. Candler's own page says that is where denominational requirements get done — which is a direction, not a safety net.
- Candler does not publish a per-credit tuition figure alongside its scholarship claims. Ask for a full cost of attendance, and ask what the priority deadline actually is.
- Certified UMC candidates who apply by the priority deadline receive scholarships covering 100% of tuition — the clearest financial reason on this site to get certified early.
- Contextual Education is four required semesters taken in sequence, in clinical or social settings first and ecclesial settings second, with faculty-led reflection groups.
- A Course of Study school and a Licensing School run on the same campus, so the licensed and ordained routes sit side by side.
- Fifty-seven faculty — by some distance the largest roster on this site so far.
Send one email this week.
Not an application — an email. Pick the professor above whose field is closest to what you cannot stop thinking about, and ask them what they are working on. Then ask admissions to sit in on one class. Both are free, and both tell you more than a brochure will.
Everything on this page was checked against the school’s own published material on August 6, 2026. Costs and curricula change every year — the source link beside each fact is the one that stays current.