CMU Faculty

Paul Doerksen

Associate Professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies

Paul Doerksen completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Western Religious Thought at McMaster University in 2007 and Master of Theological Studies at Conrad Grebel University College in 1999.

Doerksen has published a collection of essays entitledTake and Read: ReflectingTheologically on Books; he also edited the posthumous publication of A. James Reimer's Toward an Anabaptist Political Theology, and co-edited (along with Karl Koop) a collection of essays to celebrate the career of CMU Professor Harry Huebner, entitled The Church Made Strange for the Nations: Essays in Ecclesiology and Political Theology. Doerksen has also authored Beyond Suspicion: Post-Christendom Protestant Political Theology in Yoder and O'Donovan. He is currently researching other topics in political theology, including Christian patience, the relationship between theology and human rights discourse, and has an on-going interest in the interrelationship of literature and theology.

In addition to his teaching and research work, Doerksen serves on the executive board of L'Arche Winnipeg.

Paul Doerksen grew up near New Bothwell, Manitoba but now lives in Winnipeg. He is a member of River East Church, where his wife, Julie, serves on the pastoral staff. They have three adult daughters, Cecely, Hannah, and Greta.

"To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist." Cardinal Sudhard

"Theology is watching our language in the presence of God." – Gerald O'Collins

VIDEO – Paul Doerksen comments on the book he edited, Toward an Anabaptist Political Theology: Law, Order, and Civil Society (Wipf and Stock, 2014). The book is a collection of essays by the late theologian Dr. A. James Reimer that pursues the investigation of theological realities that are to serve as the engine of a political theology that seeks to articulate both a critical and a positive-constructive approach to public/political life and institutions. 

Areas of Teaching

Theology, Anabaptist Studies, Ethics, Literature and Theology

Education

Bachelor of Religious Education (Honours), Briercrest Bible College, 1983; BA, BEd University of Winnipeg, 1992; MTS Conrad Grebel University College, 1999; PhD McMaster University, 2006

Work in Detail

Teaching

* Introduction to Christianity

* Anabaptist Beginnings

* Literature and Theology

* Sixteenth Century Reformations

* Contemporary Anabaptist Theology

* Mennonite Literature and Theology

* Theological Ethics

* Political Theology

* What is a Human?

* Peace Theology

Research

 

Books:

Take and Read: Reflecting Theologically on Books (Eugene, Or.: Wipf and Stock, 2016), pp. 258.

Editor of A. James Reimer, Toward an Anabaptist Political Theology: Law, Order, and Civil Society. Eugene, Or.:Wipf and Stock, Theopolitical Visions Series, October, 2014.

Co-editor (with Karl Koop) of The Church Made Strange Made Strange For the Nations: Essays in Political Theology and Ecclesiology, Wipf and Stock: Princeton Theological Monographs, 2011.

Beyond Suspicion: Post-Christendom Protestant Political Theology in the Thought of John Howard Yoder and Oliver O'Donovan, Paternoster Press, 2009; Wipf and Stock, 2010.

Co-editor (with Jeremy Bergen, Karl Koop) of Creed and Conscience: Essays in Honour of A. James Reimer, (Pandora Press), May 2007.

Articles/Chapters:

"The Collateral Damage of Peace," chapter forthcoming in book published from Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference and Festival.

Resisting the Proliferation of Fragmentation: The Unified and Hospitable Body of Christ forthcoming in Conrad Grebel Review, 2024.

"Extravagant Hope, Urgent Patience: The Uncontrollability of Renewal," Direction, Spring 2024 · Vol. 53 No. 1: 24-38.

"Must Patience be so Slow?," MB Herald, January 20, 2023.

"Urgent Patience in Uncertain Times," Vision 2023, 24:1, 87-96.

"In the Patience of Love's Delay," chapter in Fernando Enns, Nina Schroeder-van 't Schip, Andrés Pacheco-Lozano, eds., A Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace: Global Mennonite Perspectives on Peaecebuilding and Nonviolence (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2023), 87-97.

"In the Patience of Love's Delay: When God's Word is at Work," MB Herald, October 18, 2022;

"The Patience of God," MB Herald, November 15, 2022;

"The Church as the Patient Body of Christ," MB Herald, December 20, 2022;

"Confession as Cry of Acknowledgement," Direction Fall, 2022, 51:2, 180-186.

"We Must Move Beyond Suspicion," editorial, Winnipeg Free Press, August 5, 2021.

"John Howard Yoder," encyclopedia article for Encyclopedia of Bible and its Reception, (Berlin: de Gruyter).

"Living on God's Good Land," essay in Marta Burnett, ed., Germinating Conversations: Stories from a Sustained Rural-Urban Dialogue on Food, Faith, Farming, and the Land, 2021.

"The Experience of Hoping for Experience," Vision 21:1 (2020): 31-35.

"Tolerance is not a Panacea," Sermon published May 2020: https://macrinamagazine.com/issue-4-general-submissions/guest/2020/05/23/tolerance-is-a-virtue-but-not-a-panacea/.

"Restlessness as Theological Method," in Recovering from the Anabaptist Vision: New Essays in Anabaptist Identity and Theological Method edited by Laura Schmidt Roberts, Paul Martens and Myron A. Penner (T&T Clark: Feb. 20 2020).

"Developing a "More Honest" Political Theology?" Conrad Grebel Review 37:1 (Winter 2019):28-41.

"Post-Christendom Virtue Ethics," Post-Christendom Studies, 3 (2018-2019): 5-38.

 "In the Patience of Love's Delay," Baptistic Theologies, Fall 2017 (9:2): 85-100.

"Oliver O'Donovan: Ethics as Theology," The Conrad Grebel Review, Winter 2018 (36:1), 81-87.

"Pilgram Marpeck," in Encyclopedia of Bible and its Reception, (Berlin: de Gruyter, March 2018).

 "Teaching Mennonite Literature in Conversation with Theology," Center for Mennonite Writing Journal, January 28, 2016 8:1. http://www.mennonitewriting.org/journal/

"The Gospel as Prisoner and Liberator of Culture," Direction Fall 2015 (44:2), 138-143.

"An Anabaptist Account of the Ecclesiological Shaping of the Relationship Between Theology and Human Rights Discourse," Mennonite Quarterly Review, Spring 2015 (89:2): 275-297.

"The Politics of Moral Patience," Political Theology September 2014 (15:5): 454-467.

Review essay of Paul Martens, The Heterodox Yoder, for Syndicate Theology (online and print) 1:1 (June, 2014).

Gambling: A Short-range Substitute for Faith. Board of Faith and Life Pamphlet for Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, 2013.

"Simultaneously Satisfying and Insatiable," Direction, Spring 2013 (42:1): 82-91.

"Responding But Not Replying: David Bentley Hart and the 'New Atheism,'" Direction, Spring 2011 (40:1): 80-89.

"The Air is Not Quite Fresh: Emerging Church Ecclesiology," in Abe Dueck, Helmut Harder, Karl Koop, eds., New Perspectives in Believers Church Ecclesiology,  (Canadian Mennonite University Press), 2010. Reprinted by permission in Direction, Spring 2010 (39:1): 3-18.

"Toward an Anabaptist Political Theology," in Jeremy Bergen, Paul Doerksen, Karl Koop, eds., Creed and Conscience: Essays in Honour of A. James Reimer, (Pandora Press, 2007): 281-301.

"Hope Without Eschatology?" Direction, Fall 2006 (35:2): 253-260.

"Exposing the Grain of the World and Living with the Grain of the Universe: The Apocalyptic Stance of John Howard Yoder," Didaskalia, Fall 2005 (17:1): 51-58.

"Christology in the Political Theology of Oliver O'Donovan," Mennonite Quarterly Review July 2004 (78:3): 433-447.

"Share the House: John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas Among the Nations," in Ben Ollenburger and Gayle Gerber Koontz, eds., A Mind Patient and Untamed: Assessing John Howard Yoder's Contributions to Theology, Ethics, and Peacemaking, (Telford: Cascadia Publishing House, 2004):187-204.

"For and Against Milbank: A Critical Discussion of John Milbank's Construal of Ontological Peace," The Conrad Grebel Review Winter 2000 (18:1): 48-59.

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

Extravagant Hope, Urgent Patience: The Uncontrollability of Renewal. Plenary Address, Renew Conference, CMU, 2024.

Six presentations for Xplore, Fall 2023 "Mennonite Theology and Literature;" October, November 2023;

"Are You Alone Wise?" SAGA Conference; October 2023.

"The Collateral Damage of Peace," Global Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference and Festival III, Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia, June 2023.

Presentation at Hutterite Educational Conference, October 29, 2022

"The Importance of Creeds and Confessions," Presentation to all Grade 12 Students, MBCI, October 31, 2019;

Series of 5 sermons, Advent, for CMU radio December 2019.

"Pilgram Marpeck on Peace and Patience," Presentation at Global Mennonite Peacemaking Conference and Festival, Mennorode, Elspeet, Netherlands, June 27-30, 2019.

"Christian Faith in a World of Polarized Politics," Xplore, Fall, 2019;

"Developing a 'More Honest Anabaptist Political Theology'?" Presentation at A People of Diversity: Mennonites in Canada since 1970: The Mennonite Historical Society of Canada's 50th Anniversary Conference, November 15, 16 and 17, 2018.

Hosted by the Center for Transnational Mennonite Studies, University of Winnipeg.

"The Politics of Moral Patience," Presentation at Doing Theology Ecumenically Research Group, Free University, Amsterdam, November 9, 2017.

"Response to Oliver O'Donovan Lecture," Presentation at University of St Andrews, November 23, 2017 (read in absentia)

"Restlessness as Theological Method," Presentation at Mennonite Seminary, Amsterdam, December 7, 2017.

"On Dying," Podcast Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/multiplypodcast/2-4-on-dying-wanda-derksen-paul-doerksen, August 4, 2017.

"Restlessness as Theological Method," Presentation at Anabaptist Theology: Methods and Practices Conference, Humanitas Center, Trinity Western University, June 7-9, 2017.

"Figural Theology: Mennonite Theology and Literature," Panel Member at Anabaptist Theology: Methods and Practices Conference, Humanitas Center, Trinity Western University, June 7-9, 2017.

"Theology of Land," Presentation at Germinating Conversations, CMU, March 17, 2016.

"Homosexuality and the Church," 2 Presentations to Young Adult Ministries Program, The Meeting Place, Winnipeg, January 2016.

"Faith, Fiction, and Freedom," at Mennonite(s) Writing Conference, Fresno, Ca. March, 2015.

"Anabaptist Spirituality," MBCI – Spiritual Emphasis Chapels (x2); Jan. 20, 21, 2015.

"Methodist Near Mennonite," Oct. 3, 2014, Near/Ex-Mennonite Conference, University of Winnipeg.

"The Ambivalent Conversation Between Christian Theology and Human Rights Discourse," Ecclesiological Investigations Network Conference: Religion, Authority and the State: From Constantine to the Secular and Beyond, Belgrade, Serbia, June 20, 2013.

"Patience as Pedagogy," Professional Development Retreat, Westgate Mennonite Collegiate, February 20 - 21, 2013.

"Graduation Commencement Address," Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute, June 2012.

"Responding but not Replying: David Bentley Hart and the New Atheists," Presentation recorded as podcast for ideaExchange, st. benedict's table, March 19, 2012.

"It's Not All About You: Theology and Human Rights," Fall Festival, Canadian Mennonite University, September 30, 2011.

"Ethics as Patience," Mennonite Brethren Study Conference, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, October 2009.

"The Air is Not Quite Fresh: Emerging Church Ecclesiology," Believers Church Conference, Winnipeg, Manitoba, June 2008.

"Integrating Faith and Teaching," Mennonite Education Agency Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January 2008.

"Renewing a Posture: Anabaptism, Christ and Culture," Mennonite Brethren Study Conference, Abbotsford, British Columbia, October 12, 2007.

"The Church as Counter-Political and Post-Political: Ecclesial Visibility and Responsibility in Oliver O'Donovan's Political Theology," Newman Center, McGill University, Montreal; "Pluralism, Politics, and God?" Conference, September 12, 2007.

"Collecting the Voices: A Reflection on the Conference," University of Winnipeg Conscientious Objector Conference, October 21, 2006.

"Improvisation and Ethics," Co-Presenter, Canadian Association of Mennonite Schools, Gimli, Man., February 9, 2006.

"A Political Rendering of the Claim that Jesus is Lord," Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Faculty Forum, March 11, 2005.

"Evangelical Political Theology," Congress of the Humanities, Winnipeg, May 29, 2004.

"Share the House: John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas Among the Nations," Believers Church Conference, University of Notre Dame, March 2002.

Presentation of paper Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, and co-presenter of The Jesus Seminar at Canadian Association of Mennonite Schools Conference, February 2000.

SELECTED REVIEWS

Review of Hildi Froese-Tiessen, Mennonite/s Writing, in Mennonite Historian. 50:3, September 2024.

Review of Gary Waite, Anti-Anabaptist Polemics: Dutch Anabaptism and the Devil in England, 1531-1660, forthcoming in Journal of Ecclesiastical History.

Review of Sofia Samatar, The White Mosque: A Memoir in Mennonite Historian, September 2023.

Review of Brian Brewer, ed., T&T Clark Handbook of Anabaptism in Journal of Mennonite Studies.

Review of Maxwell Kennel, Postsecular History: Political Theology and the Politics of Time in Mennonite Quarterly Review, 96 no 4 (Oct 2022): 608-610.

Review of Mary Zournazi and Rowan Williams, Justice and Love: A Philosophical Dialogue in Direction Fall 2021 · Vol. 50 No. 2: 233-235.

Review of C. Arnold Snyder, Faith and Toleration: A Reformation Debate Revisited in Journal of Mennonite Studies, 38 (2020): 276-277.

Review of C. Arnold Snyder, ed. Later Writings of Swiss Anabaptists," Direction, 48:1 (Spring, 2019).

Review of Jason Reimer Greig, Reconsidering Intellectual Disability: L'Arche, Medical Ethics, and Christian Friendship, in Direction, 46:1 (Spring 2017), 111-113.

Review of Rob Zacharias, ed. After Identity: Mennonite Writing in North America, in Rhubarb, 41: Spring 2017.

Review of Malkhaz Songulashvili, Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia: The History and Transformation of a Free Church Tradition, in American Baptist Quarterly, Spring 2016 (35:1): 90-91.

Review of Sue Sorenson, The Collar, Journal of Mennonite Studies, 34 (2016): 328-329.

Review of Wendell Berry, Sex, Community, Economy, and Freedom, for Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches website.

Review of Corey and Charles, The Just War Tradition: An Introduction, in Political Theology 15:5 (December 2014).

Review of Oliver O'Donovan, God, Self, and Time, in The Conrad Grebel Review, 32:3 (Fall 2014): 302-303.

Review of Oliver O'Donovan, Church in Crisis: The Gay Controversy and the Anglican Communion, Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches website.

Review of Noah Richler, What We Talk About When We Talk About War, in Winnipeg Review, June 18, 2012.

Review of Christopher Hitchens, Mortality, Winnipeg Free Press Sept. 8, 2012.

Review of John Howard Yoder, Nonviolence: A Brief History – The Warsaw Lectures, Mennonite Quarterly Review, July, 2012.

Review of Richard P. Church, First Be Reconciled: Challenging Christians in the Courts, Journal of Mennonite Studies, 30 (2010).

Review of Stanley Hauerwas and Romand Coles, Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary, Conrad Grebel Review, 27, no. 1 (Winter 2009).

Review of Chris Huebner, Precarious Peace, Direction, 38 no 1 (Spring 2009): 110-112.

Review of Oliver O'Donovan, The Ways of Judgment, Conrad Grebel Review 25, no. 1 (Winter 2007).

Review of Thinking About Peace: A Review of Five Books, in Mennonite Brethren Herald 45, no. 15 (November 24, 2006): 29-30.

Review of John Howard Yoder, Anabaptism and Reformation in Switzerland, Conrad Grebel Review 24, no. 2 (Spring 2006): 81-83.

Review of John Roth, Choosing Against War: A Christian View, Mennonite Quarterly Review 78, no. 4 (October 2004): 433-447.

Review of A. James Reimer, Mennonites and Classical Theology: Dogmatic Foundations for Christian Ethics, Toronto Journal of Theology (Spring 2004):115-116.

Review of Willard Swartley, Homosexuality: Biblical Interpretation and Moral Discernment, Canadian Mennonite 8, no. 3 (February 9, 2004): 8-9.

Review of A. James Reimer, The Dogmatic Imagination: The Dynamics of Christian Belief, Christian Courier (October 20, 2003): 9.

Review of Stanley Hauerwas, Chris Huebner, Harry Huebner, Mark Thiessen Nation, eds. The Wisdom of the Cross, Journal of Mennonite Studies 19 (2001).

Editorial:

Guest co-editor for Conrad Grebel Review (along with Daniel Rempel) for special issue: "Anabaptist Theology in Conversation with Theology of Disability," Includes recruitment of writers, peer editing of essays, writing of Introduction, "Anabaptists Need Disability Theology."

Guest Editor for Vision, "Faith and Politics,' Spring 2017, Vol. 18, No. 1.

Book Review Editor, Direction, October 2008 – December 2023.

Guest editor for Direction, "Anabaptist Political Theology," 38, no. 1 (Spring 2009).

 

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