Jacob Cook PhD

POSITION: Seminary Grant Program Director; Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics - Seminary

DEPARTMENTS:
School of Theology, Humanities and Performing Arts
Seminary

LOCATION: Main Campus, Harrisonburg | SB 225

PHONE: (540) 432-4229

Jacob Alan Cook is Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics and the director for Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s “Pathways for Tomorrow” grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. He earned his PhD in Christian Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary, where he studied with the great Baptist peacemaker, Glen Harold Stassen, and served as the associate director of the Just Peacemaking Initiative. Jake is the author of Worldview Theory, Whiteness, and the Future of Evangelical Faith, is out now along with a series of articles introducing its main arguments. He has also published, presented, and taught around topics like a theology of identity, theories of (non)violence, formation for peacemaking, and adaptive leadership, and he is currently writing a practical theology of freedom and agency that builds constructively from the radical, little-b baptist tradition. Jake comes to Eastern Mennonite Seminary from Wake Forest University School of Divinity, where he led research on moral formation under one of Lilly’s Thriving Congregations grants as a postdoctoral fellow. He is married to Abigail, who serves as the admissions counselor at Eastern Mennonite School, and they have three children.

Education

BA, Friends University (Religion & Philosophy)
MDIV, Mercer University (Theology)
PHD, Fuller Theological Seminary (Theology, Christian Ethics)

Publications
“A New Fundamentalism Rising: The Southern Baptist Battle against the CRT ‘Worldview,’” Journal of American Culture 47, no. 1 (2024): 41–49. Online edition: https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13533
“Teaching AI about Ethics and the Gospel,” The Presbyterian Outlook (March 2024): 20–25. Online edition: https://pres-outlook.org/2024/02/teaching-ai-about-ethics-and-the-gospel/
“Want diversity? Look beyond your walls,” Anabaptist World, February 10, 2023. Online edition: https://anabaptistworld.org/want-diversity-look-beyond-your-walls/
“Everything, Nothing, Something: Trading in World-Viewing for Everyday Faithfulness in Peacemaking and Sustainability.” In The Gospel of Peace in a Violent World: Christian Nonviolence for Communal Flourishing, edited by Shawn M. Graves and Marlena Graves. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2022.
“Was Adam and Eve’s ‘Worldview’ the Original Sin?,” Baptist News Global, January 24, 2022, https://baptistnews.com/article/was-adam-and-eves-worldview-the-original-sin.
“Toward an Incarnational Theology of Identity.” In Justice and the Way of Jesus: Christian Ethics and the Incarnational Discipleship of Glen Stassen, edited by David P. Gushee and Reggie L. Williams. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2020.
“War, Nonviolence, and Just Peacemaking.” In Discerning Ethics: Diverse Christian Responses to Divisive Moral Issues, edited by Hak Joon Lee and Timothy A. Dearborn. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020.
“The Origins and Limits of the Worldview Paradigm for Christian Intellectual Life,” co-written with David P. Gushee, The Baptist Educator 80, no. 3 (2015): 4–8.
Scholarly Presentations and Abstracts
“‘Everyone Who Acts Responsibly Becomes Guilty’: Reading Bonhoeffer’s Free Responsible Action, Relative Sinlessness, and Participation in Conspiracy through the Lens of Moral Injury,” Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis Unit and Martin Luther and Global Lutheran Traditions Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, November 2024.

“Is Wokeness a New Religion? How Evangelical Worldview Theory Activates Fundamentalism against Critical Theories and Enables Misdirection about Religious Freedom,” Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, November 2024.

“Living the Sermon on the Mount in the Shadows of the Empire: Comparing Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s and Eberhard Arnold’s Community Formation Models,” National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion Annual Meeting, Raleigh, North Carolina, May 2024.

“An Intentional Counter-Witness to Reactionary Authoritarianism,” Global Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference and Festival, Harrisonburg, Virginia, June 2023.

“Connecting the Dots: Religious Liberty, the Common Good, and White Evangelical Activism against CRT in Public Schools,” National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion Annual Meeting, Boiling Springs, North Carolina, May 2023.

“The W(h)it(e)ness of Worldview Theory: On the Troubled Genealogy of a Favorite Framework,” Philosophy Speaker Series, Department of Philosophy, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, March 2023.

“Between Don Quixote and Walter Mitty: Ideal Visions, Practical Problems, and Film in Moral Formation,” International Conference on Religion and Film, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 2022.

“Where It All (Re)Starts: The Image of God, Created Sociality, and the Basis of ‘Our’ Freedom,” National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion Annual Meeting, Nashville, Tennessee, May 2022.

“A Free, Responsible Approach to Actively Identifying (with) Jesus in Interreligious and Other Complex Contexts,” Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis Unit and Christian Spirituality Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, November 2021.

“Reconceiving the Hopes for and Hindrances to the Conversion of a Plural Self,” Religious Conversions Unit, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, November 2021.
Courses Taught
Christian Ethics

Theologies of Nonviolence, Justice, and Peace

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Jacob Cook PhD

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