Kenneth J. Woo

The Rev. Dr. Kenneth J. Woo began teaching at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 2016. He has taught at Duke Divinity School, Redeemer Seminary, and the College of New Jersey. He has also served as a faculty member in the United Methodist Church Course of Study program for ordained ministry. Dr. Woo received his Th.D. in the history of Christianity (Reformation Studies) from Duke University in 2015. Before that he completed his M.Div. at Westminster Theological Seminary and B.A. at the College of William and Mary. Dr. Woo’s first book—Nicodemism and the English Calvin, 1544-1584 (Brill, 2019)—examines the complex ways in which John Calvin and his followers employed theological polemics against religious dissimulation to establish and enforce social and ecclesial boundaries in a variety of 16th century contexts. His next book, an introduction to the writings of John Calvin through the lens of the reformer’s experience as a religious refugee, will be published by Baker Academic. Beyond the European reformations, Dr. Woo’s research interests span the development of the Reformed tradition, the intersection of biblical interpretation and church history, historical religious responses to persecution and mass migration, and Asian-American history and theology. His work has appeared in Church History and Religious Culture, Concordia Theological Quarterly, Reformation and Renaissance Review, Interpretation, Theology Today, and Sixteenth Century Journal, as well as in volumes published by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. A minister of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), Dr. Woo has served churches served churches in New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina, as well as several years in campus ministry. He served for six years as pastor of a multicultural congregation near Washington, D.C. Dr. Woo currently chairs the candidates committee of his classis, which oversees the progress of individuals pursuing ordination in the RCA. He is a member of the Association of Asian/North American Theological Educators (AANATE) and a trustee of the Foundation for Theological Education in Asia and the Pacific (FTEAP).

Calvin, Refugee Theologian (Baker Academic, manuscript in preparation)

“Abraham, David, and the Problem of Exile in Calvin’s Theology,” Harvard Theological Review (forthcoming)

“David Among the Reformers” in The Oxford Handbook on King David (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)

“Trinity (John 1; Heb 1:3)” in The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and the Reformation (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

“Against ‘Many Cains’ and Fickle Travelers: Patterns of Exile in Calvin’s Exegesis,” in Calvin, Exile, and Religious Refugees: Papers of the Thirteenth International Congress on Calvin Research, ed. Arnold Huijgen and Karin Maag (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht), 11–36.   

Election in John Calvin,” in The T&T Clark Companion to Election, ed. Edwin Chr. van Driel (London: Bloomsbury, 2023), 209–225.

Nicodemism and the English Calvin, 1544-1584 (Brill, 2019).

“Western Christianity in 1500,” in Martin Luther in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

“Nicodemites and Libertines,” in John Calvin in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

“Calvin Studies in Context: A Modest Proposal,” Church History and Religious Culture 97:3-4 (2017): 334-345.

“Sibrandus Lubbertus” and “Life, Christianity, Reformation Era” in Encyclopedia of Bible and its Reception (De Gruyter, 2009-) (2018)

“Luther’s Influence on Reformed Worship” and “Luther on Beer” in Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).

“The House of God in Exile: Reassessing John Calvin’s Approach to Nicodemism in Quatre Sermons (1552),” Church History and Religious Culture 95/2-3 (2015): 222-244.

“Suffering as a Mark of the Church in Martin Luther’s Exegesis of 1 Peter,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 77/3-4 (2013): 307-325. Portuguese translation: “O Sofrimento Como Marca da Ingreja na Exegese de Martinho Lutero de 1 Pedro,” Revista Igreja Luterana 84:2 (2023): 237–255.