Profiles of the thinkers, theologians, and prophets you may not have heard of—but should.
Dive into the voices shaping modern faith, from contemplatives to liberation theologians, queer scholars to exvangelical guides.
Richard Rohr — Contemplative mystic and spiritual teacher
• Focus: Non-dual thinking, inner transformation, reclaiming sacred mystery
• Key Work: Falling Upward, The Universal Christ
Dr. Barbara A. Holmes — Womanist contemplative theologian
• Focus: Black mysticism, communal healing, quantum spirituality
• Key Work: Joy Unspeakable, Race and the Cosmos
James H. Cone — Father of Black Liberation Theology
• Focus: God’s solidarity with the oppressed, theology of the cross and the lynching tree
• Key Work: The Cross and the Lynching Tree, God of the Oppressed
Rachel Held Evans — Faithful doubter and literary guide for the spiritually displaced
• Focus: Bible as sacred story, permission to question, inclusive Christianity
• Key Work: Inspired, Searching for Sunday
Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney — Womanist biblical scholar and lectionary creator
• Focus: Rewriting Scripture through a womanist lens, lifting silenced voices
• Key Work: Womanist Midrash, A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde — Episcopal bishop and public moral leader
• Focus: Humility, civic mercy, pastoral resistance in public life
• Key Work: How We Learn to Be Brave, public sermons and statements
Father Gregory Boyle — Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries
• Focus: Radical kinship, healing through compassion, restorative justice
• Key Work: Tattoos on the Heart, The Whole Language
Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb — Palestinian pastor and theologian of presence
• Focus: Faith under occupation, resistance theology, reclaiming land and narrative
• Key Work: Faith in the Face of Empire, The Cross in Contexts
Dr. Willie James Jennings — Theological visionary of belonging and decolonization
• Focus: Rethinking Christian identity, race, place, and the colonial legacy of the Church
• Key Work: The Christian Imagination, After Whiteness
Rev. Dr. Shannon T.L. Kearns — First openly trans man ordained in the Old Catholic tradition
• Focus: Queer theology, trans embodiment, sacred storytelling
• Key Work: In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey with Scripture
Peter Rollins — Provocative philosopher-theologian of radical doubt
• Focus: Pyrotheology, unknowing, deconstructing certainty
• Key Work: The Divine Magician, Insurrection
Dr. Cheryl Bridges Johns — Pentecostal scholar reimagining wisdom and tradition
• Focus: Sacred disruption, Spirit-filled theology, intergenerational healing
• Key Work: Re-enchanting the Text
Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre — Latinx liberation ethicist confronting Empire
• Focus: Ethics from the margins, confronting whiteness, unsettling sanitized theology
• Key Work: Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins, Embracing Hopelessness
Dr. Marcella Althaus-Reid — Queer, feminist, and postcolonial theologian
• Focus: Indecent theology, sexuality and faith, liberation from below
• Key Work: Indecent Theology, The Queer God