Fred Sanders

Education

Ph.D., 2001, Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, CA)
Dissertation: “The Image of the Immanent Trinity: Implications of Rahner’s Rule for a Theological Interpretation of Scripture.”

M.Div., 1995, Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, KY)
Masters thesis: “The Life of God’s Word in the Theology of Athanasius.”

B.A., 1990, Murray State University (Murray, KY), majors in Studio Art and German.
Senior Art Exhibit: “Earthen Sky: Drawings and Prints by Fred Sanders” (Clara M. Eagle Art Gallery, Murray, KY, 1990)

Work Experience

Publications/Reviews

Books
Current major project: The Deep Things of God: The Trinity and Evangelical Existence. This is a book (90,000 words) aimed at a popular audience, which seeks to take evangelicals further into the mystery of the Trinity by connecting it closely to the gospel, and to evangelical church practices. I am not under contract, but am actively writing the book.

[forthcoming (under contract):] Editor and contributor to One of the Trinity Died on the Cross: Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective (Broadman and Holman, 2007). This work will be a textbook on trinitarian Christology, featuring chapters by an interdisciplinary team including Klaus Issler, Garry DeWeese, Donald Fairbairn, Scott Horrell, and Bruce Ware.

The Image of the Immanent Trinity: Rahner’s Rule and the Theological Interpretation of Scripture (NY: Peter Lang, 2005). Volume 12 in the series Issues in Systematic Theology, edited by Paul Molnar.

Dr. Doctrine’s Christian Comix, four volumes from InterVarsity Press, July 1999.
Issue 1, “On Biblical Images.”
Issue 2, “On the Word of God.”
Issue 3, “On the Trinity.”
Issue 4, “On the Christian Life.”
(These have lapsed out of print but can still be purchased here)

Articles
[forthcoming] “The Trinity,” in The Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology, edited by John Webster, Kathryn Tanner, and Iain Torrance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).

[forthcoming] “Saved by the Word and Spirit: The Soteriology of Donald Bloesch" in Christian Foundations.

[forthcoming] “Surfing the Sites: Theology on the Web,” Catalyst: Contemporary Evangelical Perspectives for United Methodist Seminarians, Fall 2006.

[forthcoming] “The State of the Doctrine of the Trinity in Evangelical Theology,” Southwestern Journal of Theology, 48?

“A Theological Analysis of Oneness Pentecostalism,” in Countercult Apologetics Journal (January 2006).

“Don Giovanni: The Absolute Man and the Patience of God,” Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture 2/2 (Summer 2006), 47-59. Read a preview and excerpt here.

“Trinity Talk, Again,” Dialog: A Journal of Theology 44/3 (Fall 2005), 264-272.

“Entangled in the Trinity: Economic and Immanent Trinity in Recent Theology,” in Dialog: A Journal of Theology 40:3 (Fall 2001), 175-182.

Reviews
Review: [forthcoming] Julia Keay, Alexander the Corrector: The Tormented Genius Whose “Cruden’s Concordance” Unwrote the Bible, in the “Briefly Noted” section of First Things (2007)

Review: [forthcoming] Sigurd Bergmann, Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature, in Cultural Encounters (Fall 2006). Read a preview and excerpt here.

Review: [forthcoming] Michael Budde and John W. Wright, editors, Conflicting Allegiances: The Church-based University in a Liberal Democratic Society, in Scottish Journal of Theology ( ).

Review: Paul D. Molnar, Divine Freedom and the Doctrine of the Immanent Trinity, in Cultural Encounters (Summer 2006), 109-111. Read a preview and excerpt here.

Review: Colin Gunton, The Triune Creator and David Coffey, Deus Trinitas, in Theology Today, 59/4 (January 2003), 628-632.

Review: Khaled Anatolios, Athanasius: The Coherence of His Thought, in Asbury Theological Journal 57/2 – 58/1 (Fall 2002/Spring 2003), 220-223.

Review: Anne Hunt, What Are They Saying About the Trinity? in Asbury Theological Journal 57/2 – 58/1 (Fall 2002/Spring 2003), 240-242.

Review: Alister McGrath, The Foundations of Dialogue in Science and Religion (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998) and Science and Religion: An Introduction (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1999), in CTNS Bulletin (The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences), 19 (Spring 1999), 17-21. (Co-authored with Kirk Wegter-McNelly.)

Review: Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, volume III, in Dialog: A Journal of Theology 37 (Fall 1998). (Co-authored with Lou Ann Trost and Mary Elise Lowe)

Papers Presented

“As Above, So Below: Appeals to the Trinity in Theological Accounts of the Human Family,” a paper presented in the Evangelicals and Gender Study Group of the Evangelical Theological Society’s 58th Annual Meeting, Nov. 15-17, 2006.

“The Beauty of the Trinity,” a paper presented at the 15th annual Wheaton Theology Conference, April 2006.

“Arius the Hero: Historical Fictions We’re Ready to Believe,” a paper presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Friday Nov. 18, 2005, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

“There is the Reservoir, Where is the Spout? The Great Tradition and the Evangelical University,” a paper presented at the 2nd annual Civitas Conference at Cornerstone University, “After Evangelicalism,” Saturday September 17, 2005, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

“Tiny Paintings of the Infinite Trinity: Faith Seeking Visual Understanding through the Resourcefulness and Wit Of the Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves (ca. 1440),” a paper presented at the 2005 Art & Soul Conference, April 8, 2005, Baylor University.

“Oikonomia and Ecclesia: The Economic Trinity and Free Church Ecclesiology,” a paper presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society, March 5, 2005, Seattle Pacific University.

“The State of the Doctrine of the Trinity in Evangelical Theology,” a paper presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Nov. 18, 2004.

“Saved by the Word and Spirit: The Soteriology of Donald Bloesch in Christian Foundations,” a paper presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Nov. 18, 2004. (Invited panel presentation)

“Three Monotheisms: How the Son of the God of Abraham Makes a Difference Among Yahwism, Trinitarianism, and Tawhid,” a paper presented at the Far West regional meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, April 23, 2004, Bethel Seminary San Diego.

“Karl Barth on Rahner’s Rule: God’s Freedom For the World and From the World,” a paper presented at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Nov. 19, 2003.

“R. A. Torrey (1856-1928): Radical Evangelicalism in the Early 20th Century,” a one-day academic symposium at Biola University, Tuesday October 21, 2003 (Conference organizer). Presented the lecture “How He Worked for Christ: The Ministries of R. A. Torrey.”

“Joining the Long Conversation With the Bible: Evangelicals and the Historical Theology of the Trinity,” a paper presented at the 2003 Far West regional meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, May 2, 2003, The Master’s Seminary.

“The Righteousness of Another: James Hervey, John Wesley, and Imputed Righteousness,” a paper presented at the 2003 Wheaton Theology Conference, April 11, 2003.

“The Tacit Dimension of Evangelical Trinitarianism,” a paper presented March 21, 2003 to a joint meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society and the Society for Pentecostal Studies, in Wilmore, KY.

“Recent Thought on the Economic and Immanent Trinity,” a paper presented to the Theology and Philosophy section of the AAR Western Region Meeting, April 18, 2000, at Azusa Pacific University.

“The Mystery of the Trinity in Christian Iconography: Pacino di Bonaguida’s Fourteenth-Century Solution,” a paper presented in the Religion and the Arts section of the AAR Western Region meeting, March 1999, at the University of San Francisco.

“Mere Trinitarianism: C. S. Lewis’ Practical Doctrine of the Trinity,” paper delivered at Wheaton Theology Conference, April 1998.

Public Speaking and Popular Presentations

“Art, Truth and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ — Separating Fact From Fiction” for Focus on the Family’s website “Decoding the Da Vinci Code.”

“A Reasonable Incarnation,” in the Spring 2006 Defending the Faith lecture series sponsored by the Masters in Apologetics program at Biola University, March 6, 2006.

“Trinity Day,” a doctrine seminar at Santee Christian Church, February 11, 2006.

“The Nature of Salvation,” in the Fall 2005 Defending the Faith lecture series sponsored by the Masters in Apologetics program at Biola University, Nov. 10, 2005.

“The Three-in-One God,” episode four of the television series Christianity 101 (hosted by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz, on the Trinity Broadcasting Network), first aired in July 2004.

“Thy Word is Truth: Clear Thinking About Scripture,” in the Fall 2004 Defending the Faith Lecture Series sponsored by the Masters in Apologetics program at Biola University, Nov. 3, 2004.

“The Deepest Meaning of the Cross,” in the Spring 2004 Defending the Faith lecture series sponsored by the Masters in Apologetics program at Biola University, May 6, 2004.

“Answering Tough Questions on the Trinity,” in the Fall 2003 Defending the Faith lecture series sponsored by the Masters in Apologetics program at Biola University, November 6, 2003.

“God: One Person or Three? A Public Debate Between Sir Anthony Buzzard and Dr. Fred Sanders,” Riverside Community College, Norco Campus, April 25, 2003.

“Jesus, God and Man: Explain That!” Stand to Reason’s Masters Series in Christian Thought, Downey Baptist Church, March 31, 2003.

“Making Sense of the Trinity.” Stand to Reason’s Masters Series in Christian Thought, Hope Chapel Hermosa Beach, February 11, 2002.

Featured scholar in “Christian faith: Picture it (Many symbols that were once secret signals for followers are a mystery for modern believers),” by Carol McGraw, Orange County Register, Christmas Day, 2001.

Various articles for Symposium, the newsletter of the Torrey Honors Institute.
“Signs of Life: The Artist in Society”
“Don Giovanni: The Absolute Man”
Review: Simon Chan’s Spiritual Theology
Review: Michael Card’s Scribbling in the Sand

Various articles for Biola Connections, the alumni relations magazine of the University.
“Biblical Inerrancy: Does the Bible Contain Mistakes? Does it Matter?” in “Continuing Education” section, Summer 2005.
"Ask an Expert” (on the Trinity)

Project Coordinator for The King’s Business Online: This is an online archive of Biola University’s historic journal, which ran from 1910-1970.

Museum tours and art appreciation lectures: Annual guided tour of the Getty Center for high school students, preceded by a slide lecture on “How To See Art;” annual guided tour of the San Francisco Palace of the Legion of Honor for college students; occasional other tours and lectures.

Professional Service

Chair of Biola University’s General Education Council, 2003-2005.

Administrator of Torrey Honors Institute’s Departmental Self Study, 2002-2003.

Administrator and primary faculty for Torrey Berkeley summer program, 2001-date.

Steering Committee member of New Projects in Systematic Theology study group at ETS, 2005-.

Contributing Editor to Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture, 2004-date.