Faculty
Dr. Laura Rodgers Levens
Dr. Levens serves as the Associate Professor of Christian Mission and the Director of the Master of Arts in Ministry Studies Program.
Dr. Levens specializes in interdisciplinary courses that integrate multiple academic disciplines for practical theological inquiry and training. She teaches courses in Christian Mission and other interdisciplinary courses in the academic curriculum. As Master of Arts program director, Dr. Levens oversees program development and advises Master of Arts students.
Dr. Levens has presented and written for a variety of academic and popular outlets. She recently published “A word about . . . mythmaking, gender, and race in the histories of Ann Judson and Sojourner Truth” for Review & Expositor (April 2022) and is a contributor to the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on Baptist Studies (Oxford University Press). Her February 2023 column on the Asbury Revival remained one of Baptist News Global’s most popular columns for the year. She was also the content editor and a contributor for Baptist Seminary of Kentucky’s Faithful Curiosity Bible Study curriculum.
In addition to teaching and writing, Dr. Levens regularly guest preaches. She is an ordained minister through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the coordinator of the Baptist Women in Ministry of Kentucky. She serves on the board of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and on the editorial boards of Perspectives in Religious Studies and Word & Way. She is a member of the American Academy of Religion, National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, and the American Society for Church History.
Areas of Interest and Expertise
Social Justice in American Christianity
World Christianity
Women in Mission
Life and Theology of Ann Hasseltine Judson
Scriptural and Ministerial Imagination
Biblical Theology of Mission
History of Christian Mission
Women’s History
Theology and Practice of Mission
Witness and Testimony
Baptist Mission History
Anti-Racist Pedagogy