Faculty
Susan S. Phillips, Ph.D.--Executive Director; Professor of Sociology and Christianity
Sharon Gallagher, M.T.S.--Associate Director; Professor of Christianity and the Media
Margaret Alter, Ph.D.--Professor of Psychology and Christianity
Chris Corwin--Visiting Professor of Biblical Studies
David Fetcho--Visiting Professor of Arts and Worship; Artist-in-Residence
Susan English Fetcho--Visiting Professor of Arts and Worship; Artist-in-Residence
Jade Fleck, Ph.D.--Professor of English Literature and Christianity
Virginia Hearn, B.A.--Professor of Communications
Walter R. Hearn, Ph.D.--Professor of Science and Christianity
Margaret Horwitz, Ph.D.--Visiting Professor of Christianity and Literature
Bonnie Howe, Ph.D.--Visiting Professor of Ethics and Biblical Studies
Phillip E. Johnson, J.D.--Visiting Professor of Christian Apologetics
Mark Labberton, Ph.D.--Visiting Professor of Biblical Studies
Earl Palmer, D.D.--Visiting Professor of Biblical Studies
Anthony Petrotta, Ph.D.--Visiting Professor of Biblical Studies
Robin C. Wainwright, M.Div.-- Visiting Professor of Church History and Christian Life
Faculty Biographies
Margaret G. Alter, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology and Christianity at NCB and a licensed marriage and family counselor in private practice in Berkeley. Her most recent book is Resurrection Psychology: An Understanding of Human Personality Based on the Life and Teachings of Jesus, which provides a practical model of human personality observable in Jesus’ life and teaching. Margaret Alter received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, California. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in English and received an M.A. in Psychology and Counseling and an M.Div. from the Pacific School of Religion. Her most recent NCB class was Appropriating the Forgiveness of Christ. In addition to her work with New College Berkeley, Margaret has taught psychology classes at Pacific School of Religion and School of Applied Theology.
Chris Corwin, Ph.D., teaches Hebrew Scriptures, World Religions, and Philosophy. He has two B. A.’s, one in Math and one in English, from San Francisco State University, an M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Arlington and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. His interests include: poetic analysis of the Psalms, theology of the Hebrew Scriptures, the book of Samuel, the Song of Songs, and Ancient Near Eastern Literature.
David Fetcho and Susan English Fetcho are Visiting Professors of Arts and Worship and Artists-in-residence at NCB. David Fetcho has worked as a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and composer for nearly thirty years. His training is in creative writing, music, theatre, photography, and video production. Susan English Fetcho has been a performer, teacher, choreographer and administrator of dance and theatre for twenty-seven years. Her training is in dance/choreography, theatre, mime, Laban Movement Analysis, and video production. She is currently on the Performing Arts faculty at St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Oakland, California.
Together, David and Susan served for fourteen years as co-artistic directors of the intermedia performance ensemble, New Performance Consort, writing, producing and directing fourteen original dance/music/theatre productions for both theatrical and liturgical venues. They’ve performed and taught in the greater San Francisco Bay area, and on tour to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, and Bali, Indonesia. Many of NPC’s works have incorporated original film and/or video segments as integral creative components. As founders and creative directors of foundlight.tv, they bring their wealth of experience as performance directors to the creation of compelling video content. foundlight.tv produces work for the educational, religious and corporate markets; family histories; and independent documentary films aimed at finding the hidden lights of individuals and groups who are laboring with love and passion outside the mainstream of media attention.
Since 1978 Susan and David have organized conferences focusing on issues in theology and the arts, including several arts conferences for New College Berkeley, as well a national CIVA (Christians In the Visual Arts) conference in 1995.
Jade Fleck, Ph.D., is NCB adjunct professor of English Literature and Christian Studies. She earned the Ph.D. in English Literature from Cal Berkeley with a dissertation entitled "Eschatological Poetics in ‘Paradise Lost,’ Two Seventeenth-Century Commentaries on Revelation, and Selected Sermons." In addition, Dr. Fleck has a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Patten College in Oakland. A section of her dissertation was published as a chapter in Reform and Counterreform: Dialectics of the Word in Western Christianity Since Luther (Mouton de Gruyter, 1994). Jade has presented papers at conferences and seminars and published articles in Radix magazine. Her scholarly interests include poetry and spirituality (particularly the work of Czeslaw Milosz), world religions, the biblical book of Revelation, Thomas Merton, and Rene Girard. She enjoys writing poetry and has published several poems and placed in contests.
Virginia Hearn, New College Berkeley’s professor of communications, was on the founding Board of NCB in the mid-’70s. Since then, she has led her journal-keeping workshop, one of NCB’s best-known courses, over 70 times. Together she and her husband, Walter Hearn, have also taught NCB classes on writing, editing, and Christian lifestyle. Ginny has a long history as a writer and editor, both free-lance and in-house for various publishers. In the late ’80s she edited Update (national newsletter of the Evangelical Women’s Caucus) and for three decades has been copy editor for Radix magazine in Berkeley. Along with working on almost 200 books for many publishers, Ginny has three books of her own— Just As I Am: Journal-Keeping for Spiritual Growth ; Our Struggle to Serve: The Stories of 15 Evangelical Women ; and What They Did Right: Reflections on Parents by Their Children.
Walter R. Hearn, Ph.D., professor of Christianity and science at NCB, has a doctorate in biochemistry (Illinois, 1951).While a professor at Iowa State University, he lectured widely on the interaction of science and faith, and has continued to do so. He has contributed chapters to over half a dozen edited volumes, from Russell Mixter’s Evolution and Christian Thought Today (Eerdmans, 1959) to John Templeton’s Evidence of Purpose: Scientists Discover the Creator (Continuum, 1994). Dr. Hearn was co-author of Teaching Science in a Climate of Controversy (American Scientific Association, 1986), and based his own book, Being a Christian in Science (IVP, 1997), on his 23 years’ experience editing the Newsletter of the American Scientific Affiliation. He has published many articles, reviews, and poems, including a recent essay-review on "Finding Your Way in Science and Faith" in Radix magazine (2004).
Margaret McBride Horwitz, Ph.D., Margaret McBride Horwitz, Ph.D., is an NCB Visiting Professor, with a doctorate in Film and Television Studies from UCLA. She has taught for NCB on Christian ethics in Jane Austen’s novels and their filmed adaptations. She has also given presentations for the Jane Austen Society of North America, and at UC Davis. She presented on the 2005 film, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for NCB. At an NCB film conference, she spoke on Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol and the film, It’s a Wonderful Life; and, an article based on her talk was published in the Christmas 2006 issue of Radix magazine. In spring 2007, Margaret taught an NCB class for GTU credit, “Grace Under Fire: Films About Extraordinary Faithfulness,” on Holocaust rescuers and others of courage, including Mother Teresa. At the 2008 annual meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America , she is presenting a session on ethics and wit in Pride and Prejudice and its film and television version.
Bonnie Howe, Ph.D., is a NCB graduate (M.A., Christian Ethics, ’92) and earned a Ph.D. in social ethics and New Testament interpretation from the Graduate Theological Union. She is interested in the ways people talk and write when we are thinking about good and evil, and the ways Christians read Scripture and use it in ethical reflection and argument. Her research employs cognitive linguistic theories and methods to analyze moral discourse. Dr. Howe’s publications include several articles for the New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible (Abingdon) and her newest book is entitled Because you bear this Name: Metaphor and the Moral Meaning of 1 Peter. (Brill Academic, 2006). Bonnie is interested in the way Christians seek to be formed by Scripture and look for moral guidance in its pages. She’s interested in how our reading habits (especially our Scripture-reading strategies) shape our social ethic and our life together.
Phillip E. Johnson, J.D., is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School. He served as law clerk for Chief Justice Earl Warren of the United States Supreme Court and taught law for more than thirty years at the University of California, Berkeley. For the last decade Dr. Johnson has also been at the forefront of the public debate over evolution and creation. He is recognized as a leading spokesman for the intelligent design movement, and his message has been noted in such places as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal . Johnson travels frequently to speak at conferences and address television and radio audiences. His books include Darwin on Trial , Reason in the Balance , and The Wedge of Truth.
Mark Labberton, Ph.D., is senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. He has a B.A. from Whitman College, an M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminar, and a doctorate in theology from the University of Cambridge, England. His Ph.D. dissertation topic was "Ordinary Bible Reading: The Reformed Tradition and Reader-Oriented Criticism." He was study assistant to the Reverend John Stott, (1980-81). Dr. Labberton has taught classes for NCB on "The Living Word and the Written Word: Interpreting Jesus Today," "Listening for God when Making Decisions," and "Applying Scripture in Everyday Life." At a UC Berkeley Veritas Forum Mark presented a workshop on "Life in Frankenstein: A Theological Exploration of Mary Shelley’s Work." His articles include "Glorious Foolishness: Who Dares Speak for God?" in Leadership Journal and "The Life-Changing Cross" in Radix magazine.
Earl Palmer, D.D., is senior pastor at University Presbyterian Church, Seattle, Washington, and author of many books, including Love Has Its Reasons , The Book That James Wrote , The Enormous Exception: Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount , A Faith That Works , and the 24 Hour Christian . Rev. Palmer is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and has a B.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He also has an Honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree awarded by Whitworth College. Earl serves on the boards of Princeton Theological Seminary, New College Berkeley, and Regent College, (Vancouver, B.C.). Earl was one of the co-founders of New College Berkeley and regularly teaches on topics such as "The Meaning of Friendship: St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians" and "C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien: Friends, Writers, and Mentors."
Anthony Petrotta, Ph.D., has a B.A.from Westmont College, an M.A. from Fuller Seminary, an M. Phil. from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and a Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield, England. His dissertation was on "Lexis Ludens: Wordplay and the Book of Micah" (Peter Lang: 1991). He has taught classes on "Hebrew Prophets," "Ruth and Esther," "Spirituality of the Psalms," "Job and Human Suffering," "Exegesis of Joel and Micah," "Scripture and Tradition," "Theology of Humor," and "Biblical Ethics." He has worked at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, Benecia, as Assistant to the Rector and is currently the Rector of Saint Francis Episcopal Church in Wilsonville, Oregon. His teaching for NCB includes "How Hebrew Scriptures Inform Christian Faith for New College Berkeley." His journal articles include: "A Closer Look at Matthew 2:6 and Its Old Testament Sources" and "Old Testament Textual Criticism: Some Recent Proposals." He is the author, with Arthur Patzia, of the Pocket Dictionary of Biblical Studies (IVP, 2002).
Robin C. Wainwright, M.Div., is Chairman of the Board of the Academy for Global Christianity, Washington, D.C., and Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in Oxford, England. He has spent more than 20 years developing and implementing programs for a variety of humanitarian organizations involved in outreach work in the US, overseas and particularly in the Middle East. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California, and a Master of Divinity/Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Robin is NCB Professor of Applied Theology and was formerly Professor of Discipleship and Evangelism at Bethel Theological Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota, providing pastors and other ministry leaders with Biblical and practical resources for Church-based ministry strategies. He has taught classes on "Making Others Family: The Practice of Kingdom Evangelism" and "Into All the World: The History and Future of Christian Mission."
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