Douglas (“Jake”) Jacobsen is a scholar in the field of religious studies whose work encompasses

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, and

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

. His early works are analyses of

Pentecostalism Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

and American Protestantism. He won the Pneuma Book Award from the

Society for Pentecostal Studies The Society for Pentecostal Studies (SPS) is an American scholarly association of biblical scholars, theologians, and others who are members of Pentecostal churches or are involved in the Charismatic Renewal. It was founded in 1970. The members o ...

in 2004. His current work focuses on world Christianity, including the books ''The World’s Christians: Who They Are, Where They Are, and How They Got There'' and ''Global Gospel: An Introduction to Christianity on Five Continents'' Jacobsen also co-directs the Religion in the Academy project with his wife Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, a scholar of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

. This project has involved research at dozens of American colleges and universities and has resulted in three

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

books (2004, 2008, and 2012). Their book ''No Longer Invisible: Religion in University Education'' won a 2013 American Education Studies Association Critics' Choice Book Award. ''The American University in a Postsecular Age'' won the 2009 Lilly Fellows Book Award. Their work has also been featured in the popular press, including ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'' and ''

Inside Higher Ed ''Inside Higher Ed'' is a media company and online publication that provides news, opinion, resources, events and jobs focused on college and university topics. In 2022, Quad Partners, a private equity firm, sold Inside Higher Education to Time ...

''. Jacobsen was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey. He attended Wheaton College (IL), where he studied with the philosopher

Arthur F. Holmes Arthur Frank Holmes (March 15, 1924 – October 8, 2011) was an English philosopher who served as Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College in Illinois, US from 1951 to 1994. He built the philosophy department at Wheaton where he taught, wrote ...

and served as a teaching assistant for biblical scholar

Gordon Fee Gordon Donald Fee (May 23, 1934 – October 25, 2022) was an American-Canadian Christian theologian who was an ordained minister of the Assemblies of God (USA). He was professor of New Testament Studies at Regent College in Vancouver, British ...

. He then completed a masters and doctorate at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, where he studied with

Martin E. Marty Martin Emil Marty (born on February 5, 1928) is an American Lutheran religious scholar who has written extensively on religion in the United States. Early life and education Marty was born on February 5, 1928, in West Point, Nebraska, and raised ...

and Jerald C. Brauer. Jacobsen taught at

Messiah University Messiah University is a private interdenominational evangelical Christian university in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. History The school was founded as Messiah Bible School and Missionary Training Home in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. O ...

in Mechanicsburg, PA, from 1984 through 2019, and then retired as Distinguished

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Emeritus of Church History and Theology. He previously taught at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, and he has been a visiting scholar at Pepperdine University. Jacobsen, a member of the

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximately 4 ...

, is an

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

theologian whose thinking has been influenced by

Anabaptist Anabaptism (from New Latin language, Neo-Latin , from the Greek language, Greek : 're-' and 'baptism', german: Täufer, earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re- ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

, and

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

perspectives. In 2006, he co-authored (with Rodney Sawatsky) a short introduction to theology entitled ''Gracious Christianity'' that emphasizes the role of love and gratitude in Christian life and thought. His most recent book is entitled ''What is Christianity?'', which argues that Christianity can never be defined by any static set of beliefs but is instead a diverse, flexible, and still developing movement of people seeking to love God and serve their neighbors in an ever-changing, multicultural world. Jacobsen, Douglas
''What is Christianity?''
Wiley-Blackwell, 2021.

References

External links

Religion in the Academy website

Global Christianity YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobsen, Douglas Religious studies scholars University of Chicago alumni Living people Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni Year of birth missing (living people)