Mark Irvy Wallace is an American Professor of Religion at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

, where he teaches courses on religion, environmental studies, and Interpretation theory. A self-described " Christian Animist", his teaching and research interests focus on the intersections between Christian theology, critical theory, environmental studies, and postmodernism as a part of the field of

ecological theology Ecotheology is a form of constructive theology that focuses on the interrelationships of religion and nature, particularly in the light of environmental concerns. Ecotheology generally starts from the premise that a relationship exists between ...

. Through his work he seeks to "bring together biblical faith and the liberal arts."

Education

He obtained his B.A. in Religious Studies with honors from

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

(1978). He received his M.Div. from

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of ...

in 1982, and his PhD in Theology (advised by

Paul Ricœur Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur (; ; 27 February 1913 – 20 May 2005) was a French philosopher best known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics. As such, his thought is within the same tradition as other major hermeneutic ...

) from

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 ...

in 1986.

Academic career

Prior to teaching at Swarthmore College, Wallace was an instructor at the Princeton Theological Seminary Summer School, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Georgia State University, and a lecturer in Religious Studies at Merrimack College. He currently serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies; Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture; Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture; Études Ricoeuriennes/Ricoeur Studies; and Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology. At

, Wallace teaches in and oversees the Chester Semester Fellowship, a semester based course that engages students with texts about

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

and direct community work with various organizations and leaders. The Fellowship's website describes the program's purpose as "to facilitate committed student engagement with visionary leaders in the city of Chester and focuses on critically understanding and helping to ameliorate some of society’s most pressing real-world problems by requiring students to participate in civic volunteer programs throughout the academic year."

Personal life

Mark Wallace grew up in Los Angeles, CA. His interest in theology was piqued after hearing a sermon by Billy Graham. Through working with Paul Ricoeur, Wallace's outlook on Christianity changed from an

anthropocentric Anthropocentrism (; ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity in the universe. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. ...

view focused on private salvation to a biocentric view focusing on ecology, the earth, and the cosmos.

Awards and honors

Awards

''When God Was a Bird'' won the 2019 Gold

Nautilus Book Award The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in t ...

in the category of "Religion / Spirituality of Western Thought".

Honors

Selected honors include: Eugene M. Lang Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Periclean Faculty Leadership Fellowship (2020–21); Japan International Christian University Foundation Visiting Scholar (2008); Andrew W. Mellon New Directions for Scholars-Teachers Fellowship (2003-2004); ACLS Contemplative Practice Fellowship (2000); AAR Research Grant (1992); NEH Scholar, Georgia State University Humanities Workshop (October 4, 1988). His research has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Eugene M. Lang Foundation, the American Academy of Religion, and the National Endowment of the Humanities.

Selected publications

Articles

A select number of his works are freel
available online

Books

* * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, Mark I. Living people Swarthmore College faculty University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Princeton Theological Seminary alumni University of Chicago Divinity School alumni American theologians Year of birth missing (living people) American animists