Faculty Profile
Douglas Koskela
Associate Professor of Theology; Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies
Email: kosked@spu.edu
Phone: 206-281-2261
Office: Alexander 207
Education: BA, Seattle Pacific University, 1995; MDiv, Duke Divinity School, 1998; PhD, Southern Methodist University, 2003. At SPU since 2001.
Doug Koskela primarily teaches in systematic theology and in the University Foundations sequence. His areas of research interest include ecclesiology, theology of divine revelation, Wesleyan theology, and American Methodism.
Dr. Koskela is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Wesleyan Theological Society, and he was a full member in the Twelfth Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies (Oxford, U.K., August 2007). He is also active in the Canonical Theism project, a collaboration of scholars across the theological disciplines aimed at recovering the full riches of the Christian tradition to revitalize theology and the life of the church.
Dr. Koskela has authored a book and a number of articles and book chapters; he is an ordained elder in the Pacific Northwest Conference of the Free Methodist Church. He and his family live in Issaquah, Washington.
Books
Ecclesiality and Ecumenism: Yves Congar and the Road to Unity
Marquette University Press, 2008
Eerdmans, 2008
"Douglas M. Koskela reflects on ecclesial reconciliation as a healing practice. With attention to both ecumenical and intra-ecclesial relationships, he examines the impetus toward and patterns of reconciliatory practice ... He suggests that, by approaching reconciliation in a posture of humility and attentiveness to its own canonical riches, the church has genuine hope of restoration and revitalization." (x)
Selected Publications
- “The Authority of Scripture in Its Ecclesial Context,” in Canonical Theism: A Proposal for Theology and the Church, edited by William J. Abraham, Jason E. Vickers, and Natalie B. Van Kirk, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 210-223.
- “‘Crucified to the World’: Suffering, Itinerancy, and Transitions in American Methodist Ecclesiology,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 43:1 (2008), 22-34.
- “The Divine-Human Tension in the Ecclesiology of Yves Congar,” Ecclesiology: The Journal for Ministry, Mission, and Unity 4:1 (2007), 88-106.
Please view Dr. Koskela’s C.V. (PDF) for additional publications.
Why I Teach at SPU
Douglas Koskela, Associate Professor of Theology
"I teach at SPU because it offers an ideal context in which to live out the vocation of a teacher-scholar. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to think, talk, and act on things that matter with people who care."