Faculty Profile

Education: BMus, DePauw University, 1980; MDiv, Duke Divinity School, 1983; PhD, University of St. Andrews, 1989. At SPU since 2001.

Before coming to SPU, Priscilla Pope-Levison held faculty appointments at Duke Divinity School and at North Park College and Theological Seminary, where she received the Student Service Award.

Dr. Pope-Levison's research areas include American women’s religious history, contextual theology, mission and evangelism, and the ecumenical movement. She has authored or edited several books in these areas. In addition, her articles have appeared in these academic and ecclesial journals: International Review of Mission, Missiology, Mid-Stream, Methodist History, Catalyst, Prism, Journal of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education, Journal for Preachers, and Lectionary Homiletics. Her essay, “A ‘Thirty Year War’ and More: Exposing Complexities in the Methodist Deaconess Movement,” was awarded the 2008 Women’s History Research Writing Award, sponsored by the General Commission of History and Archives of the United Methodist Church.

Dr. Pope-Levison has also contributed to several reference works, including Westminster Dictionary of Women and Religion in America, Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Global Dictionary of Theology, and Historical Dictionary of the Holiness Movement.

The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning selected Professor Pope-Levison to participate in its study of Fifty Effective Teachers of the Introductory Theology and Religion courses, and she has led workshops on teaching at regional and national gatherings.

Books

Evangelization From a Liberation Perspective (American University Studies)

Peter Lang, 1991

Jesus in Global Contexts (with Levison, John R.)

Westminster John Knox Press, 1992

"Through listening and interpreting, we have begun to see the world through others’ eyes. These Christologies have broadened our vision, so that we are asking now the questions that we have heard these theologians ask… Perhaps most important, we have begun to ask about the adequacy of our own Christologies. Have we separated Jesus from the economic, political, and racial sphere in order to keep him personally relevant? In short, these conversations in Christology have unsettled us." (21-22)

Return to Babel: Global Perspectives on the Bible

Westminster John Knox Press, 1999

Sex, Gender, and Christianity (with John R. (Jack) Levison)

Wipf and Stock, 2012

Should women be priests? Should women submit to their husbands? Is premarital sex okay? This volume contributes an unprecedented collection of first-rate articles from a variety of disciplines — from the social sciences to history, from literary criticism to theology — that will challenge college administrators, professors, and students to address, in an atmosphere of scholarly inquiry, these and other such questions that have splintered Christianity and polarized the church.

Turn the Pulpit Loose: Two Centuries of American Women Evangelists

Palgrave Macmillan, 2004

"Although hundreds of American women left home, often as prodigal daughters, wives, and mothers to join this great company of evangelists, theirs is a forgotten history. Their significant contribution to American religious life, past and present, has yet to be seriously considered… The present anthology… allows these women to speak in their own voices." (5-6)

Please view Dr. Pope-Levison’s C.V. (PDF) for more publications. You can also visit her website on American women evangelists.