Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dean of the Seminary
Professor of Christian History

Ph.D. Boston University (American Studies)

M. Div. Pacific School of Religion

M. A. Graduate Theological Union (Church History)

A. B. Hamilton College (Religion, History)

Background

Dr. Charles Hambrick-Stowe is a veteran pastor and teacher. With more than 22 years in local church ministry and teaching experience at several seminaries, Dr. Hambrick-Stowe came to Northern in 2004 after three years in Pittsburgh as a seminary administrator. He was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1973. Following seminary graduation he and his wife, Elizabeth, served as missionaries for two years at a church-related student center in Sendai, Japan.

Dr. Hambrick-Stowe has published seven books and numerous articles in the fields of church history, Christian faith, and American religious experience. Most notable are two studies of colonial New England Puritanism – The Practice of Piety: Puritan Devotional Disciplines in Seventeenth-Century New England (University of North Carolina Press) and Early New England Meditative Poetry: Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor (Paulist Press) – and a biography of the nineteenth-century revivalist and social reformer, Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism (Eerdmans). He has chapters in several books on Jonathan Edwards, published recently in conjunction with the 300th anniversary of the great theologian's birth. He also has been a religion consultant for three movies and television productions.

At Northern Seminary, Dr. Hambrick-Stowe continues his commitment to integrating theological reflection on the practice of ministry with a Christ-centered spiritual life. In addition to serving as Dean of the Seminary he teaches in the areas of Christian history, spirituality, and ministry.

Charles and Elizabeth Hambrick-Stowe have three young-adult children, two of whom are married, in the Baltimore-Washington area. Elizabeth, an attorney practicing with a firm in Wheaton, is also an ordained minister.

Dr. Hambrick-Stowe welcomes invitations to preach, teach adult classes, lead retreats and workshops and speak at conferences.

Recent Publication:

Holding On to the Faith: Confessional Traditions and American Christianity, co-edited with Douglas A. Sweeney (Lanahm, MD: University Press of America, 2008).

"Puritan Practical Divinity and Spirituality," in The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism, ed. John Coffey and Paul Chng-Ha Lim (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

Dr. Hambrick-Stowe's Recommended Websites

Africans in America
African-American Religion: A Documentary History Project
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Colonial House
History of American Christian Practice
Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals