Department chair: Steven Sacks | Contact info
Faculty
Steven Sacks
Associate Professor of Religion
Teaches courses in Judaic Studies and Comparative Religion, including Hebrew Bible, Issues in Contemporary Judaism, The Islamic Path, and Religions of China and Japan. He has also developed study abroad courses in Laos, Mongolia, and Morocco. Professor Sacks is the author of “Midrash and Multiplicity: Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Reinvention of Rabbinic Interpretive Culturez” (Walter De Gruyter, 2009), as well as articles in Spiritual Dimensions of Judaism and Interpretation, Religion, and Culture in Midrash and Beyond. As an undergraduate, Sacks took advantage of a study program in India and has since returned to India several times and has traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Ph.D., University of Chicago Divinity School; B.A., Grinnell College.
Michele Petersen
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion (one-year appointment)
Teaching interests include courses in Christian studies and comparative religion, including Christian Bible, global Christianity, issues in Christianity relating to religious diversity, religious plurality, and religious freedom, Christian mysticism, contemplative studies, Norse mythology, religious ethics, modern religious thought, philosophical hermeneutics, and religion, literature, and the arts. Her research interests focus on the work of Paul Ricoeur and Edith Stein, the ethical relationship between word and silence, and interdisciplinary reflection on language and experience. Ph.D. in religious studies, M.A. in history, B.A. in history and political science, University of Iowa. M.A. in theology, University of Notre Dame.
Catherine Quehl-Engel
Chaplain of the College
Emeriti
Joseph Molleur
Professor of Religion Emeritus
Professor of Religion. A.B., Grinnell College; M.A., Episcopal Divinity School; Ph.D., Boston College-Andover Newton Theological School.