Faculty
Mark S. Burrows
Professor of the History of Christianity
B.A., Lawrence University of Wisconsin
M.Div., Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary
Phone: Ext. 235
Email:
Biography:
Mark Burrows grew up in Wisconsin, graduating from Lawrence University before completing graduate studies at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen (Germany) and Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div. and Ph.D.). He joined the faculty of Andover Newton Theological School in 1993, where he is Professor of the History of Christianity and faculty director of the program in Worship, Theology, and the Arts. During the “Summer Semester” of 2007, he served as guest professor at the Kirchliche Hochschule in Wuppertal, Germany, lecturing on “Eros and Mysticism” and leading a seminar on “Poetics and Theological Insight.” During the 2007/08 academic year, Dr. Burrows will be on sabbatical leave, having been named a Luce Fellow in Theology in order to complete work on a forthcoming book entitled Untamed Wisdom: The Poetics of Desire and the Renewal of Theology as an Art
Dr. Burrows is past president of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, an elected member of the American Theological Society and a member of the Society of Biblical Theologians. . His current research and writing projects explore the nexus of mysticism, spirituality, and poetics, with a particular interest in developments spanning the medieval and modern periods. Recent publications include essays on a range of topics, medieval and modern, including: Bernard of Clairvaux’s mystical reading of the Song of Songs, the visionary writings of Julian of Norwich, questions of the church’s commitment to “just peace” in the contemporary world, and the relationship of literature and theology. He recently edited a collection of ground-breaking essays entitled Minding the Spirit: The Study of Christian Spirituality (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).
Dr. Burrows is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, representing the denomination as chair of the national “Working Group” for the UCC’s full-communion partnership (Kirchengemeinschaft) with the “Union der evangelischen Kirchen” or UEK (“The Union of Uniting Churches of Germany”), and as one of the delegated members of the Lutheran-Reformed Standing Committee on Theology established under the “Formula of Agreement” Accord of 1997. In addition to his professional interests, Burrows is a practicing poet, an avid mountain hiker, and a gourmet chef.
Courses: HIST 609: Introduction to the History of Christianity I, HIST 631W: Pastoral Ecumenics: A Basic Introduction, HIST 711W: Reading in Retreat: Monastic Theology of the Early Cistercians, WOTA/CMWO 715J : Summer Institute in Arts and Worship: "Arts and the Sensual in Renewing Worship" featuring Don Saliers, WOTA 773/873F: Three Modernist Poets and Their Legacy: Rilke, Eliot, and Stevens,
Publications:
Jesus Goes to the Yard Sales
Peering into the Abyss
Dismantling the Da Vinci Code
Minding the Spirit
The Love Shaped in Weakness
The Songs of Songs
The Body of the Text
Raiding the Inarticulate
The Imaginative Spririt