Alex Fogleman, Director
Alex Fogleman is the founding director of the Catechesis Institute. He is also an assistant research professor of Theology at Baylor University in the Institute for Studies of Religion, and teaches regularly for Trinity School for Ministry (Ambridge, PA) and Regent College (Vancouver, BC). He holds a Ph.D. in Patristics and Historical Theology from Baylor University, where he wrote on the development of catechesis in the early church. Prior to Baylor, he received the M.Div. from Regent College (Vancouver, BC), where he was inspired by the need for a recovery of catechesis by J.I. Packer—a self-described “latter-day catechist” and fervent champion of catechesis.
Alex is the author of Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation (Cambridge University Press), and is currently writing a book on the history, theology, and practice of catechesis (with Eerdmans Press). His academic articles on catechesis and early Christianity have appeared in the International Journal of Systematic Theology, Journal of Early Christian Studies, the Scottish Journal of Theology, Church History, Harvard Theological Review, Pro Ecclesia, Augustinian Studies, Studia Patristica, the Journal of Spirituality and Soul Care, and others (you can find a full list here). His popular writing on catechesis and related topics has appeared in Anglican Compass, Comment, Covenant, and Church Life Journal. Alex lives in Waco, Texas, where he is a lay catechist at Christ Church (ACNA). He and his wife Molly have four sons.
Contact Alex
Brian Dant, Associate Director
Brian is the Associate Director for the Catechesis Institute, where he assists with strategic planning, programming, and research. He holds the M.A. degree from Regent College in Vancouver, BC, where he wrote on the spiritual senses tradition in the writings of the 16th-century Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross, under Drs. Hans Boersma and Bruce Hindmarsh. Brian focuses especially on the monastic, mystical, and patristic traditions and how they help us know the Triune God. His current research project is on spiritual perception in the writings of St. Maximus the Confessor in conversation with the French phenomenological tradition of Michel Henry.
In addition to studying theology, Brian also works as a computer programmer. He has worked for several tech companies and startups over the past ten years, including most recently Appsembler, an open edX software company. He has also designed websites for several theologians, professors, and research centers—including, yes, the Catechesis Institute website. You can read more about Brian’s theological writing and programming on his personal website here.
Brian lives in Naples, Florida with his wife Lydia and their two saint-named children, Julian and Emmy. They worship at St. Paul Orthodox Christian Church.
Catechesis Fellows
Senior Fellows
Hans Boersma, Distinguished Senior Fellow
Rev. Dr. Hans Boersma is the Saint Benedict Servants of Christ Chair in Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin and a priest in the Anglican Church of North America. Previously, he taught at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. His research ranges across a variety of areas— patristic theology, twentieth-century Catholic thought, and spiritual interpretation of Scripture—but at the heart of his work is a desire to retrieve the “sacramental ontology” of the pre-modern tradition. His books include Nouvelle Théologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (Oxford University Press, 2009); Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry (Eerdmans, 2011); Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa (Oxford University Press, 2013); Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church (Baker Academic, 2017); Seeing God: The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition (Eerdmans, 2018); Five Things Theologians Wish Biblical Scholars Knew (IVP Academic, 2021); and Pierced by Love: Divine Reading with the Christian Tradition (Lexham, 2023). Dr. Boersma was the keynote speaker for the 2019 IRCC colloquium on the topic, “Catechesis as Mystagogy,” which you can learn more about here. You can find his personal webpage here.
Paul Gavrilyuk, Distinguished Senior Fellow
Dr. Paul L. Gavrilyuk is the Aquinas Chair in Theology and Philosophy at the Theology Department of the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, he is the founding president of Rebuild Ukraine and the International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA).
An internationally respected Orthodox theologian and historian, Dr. Gavrilyuk specializes in historical theology (especially early Christian doctrine of God and Christ), philosophy of religion, and modern Orthodox theology. His books include: The Suffering of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought (Oxford, 2004), Histoire du catéchuménat dans l’église ancienne [A History of the Catechumenate in the Early Church] (Paris: Le Cerf, 2007), and Georges Florovsky and the Russian Religious Renaissance (Oxford University Press, 2013).
Since 2007, he has also co-led the Spiritual Perception Project, which has produced two co-edited volumes: The Spiritual Senses: Perceiving God in Western Christianity, co-edited with Sarah Coakley (Cambridge, 2012), and Perceiving Things Divine: Towards a Constructive Account of Spiritual Perception, with Frederick D. Aquino (Oxford University Press, 2022). Currently he is editing The Oxford Handbook of Deification with Andrew Hofer and Matthew Levering (forthcoming in 2024). You can find out more about his work here, and his work on catechesis in particular here.
Charles Ringma, Distinguished Senior Fellow
Charles Ringma is an honorary professor at The University of Queensland (Brisbane, AUS), Emeritus Professor at Regent College (Vancouver, CAN), and a former Theology and Research Professor at Asian Theological Seminary (Manila, Philippines). Ringma has authored or edited over thirty books, which have been translated into Chinese, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese, Indonesian and Korean. A few of these include: In the Midst of Much Doing: Cultivating a Missional Spirituality (Langham Global, 2023); When All Else Fails: Poetic Wisdom (Wipf & Stock, 2021); Fragile Hope: Cultivating a Hermitage of the Heart (Cascade, 2021); Chase Two Horses: Proverbs and Sayings for an Everyday Spirituality (Piquant Editions, 2018); Sabbath Time: A Hermitage Journey of Retreat, Return & Communion (Piquant Editions, 2017); Of Martyrs, Monks and Mystics: A Yearly Meditational Reader of Ancient Spiritual Wisdom (Cascade, 2015); In the Footsteps of an Ancient Faith: Living the Ancient Faith in the Modern World (Regent College Publishing, 2015).
Since retirement in 2005, Charles continues to write daily, is a keen veggie gardener and plants rain forest trees in a nature corridor near his home in Meeanjin (Brisbane), Australia.
D. H. Williams, Distinguished Senior Fellow
Rev. Dr. D. H. Williams is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion. In 2022, he retired from teaching patristics and historical theology from the Baylor University Department of Religion and the Department of Classics, where he taught since 2002. He specializes in patristic theology and scriptural interpretation, and retrieval theology for evangelicals. Williams has also been active in teaching in China since 2006, lecturing at major universities in mainland China, serving as a plenary speaker at People’s University of China’s Summer Institute conferences, and having articles published in the Chinese-based Journal for the Study of Christian Culture. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Defending and Defining the Faith: An Introduction to Early Christian Apologetic Literature (Oxford University Press, 2020); The Gospel of Matthew in The Church’s Bible series (Eerdmans Publishing, 2017); Hilary of Poitiers: Commentary on Matthew, Fathers of the Church 125 (Catholic University of America Press, 2012); Tradition, Scripture and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church (Baker Academic Books, 2006); Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church (Baker Academic Books, 2005); Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants (Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999); Ambrose of Milan and the End of the Nicene Arian Conflicts (Oxford University Press, 1995). Williams is also an ordained Baptist minister who has pastored churches in New York and Pennsylvania.
Research, Teaching, and Pastoral Fellows
Elizabeth Conkle, Teaching Fellow
Can. Elizabeth Conkle serves as Canon for Catechetical Formation for the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. Additionally, she is the founding director of the Anglican Catechist Training School (ACTS), a diocesan school that trains lay catechists and other lay leaders. Her passion is to see people develop, grow and mature in order to become all who God made them to be as well as discover His incredible love for them. Up until her retirement in 2019, Elizabeth also taught middle school language development and science and was an English learner coach. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from Fresno State University, a Masters in applied Linguistics from the University of Southern California and an M.Div. from the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary. She is an active member of Emmanuel Anglican Church in Fresno, California.
Malcolm Foley, Research Fellow
Rev. Dr. Malcolm Foley serves as Special Advisor to the President for Equity and Campus Engagement at Baylor University, Director of Black Church Studies at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, and Pastor of Discipleship at Mosaic Church in Waco, TX. He holds a B.A. in Religious Studies with a second major in Finance and a minor in Classics from Washington University in St. Louis. He then completed a Master of Divinity at Yale Divinity School, focusing on the theology of the early and medieval church, and a Ph.D. in Religion from Baylor, where he wrote on African American Protestant responses to lynching from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. As both a scholar and pastor devoting his life to the edification of the saints, Malcolm is deeply interested in investing in catechetical resources that form the whole person—spiritually, politically, and economically.
Curtis Freeman, Research Fellow
Rev. Dr. Curtis Freeman is Research Professor of Theology and Baptist Studies and Director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC. His research and teaching explores areas of Free Church theology. His most recent book, Pilgrim Letters: Instruction in the Basic Teachings of Christ (Fortress, 2021) is a work of catechetical instruction written as a series of letters providing instruction in the basic teaching of Christ. (You can read a review on the blog here.) He is also the author of Undomesticated Dissent: Democracy and the Public Virtue of Religious Noncomformity (Baylor University Press, 2017); Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists (Baylor University Press, 2014); A Company of Women Preachers: Baptist Prophetesses in Seventeenth-Century England (Baylor University Press, 2011), and Baptist Roots: A Reader in the Theology of a Christian People (Judson Press, 1999). He is an ordained Baptist minister and serves as editor of the American Baptist Quarterly and serves on the Baptist World Alliance Commission on Doctrine and Christian Unity.
Joe Gasbarre, Pastoral Fellow
Fr. Joe Gasbarre serves as rector of St. John’s Anglican Church in North Canton, OH. He holds degrees from Malone University, Geneva College, and Trinity School for Ministry. As an Anglican priest, he has served in multiple parishes with a keen bent and interest towards cradle to grave catechesis. He has led various speaking engagements and workshops on intergenerational ministry, training new clergy approaching catechesis in the parish, and developed various catechetical resources for baptism, confirmation, and a year-long curriculum for children. Joe is married to Alyssa, and they have two sons. He enjoys trips with his family picking fruits at local farms (especially blueberries and apples). He loves finding new coffee shops to meet people, prepare sermons, and occasionally read comic books.
Paul Gutacker, Teaching Fellow
Dr. Paul Gutacker is the executive director of Brazos Fellows, a nine-month residential fellowship based in Waco, TX. Brazos Fellows offers college graduates a year of formation through theological study, spiritual disciplines, vocational discernment, and life together. Paul holds the PhD in History from Baylor and ThM and MA in Theological Studies from Regent College (Vancouver, B.C.). In addition to Brazos Fellows, Paul teaches as part-time Lecturer in History at Baylor University researches the cultural and political importance of nineteenth-century American interpretations of church history. He is the author of The Old Faith in a New Nation: American Protestants and the Christian Past (Oxford University Press, 2023), and has published articles and book reviews in Crux, Fides et Historia, Church History, the Journal of Religion, the Journal of Religious History, and the Journal of Ecclesiastical History. In his spare time, Paul enjoys reading fiction, running the Waco Riverwalk, cooking, and cheering on the Buffalo Bills. Paul and his wife Paige enjoy life in East Waco with their children, James, Marianne, and Matthew.
Kyle Hughes, Pastoral Fellow
The Rev. Dr. Kyle R. Hughes (PhD, Radboud University Nijmegen) is a scholar-pastor-teacher specializing in the study of early Christianity and working to mine the riches of patristic theology for the modern church and for Christian schools. Kyle’s primary theological interests include the development of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, spiritual formation in the Anglican tradition, and Christian teaching and learning. He is the author of the books Teaching for Spiritual Formation (Cascade, 2022), How the Spirit Became God (Cascade, 2020), and The Trinitarian Testimony of the Spirit (Brill, 2018), as well as several peer-reviewed journal articles on topics related to textual criticism, patristic theology, and Christian education. His popular writing has appeared in Anglican Compass, Modern Reformation, Classis, and a wide range of blogs related to theology and Christian education.
Ordained to the diaconate in 2019, Hughes serves on the clergy team and as Director of Catechesis at Christ the King Anglican Church (REC-ACNA) in Marietta, GA. He also works as Lower School Principal at The Stonehaven School, a classical Christian school also in Marietta.
Ryan Jones, Pastoral Fellow
Fr. Ryan Jones is the cofounder and executive director of Iona House—a monastic-inspired, agriculturally themed center for contemplation and Christian formation located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California. Iona House offers a distinctive setting for immersive catechetical formation, a place for groups and individuals to reimagine all of life in reference to Christ. Ryan is ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in North America and serves as rector of All Saints Church in Placerville. Previous to founding Iona House and All Saints Church, Ryan was the founding rector of Eucharist Church in downtown San Francisco where he served in ministry for over a decade. Much of the focus of Ryan’s ministry in San Francisco was about developing a renewed vision of the ancient catechumenate, adapted to address the realities of 21st-century urban life. Ryan is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary (MDiv) and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree from Nashotah House Theological Seminary. Ryan is married to Elizabeth and has two sons, Nathan and Aidan. In his spare time, he enjoys tending to a small fruit orchard.
Hanna Lucas, Research Fellow
Dr. Hanna Lucas is a teaching fellow at Durham University and at College of the Resurrection in Mirfield UK. She holds a PhD in patristics and systematic theology from Durham University and an MA in Biblical Studies from Trinity Western University. Hanna is the author of Sensing the Sacred: Recovering a Mystagogical Vision of Knowledge and Salvation (Cascade, 2023). Her research concerns mystagogical catechesis in the fourth century and the theological approaches to ontology and epistemology that can be gleaned from these early sacramental and liturgical texts. Her theological interests orient around the retrieval of patristic sources both as a challenge to certain elements within the common wisdom of modern theology and philosophy and as a reinvigoration of orthodox Christian thought within the church and the academy. She has also published on Theodore of Mopsuestia in Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia and has also written for the Martin Institute and the Young Anglican Theology Project. She serves as an editor of Koinonia, the journal of the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association which seeks to promote mutual dialogue and understanding between the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Originally from Canada, Hanna now lives with her husband and four children in Darlington, UK, where her husband serves as a priest in the Church of England.
Dustin Messer, Pastoral Fellow
Dustin Messer serves as vicar of All Saints Dallas in downtown Dallas, TX. A graduate of Boyce College and Covenant Theological Seminary, Dustin earned a doctorate at La Salle University and went on to complete a fellowship at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Along with his work in local parish ministry, Dustin has served in positions of leadership for a number renewal organizations within the broader Anglican church, including the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) and the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC). Dustin teaches in the area of theology and apologetics at both Reformed Theological Seminary-Dallas and The King’s College in New York, NY. Dustin’s wife, Whitney, helps lead a classical Christian school near their church and together they have one daughter, Pennilyn Grace.
Michael Niebauer, Pastoral Fellow
Rev. Dr. Michael Niebauer is pastor of Incarnation Church in State College, PA and Teaching Fellow at Trinity School for Ministry. He is the author of Virtuous Persuasion: A Theology of Christian Mission (Lexham, 2022). Before returning to his hometown to plant Incarnation, he started several Anglican churches in the Chicagoland area. Michael holds a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University, and specializes in the fields of Christian Ethics and Missiology. He is an ecclesial fellow in the Center for Pastoral Theologians, contributes regularly to online Christian journals, and hosts the Christian catechesis podcast This We Believe.
Nicholas Norman-Krause, Research Fellow
Fr. Nicholas is a Research Fellow with the Catechesis Institute exploring the relationship between theology, catechesis, and moral formation, the catechesis of prayer, and catechetical practices in modern Anglican history (you can read his three-part series on catechesis and the Trinity here, here, and here). He holds an M.Div. from Duke University Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Theology and Ethics from Baylor University. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. Fr. Nicholas’s academic research is primarily in Christian social ethics, moral theology, and political theory. He has published in the Journal of Moral Theology, the International Journal of Christianity and Education, and the Anglican Theological Review, and he was a contributor to the recent volume, The T&T Clark Handbook of Political Theology. His current book project, Political Theology and the Conflicts of Democracy, is a theological analysis of conflict, pluralism, and moral disagreement in contemporary democratic politics.
Fr. Nicholas is also an Anglican Priest. He and his wife, Hannah, live in Newport News, VA, and are avid Duke basketball fans.
Greg Peters, Research Fellow
Rev. Dr. Greg Peters is Professor of Medieval and Spiritual Theology in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University; the Servants of Christ Research Professor of Monastic Studies and Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary; Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge; and an ordained Anglican priest and Benedictine oblate. He holds the PhD from St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto and the SMD from the Pontificio Ateneo di Sant’Anselmo. His research focuses on the history of monasticism and spiritual and ascetical theology, and he has written numerous books on the retrieval of monasticism for the contemporary Church, including The Monkhood of All Believers: The Monastic Foundation of Christian Spirituality (Baker Academic, 2018); The Story of Monasticism: Retrieving an Ancient Tradition for Contemporary Spirituality (Baker Academic, 2015); and Reforming the Monastery: Protestant Theologies of Religious Life (Cascade, 2014). He was a keynote speaker for the 2020 Catechesis Colloquium in San Francisco. His IRCC supported research can be found here and here.
Stephen Presley, Research Fellow
Dr. Stephen Presley is the Senior Fellow for Religion and Public Life at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy, where he researches, writes, and speaks on Christian cultural engagement. He also serves on the faculty at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as Associate Professor of Church History and teaches a variety of graduate and post-graduate courses in church history and patristics. He completed his undergraduate work at Baylor University and earned a Th.M. in Historical Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He pursued doctoral work at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, earning a Ph.D. in early Christian studies. Presley is the author of several books, articles, and essays on early Christian thought and life including The Intertextual Reception of Genesis 1-3 in Irenaeus of Lyons (Brill) and a forthcoming book on cultural engagement in early Christianity (Eerdmans). Many of his publications aspire to draw from the riches of ancient Christianity for the ministry of the church today. He is married to Haley and they have four children: Isla, Emma, Luke and Andrew.
Donald Richmond, Teaching Fellow
Originally commissioned as a Lutheran in 1980, the Rev. Dr. Donald Richmond was ordained as an Anglican in 2002. Since that time Father Richmond has served in a bi-vocational capacity as a diocesan and ecumenical Chaplain. A certified catechist, he is the author of over five hundred articles in periodicals such as The Anglican Digest, The Anglican, Lutheran Forum, The Deacon, Our Sunday Visitor, American Benedictine Review, SEEDBED, and elsewhere.
Keith Stanglin, Research Fellow
Keith is the Executive Director of the Center for Christian Studies in Austin, TX, and Professor of Historical Theology at Harding School of Theology. He holds a Ph.D. in Historical Theology and has taught in higher education and seminaries for over 16 years. He has published numerous books on theology, church history, and ethics, including Super-Abundant Grace: Reflections on Romans (Cascade, 2022); Ethics beyond Rules: How Christ’s Call to Love Informs Our Moral Choices (Zondervan, 2021), After Arminius: A Historical Introduction to Arminian Theology (Oxford University Press, 2021; Co-authored with Tom McCall.); and The Letter and Spirit of Biblical Interpretation: From the Early Church to Modern Practice (Baker Academic, 2018). You can learn more about the Center for Christian Studies here.
Leslie Thyberg, Teaching Fellow
Dr. Leslie Thyberg has over thirty-five years of teaching experience, ranging from preschoolers to prison inmates to graduate students. Leslie teaches courses on catechesis, pedagogy, and spiritual formation at Trinity School for Ministry and Nashotah House Theological Seminary. She is a member of ACNA’s Committee for Catechesis, which helped produce To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism (Crossway, 2020), as well as serving on the Anglican Family Working Group. She co-directs the Certificate of Christian Catechesis program at Trinity School for Ministry.
Doctoral Fellows
Ethan Harrison, Doctoral Fellow
Rev. Ethan Harrison is a priest in the Anglican Church of North America, serving for five years in pastoral ministry at Immanuel Anglican Church in Destin, FL. He completed the MDiv, MST, and Certificate in Christian Catechesis from Trinity School for Ministry, writing a thesis on the Trinitarian theology of Augustine and Gregory of Nazianzus. Ethan is pursuing a Ph.D. in theology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Christopher R.J. Holmes, where he will write on retrieving the classical doctrine of God. After finishing his degree, he plans to return to pastoral ministry to help renew the church’s theological culture and vision. Ethan is married to Lindsay, and they have three daughters. He enjoys time with his family, going on adventures, hiking, and enjoying the outdoors. He loves to read, cook, and participate in deep and life-giving conversations.