Faculty Associate

Matt Frizzell, PhD

Faculty Associate

Education

BA, Graceland University
MTS, Saint Paul School of Theology
PhD, Chicago Theological Seminary

Faculty Associate

In postmodernity, leadership requires listening, learning, and serving.

Eons ago, human beings looked up at the sun. They saw a god blazing across the sky. Today, we look up at the same sun. Now, we see nuclear fusion. What’s the difference? Ideas. Knowledge. Perspective. Culture. Both ancient peoples and modern persons see the sun with their physical eyes. But, ideas, stories, experience, culture, thought and relationships determine what we see.

Frizzell teaches ethics, theology, and religion courses. He has taught on contemporary theology and culture, the life and writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., God and sexuality, and consumerism. He asks, teaches, professes and explores the questions that make human lives and life together possible.

Who are you? Who am I?
What is just and right?
To whom am I responsible?
How are we to live?

Religion asks these questions and religious traditions – ancient and modern – respond to them. These questions are nearly universal: for every age, every community, every situation and every person. Without them, we are not human.

Descartes was ultimately wrong. It’s not, “I think, therefore I am.” I am and you are because we are (relationships). You and I are what we choose and do (ethics). You are, and I am what we make (creativity). Our humanity is in the face of the Other (difference).

I am a dad, best friend, cook, outdoorsman, musician, social critic and humble activist. My intellectual passions are theology, ethics, critical social theory, social justice and postmodern philosophies. I love blue cheese, camping, reading, fresh ground coffee, big dogs, cold weather, Euchre, motorcycles and overlooked underappreciated things – like old Kirby’s, classic Volvos, LP’s and old wood flooring.