Colloquium Presenters

Joel Carpenter is the director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin College. He has also served as provost at Calvin and prior to that was the director of the religion program of the Pew Charitable Trusts. A historian with degrees from Calvin and the Johns Hopkins University, Carpenter has taught at Calvin, Trinity International University and Wheaton College. He has published extensively, most notably the award-winning study Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism.

James Kirby is dean and professor of church history at the Perkins School of Theology. Kirby has degrees from McMurry University, Southern Methodist University and Drew University and spent a year as a John M. Moore Fellow at Cambridge University. He has served as dean and president ad interim of Southern Methodist University, and has held administrative positions and professorships at Drew University, Oklahoma State University and Sweet Briar College. Kirby is the author of numerous articles and three books. Ordained in 1955, he has served congregations in Texas and Milford, PA.

Carolyn (Paine '60) Miller is president of SIL International. She and her husband John '57 have served with SIL in the Philippines, Malaysia, Laos and Thailand. The second daughter of the late Stephen W. Paine, second president of Houghton College, Miller holds a master's degree from the University of North Dakota and an honorary doctorate from Houghton. She has published articles on language development, education and linguistics, based on her work in Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.

John R. Tyson is professor of theology at Houghton. A graduate of Grove City College and Asbury Theological Seminary, Tyson earned his master's and doctorate in theological and religious studies at Drew University. He has published four books and more than three dozen articles about the early Methodists.