Occupation Professor | Discipline Systematic Theology | |
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Born 1958 (age 58–59) Finland Institutions Fuller Theological Seminary Alma maters University of Helsinki, Fuller Theological Seminary, University of Jyväskylä Institution Fuller Theological Seminary | ||
Veli matti k rkk inen eerdmans author interview series
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (b. 1958) is a Finnish theologian. He is Professor of Systematic Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. An ordained Lutheran minister (ELCA - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), he is also a world-renowned expert on Pentecostal-Charismatic theologies.
Contents
Veli matti k rkk inen christology a global introduction
Biography
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen was born into a Finnish Lutheran family. As a teenager, he would eventually become affiliated to a local Pentecostal church in his homeland. Later in life, he has been ordained as minister of ELCA and serves as part-time associate pastor for Finnish Lutheran Church in California and Texas (under Southwest California ELCA synod).
After receiving a M.Ed. from the University of Jyväskylä, Kärkkäinen would eventually pursue a M.A. in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He would return to Finland and be ordained as a minister of the Full Gospel Church of Finland, pastoring a local congregation from 1989-1991. In 1991, he would move his family to Thailand to teach at the Full Gospel Bible College in Bangkok. He would eventually return to Finland, becoming president of the Iso Kirja Bible College in Keuruu in 1994 and completing his doctorate in the University of Helsinki in 1998.
He would join the faculty of Fuller in 2000 as associate professor of systematic theology and become full professor in 2003. Kärkkäinen also serves as Docent of Ecumenics at the University of Helsinki.
Theology
Kärkkäinen has written textbooks offering global introductions to pneumatology, ecclesiology, and christology.
He has completed four volumes of a projected five-volume series called Constructive Christian Theology for the Church in the Pluralistic World, which engages questions of science and religion, global theology, and dialogue with other religions through comparative theology.
According to Amos Yong, he is "fast becoming one of the more important theologians to be reckoned with in our time."