Paul Louis Metzger, Ph.D.

I was raised in a strong Christian home and came to Christ at a young age. During my high school years, I rebelled against the faith and sought to break on through to the other side through the inspiration of Jim Morrison and The Doors. God eventually broke through to me and my heart. As one passionate for Jesus, I have found inspiration through another Jim—Jim Elliot. I still want to break on through to the other side, but it’s more like “he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” (Jim Elliot).

I love teaching at Multnomah University and Multnomah Biblical Seminary because of its Christ-centered biblical spirituality in community in our great cultural context of Portland and beyond.

I am really excited about what Multnomah University and Multnomah Biblical Seminary are doing through The Institute for Cultural Engagement: New Wine, New Wineskins and Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture. At New Wine, we’re about having one finger in the Bible and one finger on the daily newspaper, bearing witness to Christ in our contemporary culture. I find it a great privilege to mentor students through our New Wine program.

My areas of research include Trinitarian theology, theology of culture, ethics, and multi-faith discourse involving interdisciplinary work in realms like social psychology. My published works include Beatitudes, Not Platitudes: Jesus’ Invitation to the Good Life (Eugene: Cascade, 2018); Evangelical Zen: A Christian’s Spiritual Travels With a Buddhist Friend (Patheos, 2015); Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths (Thomas Nelson, May 2012); New Wine Tastings: Theological Essays of Cultural Engagement (Cascade, 2011); The Gospel of John: When Love Comes to Town (InterVarsity Press, 2010); Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction (co-authored with Brad Harper; Brazos, 2009); Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church (Eerdmans, 2007); and The Word of Christ and the World of Culture: Sacred and Secular through the Theology of Karl Barth (Eerdmans, 2003). He is co-editor of A World for All?: Global Civil Society in Political Theory and Trinitarian Theology (co-edited with William F. Storrar and Peter J. Casarella; Eerdmans, 2011); and editor of Trinitarian Soundings in Systematic Theology (T&T Clark International, 2005). Dr. Metzger is a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey, and Senior Mission Scholar–Spring 2018, at the Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut.

People who inspire me include John M. Perkins, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin Luther King Jr.

My favorite person and verse in the Bible is David “One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)

I am married with two children, a daughter-in-law, one grandchild, and one dog. In my free time, I enjoy reading and traveling.  I also have keen interest in the art of Katsushika Hokusai and Georges Rouault, the writings of John Steinbeck, and the music of Johnny Cash, The Doors, and Nirvana.