Draft:Derek R. Nelson

• Comment: Hello, thanks for your submission. Unfortunately I don't think it's ready to be accepted at this time, because it is not written in a neutral tone. There is some subjective or promotional language, such as describing him as a "sought-after speaker". Do you have any sort of financial or other connection with the subject of this draft? If so please check out our the conflict of interest policy and the paid editing policy, so you can make any required disclosures. Thank you, Zzz plant (talk) 22:42, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

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Derek R. Nelson is an American Lutheran theologian and historian of Christianity. He serves as Professor of Religion at Wabash College. An author, speaker, and professor, Nelson has published over a dozen books and given hundreds of addresses to academic and non-specialist audiences. He is also the Stephen S. Bowen Professor in the Liberal Arts at Wabash, funded by a multi-million-dollar gift from the Pritzker Foundation in 2017.

A native of Minnesota, Nelson earned degrees from Wabash College, Yale Divinity School, and the Graduate Theological Union at University of California at Berkeley. He taught at Thiel College before returning to Wabash College in 2013 as the successor to William Placher. He was also a visiting scholar at Oxford University in 2013. Nelson is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which he has served as a representative on the US Lutheran-Catholic ecumenical dialogue and helped develop a social statement on criminal justice.

Impact

Nelson's published writings have won awards from sources including Choice Reviews, Concordia Historical Institute, and the American Academy of Religion. His Oxford Encyclopedia of Martin Luther (2017), co-edited with Paul Hinlicky, has been accessed more than 2 million times and has shaped study in late medieval and early modern history and theology. Nelson's LaFollette Lecture—a lecture given each year by a Wabash College Faculty member who is charged to address the relation of his or her special discipline to the humanities broadly conceived—explored the dialectic of presence and absence seen in the Ascension by pairing it with a meditation on the dovetail woodworking joint.

Other Projects

Nelson is also an accomplished woodworker. His projects include furniture in the style of Sam Maloof, the "Evergreen" (a sustainable, ecological home centered on the theology of being "at home" in one's setting), and a scale replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond, constructed with Wabash College students in fall 2022.

Research and Publications

• The Gospel between Secular and Post-Secular Realities (with Jan-Olav Henriksen), 2025.
• Bodies Inhabiting the World: Scandinavian Creation Theology and the Question of Home (with Niels Gregersen and Bengt Uggla) 2024.
• Seek the Wellbeing of the City (multiple authors), 2024.
• Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Martin Luther (with Paul R. Hinlicky), 2017.
• By Heart: Conversations with Martin Luther's Small Catechism, (with Guy Erwin, Mary Jane Haemig, et al.) 2017.
• Luther Refracted: The Reformer's Ecumenical Legacy, (with Piotr Malysz) 2015.
• One Hope: Re-Membering the Body of Christ (multiple authors), 2015.
• Resilient Reformer: The Life and Thought of Martin Luther (with Timothy F. Lull), 2015.
• Readings in the History of Christian Theology, Vol.2: From the Reformation to the Postmodern World, 2nd ed. (with William C. Placher), 2016.
• Readings in the History of Christian Theology, Vol.1: From Its Beginnings to the Eve of the Reformation, 2nd ed. (with William C. Placher), 2015.
• A History of Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (with William C. Placher), 2013.
• Theologians in Their Own Words, (with Ted Peters), 2013.
• Sin: A Guide for the Perplexed, 2011.
• What's Wrong with Sin: Sin in Individual and Social Perspective from Schleiermacher to Theologies of Liberation, 2009.