Crux Sola: Formed by Scripture to Live like Christ
Daniel Castelo, Professor of Dogmatic and Constructive Theology at Seattle Pacific University and Seminary
Why do you love teaching and researching about Christian theology?
I love teaching and researching Christian theology because in doing so I feel most alive. I felt the call to pursue this work fairly early in my life (as a teenager), in particular upon reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship. I realized by reading this work that there was a world out there where people loved God with their minds in addition to everything else. I felt drawn to perpetuate this work with whatever ability I had. I think I was also influenced at that time by the development of my dad returning to seminary. He would share with me what he was learning, especially as it related to the early church fathers and mothers and the Reformers, and we were both caught up with the elegance and beauty of theological reflection. I truly consider theological work to be an act of worship.
What is one “big idea” in your scholarship?
Lately, I have been focusing on the interface between theology and spirituality and how we need to think of theological method in pneumatological terms. I believe the Holy Spirit has been neglected for far too long regarding questions of how we pursue theology, broadly understood. Matters related to biblical interpretation, rationality, coherence, the purpose of theology—these and others can be fruitfully developed within a pneumatological idiom.
Who is one of your academic heroes and why do you admire them?
For many years now, I have been compelled by Irenaeus and Gregory of Nyssa. Both of these figures were ahead of their time on so many themes. I have appreciated the focus on the Incarnation by Irenaeus and what that means for creaturehood, and I am equally in awe of Gregory’s focus on questions related to desire.
What books were formative for you when you were a student? Why were they so important and shaping?
I have already mentioned Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship. His reflections on the call of Jesus made an impact on my sense of what the Christian life requires. I have also been deeply influenced by the sermons of John Wesley. These sermons show a deep appreciation for biblical fluency and nuancing theological themes, especially matters related to soteriology.
Read Castelo’s Work
Pentecostalism as a Christian Mystical Tradition (Eerdmans)
The Marks of Scripture (Baker Academic; with Robert W. Wall)
Pneumatology (T&T Clark)
Theological Theodicy (Cascade Books)
If you ran into me at a conference and didn’t want to talk theology, what would you want to talk about?
I enjoy world football, especially the English Premier League and the Mexican National Team when the World Cup comes around.
What is a research/writing project you are working on right now that you are excited about?
I wish to develop an account of Wesley’s understanding of Christian perfection that draws on mystical ways of reasoning, especially since this doctrine is one that is meant to be lived out “coram Deo.”
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