Faculty Profile

Education: BA, Seattle Pacific University, 1995; MDiv, Duke Divinity School, 1998; PhD, Southern Methodist University, 2003. At SPU since 2001.

Doug Koskela primarily teaches courses in systematic theology and the University Foundations sequence. His areas of research interest include Wesleyan theology, epistemology of theology, vocation, and ecclesiology.

Dr. Koskela is a member of the Wesleyan Theological Society, and he served as the Society's president in 2015-16. He is also a member of the American Academy of Religion.

Dr. Koskela has authored three books, including his most recent--The Radiance of God: Christian Doctrine through the Image of Divine Light--which has been awarded the “Timothy L. Smith and Mildred Bangs Wynkoop Book Award.”  He has also published numerous articles and book chapters. He is an ordained elder in the Pacific Northwest Conference of the Free Methodist Church.

Books

The Radiance of God: Christian Doctrine through the Image of Divine Light

Cascade Books - An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021

Winner of the “Timothy L. Smith and Mildred Bangs Wynkoop Book Award”
The image of God as light abounds in Scripture and the Christian tradition. In The Radiance of God, Douglas M. Koskela explores the theme of divine radiance across the span of Christian doctrine. The book develops a constructive account of the Christian gospel that traces the journey from darkness into the marvelous light of God. Drawing on an ecumenical range of voices in the tradition, Koskela frames the discussion in terms of three central concepts: allure, movement, and joy. The image of divine radiance suggests the sheer beauty of God that captivates the attention of God’s creatures in wonder, love, and praise. The brilliance of this light initiates a process of movement toward it as the Holy Spirit transforms us in the image of Christ, the light of the world. The culmination of this journey is inexpressible and unending joy as we are immersed in the divine light. By following this threefold pattern through the classic loci of Christian doctrine, this volume offers a sustained and coherent treatment of the economy of salvation from creation to consummation.

Calling and Clarity: Discovering What God Wants for Your Life

Eerdmans Publishing, 2015

Ecclesiality and Ecumenism: Yves Congar and the Road to Unity

Marquette University Press, 2008

Immersed in the Life of God: The Healing Resources of the Christian Faith: Essays in Honor of William J. Abraham (with Gavrilyuk, Paul L., and Vickers, Jason E.)

Eerdmans, 2008

"Douglas M. Koskela reflects on ecclesial reconciliation as a healing practice. With attention to both ecumenical and intra-ecclesial relationships, he examines the impetus toward and patterns of reconciliatory practice ... He suggests that, by approaching reconciliation in a posture of humility and attentiveness to its own canonical riches, the church has genuine hope of restoration and revitalization." (x)

Selected Publications

• "John Wesley," in The Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology, edited by William J. Abraham and Frederick D. Aquino (Oxford University Press, 2017)
• "Discipline and Polity,” in The Cambridge Companion to American Methodism, edited by Jason E. Vickers (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
• “A Wesleyan Understanding of the Authority of Scripture,” in Wesley, Wesleyans, and Reading the Bible as Scripture, edited by Joel B. Green and David F. Watson (Baylor University Press, 2012)

Please view Dr. Koskela’s CV (PDF) for additional publications.