We would like to introduce our newest faculty members! We are very excited to have them join us here on the Wilmore campus!
Dr. Maria Russell Kenney
Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics
Expertise:
- Temperance and its relevance for such issues as consumption and trans-humanism
- Virtues, practices, and the development of the virtue tradition
- Theological and practical aspects of Christian hospitality and community
Education:
- B.S., Texas Tech University, 1993
- M.Div., Asbury Theological Seminary, 2002
- Ph.D., Durham University, 2017
Dr. Kenney has participated in various forms of ministry for over twenty-five years, including campus ministry, low-income housing repair and advocacy in central Appalachia, residential work with emotionally disturbed adolescents, international medical relief work, and 17 years of pastoral and missional involvement in local congregations. Dr. Kenney was a sixteen-year participant and founding member of Communality, a Christian fellowship in Lexington, Ky. She was also an early member of the New Monasticism movement, where she coordinated place-based theological reflection at several intentional communities. She and her children currently attend Open Door Church, a neighborhood parish in Lexington.
Her publications include articles in the Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics and the T & T Clark Companion to Christian Ethics, as well as contributing to and co-editing the upcoming Practicing the Kingdom: Essays in Honor of Christine D. Pohl.
Prior to this appointment, Dr. Kenney served as an Adjunct Professor of Christian Ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Dr. Jason Vickers
Professor of Theology
Expertise:
- Systematic Theology
- Wesleyan and Methodist Studies
- Holiness
- Church Renewal
Education:
- Ph.D., Southern Methodist University, 2004
- M.Div., Nazarene Theological Seminary, 1999
- B.A., Trevecca Nazarene University, 1996
Prior to coming to Asbury, Dr. Vickers taught theology at United Theological Seminary (United Methodist) in Dayton, OH and Hood Theological Seminary (AME Zion) in Salisbury, NC. Dr. Vickers is an ordained elder in full connection on the Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church, past president of the Wesleyan Theological Society, and current editor of the Wesleyan Theological Journal.
Dr. Vickers is the author or editor of ten books: A Wesleyan Theology of the Eucharist (2016), the Cambridge Companion to American Methodism (2013), The Sermons of John Wesley (2013), Minding the Good Ground: A Theology for Church Renewal (2011), the Cambridge Companion to John Wesley (2009), Wesley: A Guide for the Perplexed (2009), and Invocation and Assent: The Making and Remaking of Trinitarian Theology (2008).
An avid outdoorsman, Dr. Vickers enjoys hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping. He resides with his wife, Lacey, and their three children, in Versailles, Ky.