Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (Dr. Theol. Habil.)
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen is a prolific writer and a professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. He holds a teaching position at the University of Helsinki as Docent of Ecumenics. He has been teaching at Summit since 2017. He has served as the president and professor at Iso-Kirja Opisto, a Pentecostal college in Finland, and as an instructor at Full Gospel Pentecostal Bible Institute in Thailand. He also has pastoral experience in both Pentecostal and Lutheran churches.
Dr. Kärkkäinen has authored and edited about twenty books in English and seven in Finnish, his native language, including most recently Christian Theology in the Pluralistic World: A Global Introduction (2019) and Doing the Work of Comparative Theology: A Primer for Christians (2020). His other works include The Trinity: Global Perspectives (2007), One with God: Salvation as Deification and Justification (2004), and Trinity and Religious Pluralism: The Doctrine of the Trinity in Christian Theology of Religions (2004), as well as more than 150 articles that have appeared in international scholarly journals. He also edited the Global Dictionary of Theology (with William Dyrness, 2008), The Spirit in the World: Emerging Pentecostal Theologies in Global Contexts (2009), and Holy Spirit and Salvation: The Sources of Christian Theology (2010). He recently completed a five-volume series covering all topics of systematic theology entitled A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World, published by Eerdmans (2013–2017). Kärkkäinen is a member of several editorial boards, including the Strategic Initiatives in Systematic Theology series by InterVarsity Press, the Studies in Systematic Theology series by E.J. Brill, and is a reviewer for the International Journal of Systematic Theology.
Courses: Constructive Theology I & II