Dr. Paul D. Numrich
Dr. Paul D. Numrich was trained in both theology and the academic study of religion, with degrees from Aurora College (BA 1979, concentrations in Bible, church history, and theology), Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (MDiv 1984, concentrations in Bible, theology, and pastoral studies), and Northwestern University (PhD 1992, concentration in comparative religion, especially Buddhism and Christianity). He has spent the past two decades teaching and researching the social, civic, and theological implications of America’s increasing religious diversity, including co-directing the Religion, Immigration and Civil Society in Chicago Project (funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, www.newimmigrants.org), directing The Church Next Door Project: Christian Congregations Face America’s New Religious Diversity (funded by the Louisville Institute, www.louisville-institute.org), and conducting research at the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics. He also holds a position as Affiliate Research Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Loyola University Chicago.
Dr. Numrich teaches at the Theological Consortium of Greater Columbus, Ohio, as Associate Professor in the Snowden Chair for the Study of Religion and Interreligious Relations, Methodist Theological School in Ohio; Associate Professor of World Religions and Interreligious Relations, Trinity Lutheran Seminary; and Adjunct Professor, Pontifical College Josephinum. His courses draw upon the disciplines of comparative religion, sociology of religion, and theology. He frequently advises the media, community groups, and other interested parties about religious topics, such as religious diversity in America, Christian theologies of other religions, religious factors in health care, religion in the schools, spirituality in the world’s religions, Eastern religions, Islam, and interreligious relations.
Dr. Numrich’s publications include the following books: Old Wisdom in the New World: Americanization in Two Immigrant Theravada Buddhist Temples (1996), recipient of the Distinguished Book Award from the Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association; Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America: A Short History (co-author, 2007); Sacred Assemblies and Civic Engagement: How Religion Matters for America’s Newest Immigrants (co-author, 2007); North American Buddhists in Social Context (editor, 2008); The Boundaries of Knowledge in Buddhism, Christianity, and Science (editor, 2008); and The Faith Next Door: American Christians and Their New Religious Neighbors (2009). His published essays include “Recent Immigrant Religions and the Restructuring of Metropolitan Chicago,” in Public Religion and Urban Transformation: Faith in the City (2000); “Marriage, Family, and Health in Selected World Religions: Different Perspectives in an Increasingly Pluralist America,” in Marriage, Health, and the Professions (2002); “Complementary and Alternative Medicine in America’s ‘Two Buddhisms’,” in Religion and Healing in America (2005); and “Immigrant Parochial Schools: Religion, Morality, Citizenship,” in Children and Childhood in American Religions (2009).
Dr. Paul D. Numrich (center) at a scholarly conference on religion, November 2002, Salt Lake City, Utah.
