Faculty Profile

Education: BA, Seattle Pacific University, 1987; MDiv, Fuller Theological Seminary, 1995; PhD, University of Glasgow, 2000. At SPU since 2005.

Prior to coming to SPU in 2005, Jeffrey Keuss was lecturer of practical theology and ethics and director for the Centre for the Study of Literature, Theology in the Faculty of Arts and Divinity at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. In addition to his work at SPU, he continues to teach as visiting professor of practical theology at Fuller Theological Seminary Northwest and is a regular contributor to The Kindlings Muse monthly podcast on Theology and Culture.

Dr. Keuss has published articles, chapters, and reviews on the interdisciplinary engagement of theology, ministry, and contemporary culture and is on the editorial board for the journal Literature and Theology (Oxford University Press). His books include Freedom of the Self: Kenosis, Cultural Identity  and Mission at the Crossroads; A Poetics of Jesus: The search for Christ through writing in the nineteenth century; and The Sacred and the Profane: Contemporary Issues in Hermeneutics. He also has two chapters in Cinema Divinite addressing the role of film studies in theological reflection and completed a book on theology and pop music titled Your Neighbor’s Hymnal: What Popular Music Teaches Us About Faith, Hope, and Love (Cascade Books, 2011).

Teaching areas: Youth culture and Christian faith, Christian theology, Christian formation, evangelism and mission, theology and practice of youth ministry, and human development and Christian faith.

Research interests: Theology and cultural hermeneutics; continental philosophy and theology (Paul Ricœur, Jean-Luc Marion, Slavoj Žižek); narrative identity formation in youth; Gospel of John; Kenosis; theology through contemporary literature, film, and music; Zechariah and prophetic literature of restoration.

Books

Blur: A New Paradigm For Understanding Youth Culture

Zondervan, 2014

Today’s blurred youth culture is mobile, connected, and wired in. This is a generation that skips over perceived cultural boundaries and resists definition. How does one reach a demographic that is so difficult to pin down? Dr. Jeff Keuss argues a qualitative approach to describing young people is needed, one that recognizes the “blurred” nature of today’s mobile youth culture. As we learn to see youth culture through this new lens, we will become better informed and better equipped to minister to the teens of today’s rapidly changing world.

Your Neighbor’s Hymnal: What Popular Music Teaches Us About Faith, Hope, and Love

Wipf and Stock, 2011

"Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman once sang, 'Why should the devil have all the good music?' In reality, most of the good music belongs not to the devil but to our neighbor — those that Jesus calls us to love as ourselves. 'Your Neighbor’s Hymnal' is an opportunity to spend some time reflecting on the wide bandwidth of popular music that our neighbor listens to across the many genres of the FM dial and iTunes catalog — jazz, folk, pop, rock, electronic, and others — and see that our neighbor is not only listening to the music that many Christians listen to but also listening for the very things that animate the hearts and minds of those sitting in the pews on a Sunday morning." (5–6)

Freedom of the Self: Kenosis, Cultural Identity, and Mission at the Crossroads

Pickwick, 2010

A Poetics of Jesus: The Search for Christ in Nineteenth-Century Writing

Ashgate Press, 2002

Selected Publications

• Cinema Divinite: Religion, Theology, and the Bible in Film (SCM Press, 2005).
• The Sacred and the Profane: Contemporary Issues in Hermeneutics (Ashgate Press, 2003).