David McNutt, Ph.D.

Dr. David McNutt is Senior Lecturer of Core Studies. He has been teaching at Wheaton College since 2009, and he has taught courses in systematic theology, historical theology, practical theology, theology and the arts, theology and film, and philosophical aesthetics. He also regularly teaches a First-Year Seminar course on the question, "What is Love?" Dr. McNutt received a Ph.D. in Divinity from the University of Cambridge (2013), an M.Litt. in Theology from the University of St. Andrews (2005; in conjunction with its Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts), an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary (2001), and a B.A. in Religion from Pepperdine University (1997).

His research and writing focuses on the relationship between theology and the arts, the theology of the Reformed tradition, and philosophical aesthetics. He is currently working on several writing projects, including a book on Karl Barth's doctrine of creation and the arts.

Dr. McNutt is also senior acquisitions editor at Zondervan Academic, an imprint of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, where he acquires and edits books in theology, philosophy, and related fields and oversees several series, including the New Studies in Dogmatics series, the Los Angeles Theology Conference series, and the Scottish Dogmatics Conference series. He is an ordained teaching elder (the office formerly known as Minister of Word and Sacrament) in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He and his wife, Dr. Jennifer McNutt, serve the church and the academy through McNuttshell Ministries, their teaching, preaching, and writing ministry.

The University of Cambridge
Ph.D., Divinity, 2013

The University of St. Andrews
M.Litt. in Theology, 2005
Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts

Princeton Theological Seminary
M.Div., 2001

Pepperdine University
B.A. in Religion, 1997 (Summa Cum Laude, Valedictorian)

• Systematic Theology
• Theology and the Arts
• Theology and Film
• Theological Aesthetics / Philosophical Aesthetics
• The Theology of the Reformed Tradition
• The Theology of Karl Barth
• Creativity
• Beauty

Books

• Karl Barth and the Arts: The Doctrine of Creation and a Reformed Theology of Creativity (IVP Academic; Studies in Theology and the Arts series; forthcoming)
• Know the Theologians, co-authored with Jennifer Powell McNutt (Zondervan, 2024)

Book chapters

• "The Comforting and Disrupting Spirit: The Holy Spirit and Terrence Malick'sThe Tree of Life," co-authored with Wesley Vander Lugt in Naming the Spirit: Pneumatology Through the Arts, eds. W. David O. Taylor and Daniel Train (IVP Academic, 2025)
• "The Value of Church Dogmatics 3 for the Arts" in Marty Folsom, Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics for Everyone, Volume 3(Zondervan Academic, 2025)
• “Hidden in Pop: Andy Warhol’s Art as Modern Religious Iconography” inGod in the Modern Wing, eds. Cameron J. Anderson and Walter Hansen (IVP Academic; Studies in Theology and the Arts, 2021)
• “Finding Its Place: How Karl Barth’s Ecclesiology Can Help the Church Embrace Contemporary Art” inContemporary Art and the Church: A Conversation Between Two Worlds, eds. David Taylor and Taylor Worley, Studies in Theology and the Arts (IVP Academic, 2017)
• “I am Jack’s Happy Ending:Fight Cluband Tolkien’sEucatastrophe,” inYou Do Not Talk about Fight Club, ed. Read Schuchardt (BenBella Books, 2008)

Articles

• "A Surprising Correspondence: How an Exchange of Letters Between Karl Barth and Dorothy L. Sayers Models Gracious Theological Discourse," in VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center, Vol. 38 (2021), pp. 5-22.

Christianity Today

• “‘We All Have Plague’: What I Learned about Suffering and Hope from Reading Albert Camus during the Pandemic” (December 23, 2020)
• “Does Evangelism Jeopardize Authentic Artistic Expression? What an Old Testament Artist Tells Us About Aesthetic Vocation” (July/August 2018)

Christ and Pop Culture

• “On Long-Suffering Odysseus: Why Christians Should Read Classics Written Before Jesus” (June 30, 2025)
• “The Ending is the Drama: Mission: Impossible, Fairy Stories, and the Longing for Consolation” (July 9, 2018)
• “A Cinematic Theology of the Cross: Despair and Hope in Paul Schrader’s First Reformed” (June 29, 2018)

Transpositions

The online journal of the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (University of St. Andrews) - transpositions.co.uk

• “Signs of Humanity: Westworld and Augustine’s Theological Anthropology” (April 16, 2018)
• “New Members’ Class: Why Christians Should Join the Art Museum (without Leaving the Church)” (June 16, 2016)
• “Perfect in Power: Reflections on the Interplay of Power, Art, and the Church’s Worship” (March 9, 2015)

Visual Commentary on Scripture (thevcs.org)

• “The Disciples and the World” (John 15:18-27)

Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States(Rowman & Littlefield, 2016):

• “Theology and the Arts”
• “Worship and the Arts”
• “Karl Barth”
• “Calvin Seerveld”
• “Will H. Hays”

The New Dictionary of Theology (InterVarsity Press, 2016)

• "Idolatry"

Book reviews

International Journal of Systematic Theology

• “Cut to a Close-Up of Theology: Recent Work in Religion and Film” (14:2, April 2012): review essay of Paul V.M. Flesher and Robert Torry, Film & Religion: An Introduction; John Lyden, ed., The Routledge Companion to Religion and Film; Clive Marsh, Theology Goes to the Movies; and Jolyon Mitchell and S. Brent Plate, eds., The Religion and Film Reader
• Review of Richard Viladesau, The Triumph of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts from the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation (12:3, July 2010)

Religion and the Arts

• "Faith and Film" (13:4, 2009): review essay of Ron Austin, In a New Light: Spirituality and the Media Arts; Stephenson Humphries-Brooks, Cinematic Savior: Hollywood’s Making of the American Christ; Peter Malone, ed., Through A Catholic Lens; and Richard Walsh, Finding St. Paul in Film
• Review of Robert Wuthnow, All in Sync: How Music and Art are Revitalizing American Religion (13:1, 2009)

Theology: The SPCK Journal

• Review of James K. Beilby and Paul R. Eddy, eds., Justification: Five Views (116:1, January/February 2013)
• Review of Paul Molnar, Incarnation and Resurrection: Toward a Contemporary Understanding (113:1 / 871, January/February 2010)
• Review of Bruce McCormack, Orthodox and Modern: Studies in the Theology of Karl Barth (112:6 / 870, November 2009)

Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture

• Review of Bruce Ellis Benson, Liturgy as a Way of Life: Embodying the Arts in Christian Worship (11:1, 2015)
• Review of William D. Romanowski, Reforming Hollywood: How American Protestants Fought for Freedom at the Movies (9:2, 2013)
• Review of Frank Burch Brown, Inclusive yet Discerning: Navigating Worship Artfully (7:2, 2011)
• Review of Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath, The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine (4:2, Summer 2008)
• Review of Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (4:2, Summer 2008)
• Review of R. Kevin Seasoltz, Sense of the Sacred: Theological Foundations of Christian Architecture and Art (2:1, Winter 2005)

Books & Culture: A Christian Review

• “‘But Now I Am Found’: The Lost Man Booker Prize” (review of J.G. Farrell’s Troubles; 21:4, July/August 2015)
• “‘A Sort of Icon’: Rowan Williams’s Dostoevsky: Language, Faith, and Fiction” (booksandculture.com/articles/webexclusives/2010/march/asortoficon.html)

The Curator Magazine

• “Agents of Change”: review of James McCullough, Sense and Spirituality: The Arts and Spiritual Formation (January 13, 2016; curatormagazine.com)

Christian Scholar’s Review

• Review of Richard J. Mouw, Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction (XLII:1, Fall 2012)

Anglican Theological Review

• Review of Judith Wolfe and Brendan N. Wolfe, eds., C. S. Lewis and the Church: Essays in Honour of Walter Hooper (96:3, Summer 2014; pp. 631-633)
• Review of Steven Ozment, The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation (96:1, Winter 2014; pp. 197-200)