Faculty Profiles

Vincent Bacote Faculty Headshot

Vincent Bacote, Ph.D.

Professor of Theology, Director of Center for Applied Christian Ethics

On Faculty since 2000
630.752.5278
BGH 520


Link to CV

Dr. Vincent Bacote believes that doctrine is central to the life of the church.

Reckoning with Race and Performing the Good News: In Search of a Better Evangelical Theology (2020), The Political Disciple: A Theology of Public Life (2015), The Spirit in Public Theology: Appropriating the Legacy of Abraham Kuyper (2005), and has contributed to books including On Kuyper (2013), Aliens in the Promised Land (2013), Keep Your Head Up (2012) and Prophetic Evangelicals (2012).

He has been a regular columnist for Comment magazine and contributes to other magazines, including Books and Culture, Christianity Today, Think Christian and re:generation quarterly, and journals such as Christian Scholars Review, Urban Mission, and Journal for Christian Theological Research

Drew University
Ph.D., Theological and Religious Studies, 2002

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
M.Div., Urban Ministry, 1994

The Citadel
B.S., Biology, 1987

Drew University
M.Phil., 1999

  • Christian Thought 
  • Political Theology 
  • Theology and Culture 
  • Doctrine of the Church
  • Doctrine of the Holy Spirit 
  • Theology 
  • Evangelicalism 
  • Faith and Politics 
  • Abraham Kuyper
  • Calvinism 
  • NeoCalvinism 
  • Race 
  • Doctrine 
  • Doctrine of Humanity
  • Society of Christian Ethics
  • Evangelical Theological Society
  • American Academy of Religion
  • Christian Theological Research Fellowship

New group of evangelicals seeks a more Christian approach to politics
Religion News Service

Vincent Bacote, associate professor of theology at Wheaton College and co-founder of Public Faith, hopes voters will go to the polls and cast a ballot — if not in the presidential race, then for the down-ballot options. “There’s more on the ballot,” Bacote said. “And often, those are the more important choices.”
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Wheaton College tackles the death penalty with Jesus in mind
The Washington Post

In addition to Wheaton’s own ethicist Vincent Bacote and Mercer University scholar David Gushee, the panelists include Kirk Bloodsworth, who spent eight years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. Also on the panel is Frank Thompson, former superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary who witnessed executions...
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“A Better Freedom: Response to Patrick J. Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed”, Christian Ethics Section, Evangelical Theological Society Annual Meeting, November 2018.

“Abraham Kuyper on Flourishing,” Commonweal Project, Southern Seminary, November 2018.

“Learning from African-American Spiritual Formation,” Center for Pastor Theologians Conference, October 2018.

“The Open Vista of Black Public Theology,” Black Public Theology and Race in America Symposium, Fuller Seminary, October 2018.

“A Golden Opportunity: Public Faith in Crazy Times,” Lenoir-Rhyne University Institute for Faith and Learning Lecture Series, October 2018.

Academy of Faith and Leadership Lecture series, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, October 2018.

“Walking with Jesus in the Public Square: Being in and not of the World”, Cairn University, September 2018.

Faith and Work Lectures, Made To Flourish Learning Community, Denver, Co, May 2018.

“Chapel Speaker, University of Northwestern St. Paul, March 2018

“Theology and Work”, Christ Community Church Pastor’s Training, March 2018.

“Be Courageous… And Patient,” Chapel Address, Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando), February 2018.

“Making America Beautiful Through Public Faithfulness,” Focus Series, Spring Arbor University, February 2018.

“Loving God and Loving Our Country,” Focus Series, Spring Arbor University, February 2018.

“Faith and Politics: What’s the Connection?”, Lumen Lecture Series, Berry College, January 2018.

“Seminaries or Cemeteries?: A Mission as Big as Life Itself,” Karam Forum, January 2018.

Surge Network Pastor's Lunch

First Wednesday
Redemption Church, Phoenix, AZ

The Political Disciple
Faith and Public Life Series Progressive Baptist Church, Chicago, IL

Princeton Faith and Action
Princeton Faith and Action Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

Jochum Symposium
Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN

Spring Conference Lectures
Dallas Baptist University, Dallas, TX

Kuyper Lectures
Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, GA

  • Theology and Culture
  • Doctrine of the Church
  • Theological Anthropology
  • Eschatology
  • Faith and Work
  • BITH 315/316 Christian Thought
  • BITH 376 Theologies of Transformation
  • BITH 384 Political Theology
  • BITH 489 Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
  • BITH 489 Politics and Culture: Kuyper
  • BITH 322 Theological Discernment in Film and Music
  • BITH 318 Christian Thought in the Holy Lands
  • BITH 565 Christian Theology

Eschatology and Ethics, Baker Academic
Vincent Bacote, Forthcoming

Evangelical Theology, Brill
Vincent Bacote, Forthcoming

“A Different Kind of Public Theologian?”, Commentary on America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation, by Grant Wacker, Syndicate Theology
Vincent Bacote, 2016

Social Justice and Christian Obedience: Present and Future Challenges in The Church and Social Responsibility: Essays on Evangelicalism and Social Justice. (Grand Rapids: Christian’s Library Press), 103-110. Edited by Jordan J. Ballor and Robert Joustra, 2015

The Political Disciple: A Theology of Public Life, Zondervan
Vincent Bacote, 2015

Erasing Race: Racial Identity and Theological Anthropology, Black Scholars in White Space,
Vincent Bacote, 2015

How Should I Live? Theology Questions Everyone Asks: Christian Faith in Plain Language
Vincent Bacote, 2014

Beyond Faithful Presence: Abraham Kuyper’s Legacy for Common Grace and Cultural Development, Journal of Markets and Morality
Vincent Bacote, 2013

Ethnic Scarcity in Evangelical Theology: Where Are the Authors? in Aliens in the Promised Land: Why Minority Leadership Is Overlooked in White Christian Churches and Institutions, P&R Publishing
ed. Anthony B. Bradley, 2013

Natural Law: Friend of Common Grace in Natural Law and Evangelical Political Thought, Lexington Books
eds. Jesse Covington, Bryan McGraw and Micah Watson, 2012