Our Leadership Team
Dr. Claire Wolfteich, Project Director
Dr. Wolfteich’s teaching and research interests include Christian spirituality; theologies of vocation, work, and family; lay spirituality; religion and public life; American Catholicism; and spiritual autobiographies. She co-directs the Center for Practical Theology. Her publications include: Motherwork, Public Leadership, and Women’s Life Writing: Explorations in Spirituality Studies and Practical Theology (Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Publishers, 2017); Catholic Approaches in Practical Theology: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, co-edited with Annemie Dillen (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters Publishers, 2016);Invitation to Practical Theology: Catholic Voices and Visions (ed.) (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2014); Sabbath in the City: Sustaining Urban Pastoral Excellence, co-authored with Bryan P. Stone (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008); Lord, Have Mercy: Praying for Justice with Conviction and Humility (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2006);Navigating New Terrain: Work and Women’s Spiritual Lives (New York: Paulist Press, 2002); and American Catholics Through the Twentieth Century: Spirituality, Lay Experience, and Public Life (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2001).
Dr. Jonathan Calvillo
Dr. Calvillo teaches courses at the intersection of sociological methods and lived religion. He is part of the Latino Protestant Congregations project, a Lilly funded national study on Latino churches. He has also conducted extensive community based research on Latino Catholic and Protestant churches. His work is particularly attuned to how urban contexts shape congregational experiences and how demographic change relates to religious change.
Dr. Wanda Stahl
The Rev. Dr. Wanda Stahl is an ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church. Prior to accepting her position at BU, Wanda served as Director of Christian Formation for the New England Annual Conference of the UMC for 12 years. Wanda received her M.Div. from Boston University School of Theology and her Ph.D. in Theology and Education from Boston College. She has completed programs in Individual Spiritual Guidance and Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups and Retreats from the Shalem Institute in Washington, DC and considers it a privilege to accompany people on their faith journeys in a variety of settings. Her professional study and leadership have been in adult spiritual formation and equipping leaders for ministry in a post-Christian world. Her current research interest involves exploring the connections between eco-spirituality and sustainability practices in Christian communities.
Dr. Courtney Goto
Courtney T. Goto is Associate Professor of Religious Education at the Boston University School of Theology and a co-Director for the Center for Practical Theology. She is the author of The Grace of Playing: Pedagogies for Leaning into God’s New Creation(Pickwick, 2016). Her research and teaching help students and congregations to engage in aesthetic theological reflection. For example, in her course, Doing Theology Aesthetically, students explore their theological questions through art. She has written about it in an article titled, “Reflecting Theologically by Creating Art: Giving Form to More than We Can Say,”Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry 36, http://journals.sfu.ca/rpfs/index.php/rpfs/article/view/426/413. Goto's interests include helping churches address issues of racism with and through art, building on her Japanese American congregation’s experience of using art to address issues of race, faith, and memory.
Dr. Bryan Stone
Bryan Stone has served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs since January, 2011 and as the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism in the School of Theology since 1998. He has a background in new church development, urban pastoral ministry, and faith-based non-profit development. His most recent books are: A Reader in Ecclesiology, Evangelism After Christendom: The Theology and Practice of Christian Witness, and Sabbath in the City: Sustaining Urban Pastoral Excellence, co-authored with Claire Wolfteich. His research, publishing, and teaching interests are in the areas of evangelism, congregational development, urban ministry, ecclesiology, theology and popular culture (including especially film studies), Christian pacifism, and Wesleyan, liberation, narrativist, and post-liberal theologies.