What is a Theologian-in-Residence?
A trained theologian who works to bridge the gap between the academy and the church. They bring an attentiveness to the intersections of academic, activist, and ecclesial engagement. And bridge the forefront of religious scholarship and a passion for re-imagining our ordinary, common, messy life as the site of Divine encounter and revelation. Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship is proud to announce that Nindyo Sasongko is our inaugural Theologian-in-Residence.
Nindyo Sasongko, Theologian-in-Residence at Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship
Nindyo Sasongko is a Ph.D. student in Systematic Theology at Fordham University (2017-). Formerly he was the inaugural holder of the Elias Pohan Visiting Scholar Award at Jakarta Theological Seminary, Indonesia’s oldest ecumenical Protestant seminary.
A native of Indonesia and an ordained Mennonite minister with ten years of pastoral experience, with specialization in youth and liturgical ministries, he started pastoral ministry after receiving his bachelor degree in theology from the South East Asia Bible Seminary in the city of Malang in 2003.
In 2009, he was selected to join Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite World Conference’s exchange program Young Anabaptist-Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN!). From August 2009 to June 2010, he worked with Meri Berhan Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia, as an intern youth minister. After the YAMEN program, he returned to his hometown to assume his ministries in the Indonesia Muria Christian Church in the town of Kudus.
He received his Master of Arts in Transforming Spirituality in 2015 from the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University, Seattle, a Jesuit university in the Pacific Northwest. Upon completing his master’s degree, he was awarded the Elias Pohan Visiting Scholar Fellowship from Jakarta Theological Seminary, Indonesia. This program enabled him to teach undergraduate and graduate courses and to publish his research. His research interests include systematic and constructive theology, spirituality and mysticism, theologies of liberation, ecclesiology, hermeneutics and modern theology, and historical theology.
He has presented papers in national and international academic conferences, including 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, CA, 2014 Annual Meeting of Religious Education Association, in Chicago, IL, 2015 “Mending the World?” Conference in Uppsala, Sweden, and World Council of Churches’ Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity (YATRA) in 2016 and 2017. He has published articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Toronto Journal of Theology, Exchange, Ecclesiology, International Review of Mission, Dialog: A Journal of Theology, and Feminist Theology.
Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship 