Hak Joon Lee

Hak Joon Lee was named Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics in September 2015, having served on the Fuller faculty since 2011 as professor of theology and ethics. He is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Dr. Lee’s research focuses on covenant, public theology, global ethics, and Asian American theology and ethics. He has also centered much of his attention on the ethics and spirituality of Martin Luther King Jr., and has been invited to be the keynote speaker for Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations in several cities. With Dr. King as his spiritual model, Lee has been active in the advocacy for racial justice and reconciliation in various institutional contexts. He frequently serves as a consultant and a mentor on these topics for local churches and individuals.

Lee has published several books in English, including Christian Ethics: A New Covenant Model (2021), God and Community Organizing: A Covenantal Approach (2020), Doing Justice: Decisive and Diverse Responses (coedited, 2019), Intersecting Realities: Race, Identity, and Culture in the Spiritual-Moral Life of Young Asians (2018), Shaping Public Theology: Selections from the Writings of Max L. Stackhouse (coedited, 2014), The Great World House: Martin Luther King Jr. and Global Ethics (2011), We Will Get to the Promised Land: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Communal-Political Spirituality (2006), and Covenant and Communication: A Christian Moral Conversation with Jürgen Habermas (2006).

Lee has also written numerous articles and two books in Korean: Bridge Builders (2007) and the award-winning A Paradigm Shift in Korean Churches (2011).

With more than 17 years of experience in pastoral ministry, Lee’s passion has been the renewal of the church in the globalizing, digitized world through the deeper integration of ecclesia and academia. He has led several curriculum writing projects that are theologically grounded and culturally relevant. For example, Lee was coeditor of the Micah 2 project (funded by Fuller’s Ogilvie Institute for Preaching), an ethics curriculum that about a thousand pastors in ten different countries are using. Additionally, in 2016, he and a group of Fuller students published the Wilderness Manifesto in response to the interlocking crises that humanity experiences today (economic inequality, ecological degradation, and educational deficiency). In 2007 Lee founded G2G Christian Education Center, a research institute on Asian American Christianity and culture. Through the center, he has published several contextually grounded curricula for Korean North American youth and their parents.

Lee enjoys extracurricular interactions with Fuller students, especially sharing table fellowship and hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains.