Faculty Mentor
About Melanie
Melanie’s work articulates a formative way of reading Scripture (inspired by Dr. Joel Green’s theological interpretation) that supports better public ways to navigate new technologies and new information.
Currently, Melanie serves on the networking team with AI and Faith and on the leadership committee for the Human Enhancement and Transhumanism Unit of AAR. She is a doctoral fellow of the Richard John Mouw Institute of Faith and Public Life. In Pasadena, California, Melanie served in local church leadership and preached with Missio Community Church. She lead small groups and organized events for Science, Theology, and Religion with Fuller and Caltech students.
Melanie resides in Northwest Arkansas with her husband who works as a cybersecurity engineer and with their son.
Education
The University of Edinburgh
2016
MSc, Science and Religion, Dr. Mark Harris
Samford University
2015
BS, Science and Religion, Dr. Josh Reeves
Research Interests
Science and Religion, Human Enhancement Technologies, Digital Theology, Christian Ethics, Theological Interpretation
Publications
“Are Any of You Wise and Understanding?”: James’s Embodied Epistemology and Norms of Information Flow
2024, "Generating Wisdom" hosted by the Museum of the Bible and AI and Faith
True understanding—wisdom—requires embodied formation rather than a simple transferal of knowledge. To merely hear the Word but not do what it says is like someone who looks in the mirror and immediately forgets what they look like. To learn and mature requires embodied practice of communication. A postconservative tradition of conversionary reading of Scripture supports the communicative work of formation needed in order for artificial intelligence to be beneficial for the public–if AI does not help us generate wisdom through good communication, it fails.
"The Created Co-Creation of Evangelical Posthumanism"
2023, The Evangelical Theological Society
Even in light of Hefner’s objection, or perhaps because of it, the evangelical commitment to conversion offers an excellent opportunity for evangelical theologians to engage the theological posthumanist conversation. A retrieval of the evangelical tradition of conversion, by post-conservative evangelicals, clarifies evangelical conservativism in a way that offers gifts to both evangelicalism and the liberal voices of theological posthumanism. The post-conservative understanding of conversion is a faithfully evangelical articulation of created co-creation. This is a way for evangelical public theologians to engage meaningfully with theological posthumanism.
"Science-Engaged Theology as Just Peacemaking"
2022, Society of Christian Ethics Annual Conference
Every theology has an interpretation of the sciences that manifests in its public engagement with other theologies, as clearly demonstrated in the crises of the COVID-19 pandemic. The disagreement started and persists over theological method but the years of embitterment yield a deep need of just peacemaking to be done by academic theological institutions, an academic discipleship that practices pedagogy with “the effort to establish just, trusting relationships in which there is mutual understanding, trust building, forgiveness by removing enmity, reducing the fear of retaliation, and proactively seeking reconciliation.” This work of just peacemaking is both practical and robustly concerned with methodology–the two are interdependent for good academic discipleship.
"Divine Action and the COVID-19 Conspiracy of Microchipped Vaccines"
2021, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting
The COVID-19 pandemic is also an infodemic, to be sure, and it is critical for Christian leaders to understand how to encourage trust in science within narratival processes of meaning-making. In order to adequately handle conspiracy theories for the sake of public well-being, however, it is also critical for Christian leaders to understand the relationship between the fundamentalist theology of divine agency and the conspiracy of Bill Gates, COVID-19, and microchipped vaccines. A fundamentalist theology of divine action is foundationally interventionist and offers no explicit means of trusting immanent divine action in human agency. The problem with conspiratorial distrust of science then becomes a problem of distrust of scientists. To better address issues of public health and safety, science and religion scholars must continue work on theologies of divine action in support of healthier trust in human agency.
"Mandating an Attitude of Preservation: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Challenges of the Therapy/Enhancement Debate"
2019, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting
The contribution of Bonhoeffer’s ethic of formation of the true human is a justification of preservation in different contexts. ‘The true human’ does not sanctify embodiments only as they are, but recontextualizes physical embodiments as essential aspects of personal formation. In certain contexts and in certain ways, bio-hacking could be formed behavior, in others it certainly may not, but there is a dynamic normativity of teleological preservation that allows theologians to say both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to enhancement technologies in different contexts. Bonhoeffer’s ethic of formation of the true human represents a particularly Christian but not exclusively Christian ethic, a thick public engagement of a theology that supports hospitable inter-faith dialogue in the post-secular public sphere.
Fuller Seminary hosts these profiles as a courtesy to our doctoral students. Their views are their own and do not necessary reflect the views of the seminary.