Andrew Klager

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Andrew Klager
Andrew Klager.jpg
Born	(1981-10-07) October 7, 1981
🏡 Residence	Yarrow, British Columbia
🏳️ Nationality	Canadian
🏫 Education	University of Glasgow (PhD) McMaster Divinity College (M.A.) Columbia Bible College (B.A.)
💼 Occupation	Director, Institute for Religion, Peace and Justice (St. Stephen's University)
🌐 Website	irpj.org

Andrew P. Klager (born October 7, 1981) is the Director of the Institute for Religion, Peace and Justice (St. Stephen’s University) and is a Canadian Church historian, theologian, and peace scholar who specializes in the history of Christianity, ecclesiastical history, sixteenth-century Anabaptism and Radical Reformation, the Protestant and Catholic reformations, the Church Fathers, Eastern Orthodox theology, peace theology, and interreligious peacebuilding between Christians and Muslims.

Klager is an advocate of Christian nonviolence and has written on topics related to peace and justice for the Huffington Post, Sojourners Magazine, and Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Early life and Education

Klager was raised a conservative Evangelical and was brought into communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church through chrismation on Pentecost in 2009. After completing his Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies from Columbia Bible College in 2003, he earned his Master of Arts in Christian Studies from McMaster Divinity College with a specialization in early Christian history and the thought of St. Gregory of Nyssa. Klager then earned his PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Glasgow in 2011, focusing on sixteenth-century Anabaptist history and Balthasar Hubmaier’s use of the Church Fathers. His supervisor was the Professor of Ecclesiastical History, W. Ian P. Hazlett.

Thought and Academic Work

Klager’s thought relates predominantly to 16th-century Anabaptist history and theology, peace theology, political theology, and elements of Eastern Orthodox theology. In the realms of theology and social criticism, he cites as influences the thought of John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, René Girard, Noam Chomsky, Vladimir Lossky, Jim Forest, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Paul Evdokimov, and St. Gregory of Nyssa, about whom he has written a number of book chapters and articles as well as his Master's thesis.

Klager's historical work focuses mostly on the Renaissance and Protestant and Catholic religious reformations, and 16th-c. Anabaptism and Radical Reformation in particular. His publications and lectures deal mainly with the life and writings of the Anabaptist theologian and leader, Balthasar Hubmaier (c.1480–1528), including the influence of Humanism and Erasmus and his use of the Church fathers. Much of his research on 16th-c. Anabaptism explores themes of nonviolent advocacy for religious freedom and interfaith relations and human rights in early modern Europe.

A scholar of St. Gregory of Nyssa, Klager is a proponent of apophatic theology and uses this as the epistemological foundation for divine unknowing in the discursive and rational sense. For Klager, apophasis is also an invitation to silence and leaves an ontological transformation as the only genuine way to "know" God intuitively to the extent that we've partaken of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4; 2 Corinthians 2:18). This is how we avoid a mechanical and superficial obedience to Christ and instead develop behaviour commensurate with the expectations of the Sermon on the Mount intuitively to the degree that we have been transfigured.

Klager shows influence of Narrative Theology in his thought and writings. For example, in "The Kingdom of God and the Problem of Patriotism" in the Huffington Post, the entire narrative of Jesus’ life reveals what it looks like to participate in the peaceable, upside-down kingdom of God as a subversive alternative to the empires of this world — especially the brutally oppressive Roman Empire that killed Jesus and its imitators today in the form of the American empire and countries that rely on state-sanctioned militarism and economic exploitation. Klager suggests that this is expressed most clearly in the Sermon on the Mount and its higher expectations of Jesus' followers, and on the exemplary level, this is revealed in Jesus' alternative behaviour and actions to those that were anticipated by a military Messiah who would be assisted by the insurrectionist Zealots and exclusivist ideological support of the Pharisees.

As expressions of his peace theology, Klager has opposed the penal substitutionary model of the atonement and favours instead the recapitulation theory that was espoused clearest by St. Irenaeus of Lyons and the Christus Victor model as most compatible with a gospel of nonviolence. Klager is also a proponent of apokatastasis ton panton — or final restoration of all things in the end — as it is espoused by St. Gregory of Nyssa.

Klager has also been involved in interreligious peacebuilding in Egypt since the Arab uprisings and was present conducting research in Egypt during the tense period between the November 2012 declaration on the constitution by then President Mohamed Morsi and the referendum on the new constitution on December 15 and 22. Klager is a scholar on interreligious peacebuilding between Christians and Muslims and is a proponent of the interreligious hospitality model of interfaith relations espoused by Marianne Moyaert and Pierre-François de Béthune. Klager cites the influence of the grassroots elicitive approach to peacebuilding from the ground up pioneered by Mennonite peace scholar and practitioner, John Paul Lederach. He also cites the influence of Marc Gopin on the role of religion in the resolution of interreligious conflict.

Klager is also an outspoken critic of Christian Zionism and has written about his own exodus from this belief system toward a greater emphasis on justice on behalf of Palestinians as part of a dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians for their mutual security and dignity.

Personal life

Andrew Klager is an Eastern Orthodox Christian and is married with four children. He describes his political views as “agrarian socialist, socio-meritocratic, demilitarized city-state within a national adhocracy." He resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Selected Publications

• From Suffering to Solidarity: The Historical Seeds of Mennonite Interreligious, Interethnic, and International Peacebuilding (2016) ISBN 978-1625648006 Search this book on .
• “Understanding Biblical Violence: An ‘Oikonomic’ Approach,” in Clarion Call to Love: Essays in Gratitude to Archbishop Lazar Puhalo (2018) ISBN 978-1987710465 Search this book on .
• “The Church Fathers and Apokatastasis: Mt. Tabor, Gethsemane, and the Final Restoration of Humanity as a Theodrama of Peace,” in Hellrazed? (2017) ISBN 978-1979198646 Search this book on .
• “Authentic Grassroots Conflict Transformation in Egypt: Interreligious Hospitality and the Gift of Pessimism in Mennonite Approaches to Peacebuilding,” in From Suffering to Solidarity: The Historical Seeds of Mennonite Interreligious, Interethnic, and International Peacebuilding (2015) ISBN 978-1625648006 Search this book on .
• “Abandoning Apocalyptic Determinism in Favour of Compassion for Palestinians,” in Canadian Christian Zionism: A Tangled Tale (2015) ISBN 978-1508773337 Search this book on .
• “Orthodox Eschatology and St. Gregory of Nyssa's De vita Moysis: Transfiguration, Cosmic Unity, and Compassion,” in Compassionate Eschatology: The Future as Friend (2011) ISBN 978-1608994885 Search this book on .
• “Retaining and Reclaiming the Divine: Identification and the Recapitulation of Peace in St. Irenaeus of Lyons' Atonement Narrative,” in Stricken by God? Nonviolent Identification and the Victory of Christ (2007) ISBN 978-0802862877 Search this book on .
• “From Victimization to Empathetic Solidarity: The Historical Seeds of Interreligious Peacebuilding and Human Rights Advocacy in Anabaptist-Mennonite Origins,” Journal of Mennonite Studies (2014)
• “Mennonite Religious Values as a Resource for Peacebuilding between Orthodox Christians and Muslims,” Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies (2011)
• “Ingestion and Gestation: Peacemaking, the Lord's Supper, and the Theotokos in the Anabaptist-Mennonite and Eastern Orthodox Traditions,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies (2012)
• “Free Will and Vicinal Culpability in St. Gregory of Nyssa's De vita Moysis,” Greek Orthodox Theological Review (2010)
• “Balthasar Hubmaier's Use of the Church Fathers: Availability, Access, and Interaction,” Mennonite Quarterly Review (2010)
• “St. Gregory of Nyssa, Anabaptism, and the Creeds,” Conrad Grebel Review (2008)
• “Balthasar Hubmaier and the Authority of the Church Fathers,” Historical Papers 2008: Canadian Society of Church History: Annual Conference, University of British Columbia, 1–3 June 2008 (2008)
• “Passive Sacramentalism and Ontological Soteriology in Hans Denck and Gregory of Nyssa,” Direction Journal (2006)
• “Is Nonviolence Naïve? …and other questions about Jesus’ most controversial teachings.” Sojourners Magazine (July 2018)
• “The Kingdom of God and the Problem of Patriotism.” Huffington Post (1 July 2017)
• “The Compromised Road to Peace in the Middle East: Having Our Cake and Not Eating It Too.” Huffington Post (24 November 2015)
• “Unchristlike Images of God in Matthean Parables: A Mini-Minyan with Brad Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Derek Flood, Andrew Klager.” Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice (23 Oct. 2015)
• “An Interview with Brad Jersak, Author of A More Christlike God: A Beautiful Gospel.” Huffington Post (7 May 2015)
• “The Convergence of the Past, Present and Future in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Huffington Post (24 July 2014)
• “The Vulnerability that Makes Peace Possible: An Interview with Stanley Hauerwas.” Huffington Post (14 July 2014)
• [http://www.clarion-journal.com/clarion_journal_of_spirit/2014/02/q-a-god-became-man-so-that-man-might-become-gods-andrew-klager.html#more/ “Q&A: ‘God Became Man So That Man Might Become Gods’ – Andrew Klager,”' Clarion Journal of Spirituality and Justice (5 Feb. 2014)
• “2 Corinthians 5:21 - Panel discussion with Andrew Klager, Michael Harden and Brad Jersak,” Clarion Journal of Spirituality and Justice (18 Dec. 2013)
• “Expectations and Reality in Egypt: A Time for Pragmatism,” Huffington Post (8 July 2013)
• “3 Questions About Canada’s New Office of Religious Freedom.” Huffington Post (25 February 2013)
• “Hellbound? and the Simulation of Divine Violence as an Obstacle to Peace.” Huffington Post (29 October 2012)
• “‘In Haste Is Regret, In Slowness Peace’: U.S. Embassy Demonstrations in Cairo Reveal the Need for Homegrown Solutions to Muslim-Coptic Tensions.” Huffington Post (19 September 2012)
• “Protracted Sectarian Conflict in Egypt Can’t Be Fixed with Knee-Jerk Reforms.” Huffington Post (20 August 2012)
• “Grassroots Peacebuilding Will Continue to Encourage Religious Harmony in Egypt.” Huffington Post (27 July 2012)
• “New Political Climate Could Provide Hope for Copts.” Al-Masry al-Youm – Egypt Independent (12 July 2012 – print edition; July 15 2012 – online edition)

External links

• Official website
• IRPJ Director Page
• Huffington Post Author Page
• Clarion Journal Author Page
• IRPJ Blog Author Page

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