Piotr Małysz joined the faculty of Beeson Divinity School in 2011 and teaches church history and doctrine. His research interests lie at the intersection of historical and systematic theology, modern European intellectual history, continental philosophy, and social theory. Małysz is the author of Trinity, Freedom and Love: An Engagement with the Theology of Eberhard Jüngel (T&T Clark 2012), and co-editor of Luther Refracted: The Reformer’s Ecumenical Legacy (Fortress Press 2015). In addition, Małysz has contributed to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Martin Luther, the Oxford Handbook to the Reception of Christian Theology, the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (De Gruyter), and the Annotated Luther series. Małysz’s articles have appeared in Modern Theology, Scottish Journal of Theology, International Journal of Systematic Theology, Harvard Theological Review, and Pro Ecclesia. He is most recently the author of “Beyond Cyril? Martin Luther’s Quest for Christological Agency” in the Scottish Journal of Theology. Małysz has also authored several more popular pieces in Modern Reformation and numerous editorial articles in Lutheran Forum. Małysz has recently become associate editor for the new series, Reconstructions in Lutheran Doctrinal Theology (Cascade), for which he is writing the volume on justification. He is also Lutheran Forum’s co-editor, as well as serving on the editorial boards of Kerygma und Dogma and Gdański Rocznik Teologiczny. Before coming to Beeson, Małysz was a Lilly Fellow and Lecturer in Theology at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana. He is an ordained Lutheran pastor. In his spare time, Małysz is an avid hiker, backpacker and photographer. He enjoys cooking and translating poetry.
Read “On Death, Dying, and Dying Well”
Read “Salvation in a Race-Conscious Age”
Read “Justified for Good: Luther’s Message for Late-Modern Times”
Read “The Church as a Resurrection Community”
Read “Being Human”
Education
- ThD, Harvard University
- MDiv, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN
- BA, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Books
- Trinity, Freedom and Love: An Engagement with the Theology of Eberhard Jüngel (T&T Clark 2012)
- Luther Refracted: The Reformer’s Ecumenical Legacy (Fortress Press 2015)
- Justification (forthcoming in Reconstructions in Lutheran Doctrinal Theology)
Selected Articles and Essays
- “Beyond Cyril? Martin Luther’s Quest for Christological Agency,” Scottish Journal of Theology 76:3 (August 2023), 214-229.
- “Communicatio idiomatum and the Lutheran Quest for Christological Agency,” Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie 65:3 (October 2023), 280-306.
- “Sin—between Law and Gospel,” in Mark C. Mattes (ed.), Common Places in Christian Theology: A Curated Collection of Essays from Lutheran Quarterly (Irvine, CA: 1517 Publishing, 2023), 127-157 (reprint of an article from Lutheran Quarterly 28:2 [Summer 2014], 149-178)
- “The Law in the Lutheran Tradition,” Jonathan A. Linebaugh (ed.), God’s Two Words: Law and Gospel in the Lutheran and Reformed Traditions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 15-44.
- “The Church as a Resurrection Community: The Church’s Identity in Late Modernity,” David S. Dockery et al. (eds.), Worship, Tradition, and Engagement: Essays in Honor of Timothy George (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2018), 232-246.
- “The Reality of Grace,” Lutheran Forum 52:3 (Fall 2018), 10-16.
- “The Harrowing of Hell,” Lutheran Forum 52:1 (Spring 2018), 10-18.
- “Freedom and Bondage: Luther’s Trinitarian Hermeneutic of Freedom,” Paul Hinlicky and Derek R. Nelson (eds.), The Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Martin Luther (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), vol. 1:501-519.
- “Justified for Good: Luther’s Message for Late Modern Times,” Word and World 37:4 (Fall 2017), 360-371.
- “Apostolic Council of Jerusalem. [Its reception in the theology and political thought of the] Middle Ages and Reformation,” Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (Berlin: de Gruyter 2016), vol. 13, col. 1102-1105.
- “The Resurrection as Divine Openness,” R. David Nelson (ed.), Indicative of Grace - Imperative of Freedom: Essays in honour of Eberhard Jüngel in His 80th Year (London: T&T Clark, 2014), 143-153.
- “The Book That Cost a Cow: A Lutheran Testimony (of Sorts),” Lutheran Forum 48:4 (Winter 2014), 51-56.
- “Freedom and Suffering in Bonhoeffer’s Theology,” Lutheran Forum 48:1 (Spring 2014), 47-51.
- “Polish Lutherans Facing Their Communist Past,” Lutheran Forum 45:2 (Summer 2011), 36-41.
- “Beyond Mere Negations: Luther and Dionysius,” Modern Theology 24:4 (October 2008), 679-692. Reprinted in Sarah Coakley & Charles M. Stang (eds.), Rethinking Dionysius the Areopagite (Oxford: Blackwells, 2009), 149-162.
- “Nemo iudex in causa sua as the Basis of Law, Justice and Justification in Luther’s Thought,” Harvard Theological Review 100:3 (July 2007), 363-386.
- “Exchange and Ecstasy: Luther’s Eucharistic Theology in Light of Radical Orthodoxy’s Critique of Gift and Sacrifice,” Scottish Journal of Theology 63:3 (August 2007), 294-308.
- “Storming Heaven with Karl Barth? Barth’s Unwitting Appropriation of the genus maiestaticum and What Lutherans Can Learn from It,”International Journal of Systematic Theology 9:1 (January 2007), 73-92.
- “Hegel’s Conception of God, and Its Application by Isaak Dorner to the Problem of Divine Immutability,” Pro Ecclesia 15:4 (Fall 2006), 448-471.
- “Third Use of the Law in Light of Creation and the Fall”, Charles A. Gieschen (ed.), The Law in Holy Scripture (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2004), 211-237.
- “Paul’s Use of the Imagery of Sleep and His Understanding of the Christian Life: A Study in the Thessalonian Correspondence,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 67:1 (January 2003), 65-78.
Research Interests
- Martin Luther and the Lutheran Reformation
- Doctrine of the Trinity
- Theological and philosophical anthropology
- 19th- and 20th-century systematic theology (Isaak Dorner, Karl Barth, Eberhard Jüngel, Wolfhat Pannenberg, Robert Jenson)
- Continental philosophy
Involvement
- American Academy of Religion
- Karl Barth Society of North America
