Mike Wagenman

Through Global Scholars Canada, Dr. Wagenman serves as Senior Research Fellow, Director of Postgraduate Studies, and Director of the Scripture Collective at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge (UK).

The Kirby Laing Centre (KLC) is a global leader for Christian scholarship and public theology, rooted in spirituality and practiced in community, for the glory of God and the flourishing of the church and world. “Public theology” means the joyful and rigorous attempt to explore and provide answers to the question ‘how then shall we live?’ Through a partnership with Union Theological College (UTC) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, KLC supervises remote PhD students from around the world who see scholarship as a form of Christian witness.

Dr. Wagenman is developing theological, biblical, and practical resources to support Christian graduate students and junior scholars across the academic disciplines. He regularly leads seminars for junior scholars, mentors graduate students, and builds networks to equip Christian academics with the insights of the global Christian academic community.

Dr. Wagenman is currently mentoring graduate students and junior scholars in Australia, Indonesia, China, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Zambia, and South Africa. He serves on the board of the Student YMCA (a Christian residence and study centre) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Dr. Wagenman is the author of three books and more than forty journal, magazine, newspaper, and online articles. He is Fellow and regular contributor at the Faith in Scholarship blog at the Thinking Faith Network (UK).

  • Together for the World: The Book of Acts (Lexham Press, 2016).
  • Engaging the World with Abraham Kuyper (Lexham Press, 2018).
  • The Power of the Church: The Sacramental Ecclesiology of Abraham Kuyper (Pickwick, 2020).

Dr. Wagenman completed his PhD at the University of Bristol on the power of the church within the theology of Abraham Kuyper, a massively influential Christian, scholar, public intellectual, and the first twentieth century Prime Minister of the Netherlands. He is currently researching and writing on Jesus of Nazareth as a unique first-century Jewish revolutionary, a holistic vision of evangelism for the twenty-first century, and the church’s missed opportunities during the 1960s counterculture.

Dr. Wagenman is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church and for nearly twenty years has been leading a thriving campus ministry at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. One of his former students had this to say about how his work impacted her life:

I came to Western, not knowing anybody in the whole city and unfamiliar with the new terrain I had found myself in because, as a Nigerian, I was used to constantly being surrounded by familiar faces and a generally accepted Christian worldview. In my first month as an undergraduate student, I was certain I had made a mistake coming to school in London. Not too long after, I found Mike and the fellowship he led and that became my anchor during my time as a student, through the peaks and deeply distressed seasons of my studies. What I learnt from Mike and other students enlightened me, challenged me and left me with a deeper appreciation for bible study and our call to live like Christ.

If you are a Christian graduate student or junior scholar and would like to participate in Dr. Wagenman’s work, you can contact him at michael@kirbylaingcentre.co.uk .

To support Dr. Wagenman’s work, click here.

Here’s what a former student said about why supporting this work is so essential:

Christian scholarship is crucial because in a world with so many questions and no clear direction on where to find answers, the church needs to have answers that point the world back to Jesus and the church needs to understand how to engage with academia as the intellectuals of the day wield a lot of influence on our communities, government and subsequently, on policies. The world needs dialogue and fellowship for Christians from all nations at the graduate level is a great place to start.