Ryan O’Dowd began his support of Chesterton House in 2010 and now serves as Chesterton House Academic Director and assisting priest at Bread of Life Anglican Church in Ithaca, NY. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy (1994), Reformed Theological Seminary, and the University of Liverpool (PhD). Over the last 30 years, Ryan has balanced work as a pastor, an Active Duty and Reserve officer in the U.S. Air Force, and a scholar in a wide variety of academic settings. His doctoral research explored the relationship between biblical wisdom and law, and, over the last 15 years, he has examined these subjects alongside the study of moral theology and religious and secular ethics. He has also developed and taught several courses on work and vocation (calling). Ryan and his wife Amy have three grown children and live with their youngest daughter in Ithaca, NY. In his free time, Ryan loves to bake, read, cycle, run, and swim.

 

Select publications:

Books:

• The Preacher’s Hebrew Commentary on Deuteronomy (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson) forthcoming
• Proverbs, ESV Bible Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022)
• Proverbs, Story of God Biblical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017)
• Old Testament Wisdom Literature: A Theological Introduction, with Craig Bartholomew (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Academic Press, 2011)
• The Wisdom of Torah: Epistemology in Deuteronomy and the Wisdom Literature, FRLANT (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009)

Articles and chapters:

• “Pain and Danger: Unpleasant Sayings and the Structure of Proverbs,”Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 80 (2018) 619–35
• “Aesthetic Shaping of Agur’s Oracle in Proverbs 30:1–9,”Inner Biblical Allusion in the Poetry of Psalms and Wisdom, eds. Mark Boda, Kevin Chau, Beth Tanner, Society of Biblical Literature (Atlanta: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2018) 103–119
• “A Prophet in the Sage’s House? Origins of the Feminine Metaphors in Proverbs,”Riddles and Revelations: Explorations into the Relationship between Wisdom and Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, eds. Mark Boda, Russell Meek, William R. Osborne (LHBOTS; London: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark: 2018) 165–79
• “Wisdom and Poetry,” The Old Testament: A Christian Companion, ed. Hywel Clifford (Norwich: SCM Press, 2016) 101–129
• “Epistemology in Ecclesiastes: Remembering What It Means to Be Human,” The Words of the Wise are Like Goads: Engaging Qohelet in the 21st Century, eds. Mark Boda, Tremper Longman III, and Cristian Rata (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2013) 197–219

Dr. Vivek Mathew (B.S.E. Princeton, M.Div Princeton Seminary, B.Phil Oxford, MA/PhD Cornell ’19) was born and raised in Defiance, Ohio. From Ohio, he moved to New Jersey to study computer science at Princeton and then to New York City where he worked for eight years in quantitative finance at Morgan Stanley. While in New York he attended Redeemer Presbyterian Church (where he met his wife Jeanie), and eventually returned to Princeton for seminary training. Interests in historical theology and philosophy led him overseas to the UK to read the B.Phil in philosophy at Oxford University. Since 2013 he has been at Cornell,  completing his doctorate in 2019 at the intersection of metaphysics, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, cognitive science, and history of philosophy. He was one of five nationwide fellowship recipients for cross-training grants given by the Society of Christian Philosophers and the Templeton Foundation. As director of Chesterton House, he has been one of several leading second-generation directors within the study center movement. He teaches regularly on various topics on student religious life, philosophy, theology, and pastoral care. Beyond Cornell, he has spoken nationally on contemporary challenges for campus ministry to audiences at Princeton, Oxford, Cornell, Duke, University of Pennsylvania, University of Minnesota, and other venues, as well as many other church and parachurch organizations. He and Jeanie and their three children attend Bread of Life Anglican Church in Ithaca.