Joe graduated from Johnson University Tennessee with a B.A. in Preaching and Church Leadership in 2007, after which he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to do a M.Div. at Lincoln Christian Seminary. During his first year there, he met his (future) wife, Charis, while dusting books in the library.
Joe holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a published author of “Divine Scripture in Human Understanding: A Systematic Theology of the Christian Bible” (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019).
Ordained in the Christian churches and churches of Christ, Joe joined the faculty of Johnson University Florida in 2015 before coming home to Tennessee to join the faculty at his alma mater in 2019.
He is a certified master herpetologist through the Amphibian Foundation and is completing the Southern Appalachian Naturalist Certification Program at the Great Smoky Mountain Institute at Tremont. He spends a lot of time hanging out with and teaching folks about their non-human neighbors in Kimberlin Heights.
