Theodore A. Turnau, Ph.D., M.Div.

Senior Lecturer, Chair of the Department of Arts, Culture, and Literature Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
ted.turnau@aauni.edu

Letenská 120/5
118 00 Malá Strana

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Ted was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and raised in rural Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in English and has an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Westminster Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Carolyn, have lived in Prague and taught at AAU since 1999.Ted teaches classes in culture, media, and religious studies, and serves as the chair of Arts, Culture, and Literature.

He is the author of four books (inter alia): 

  • Popologetics: Popular Culture in Christian Perspective (2012)
  • The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ (with E. Stephen Burnett and Jared Moore, 2020)
  • Oasis of Imagination: Engaging Our World through a Better Creativity (2023)
  • Imagination Manifesto: A Call to Plant Oases of Imagination (with Ruth Naomi Floyd, 2023).

Ted and Carolyn have three grown children and four grown cats. He enjoys jazz, blues, and roots music; good film and television; American football; F1 racing; samurai and kaiju movies; and anime.

Specializations

culture studies, popular culture, religion, worldview, fandom

Publications & Other Activities

  • “Dialogues Concerning Cultural Engagement,” essay in two parts, Foundations 70 (Spring 2016) and 71 (Fall 2016). Part one available online at http://www.affinity.org.uk/foundations-issues/issue-70– article-2—dialogues-concerning-cultural-engagement-part-one. “
  • Displacing the Sacred: Thoughts on the Secularizing Influence in Hollywood,” Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology 64 (Spring 2013). Available online in March 2013 at http://www.affinity.org.uk/foundations-issues/issue-64-article-1— displacing-the-sacred-thoughts-on-the-secularising-influence-ofhollywood.
  • Popologetics: Popular Culture in Christian Perspective, Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 346 pp., May 2012. “Popular Culture, Apologetics, and the Discourse of Desire,” Cultural Encounters 8:2 (Winter 2012): 25-46.
  • “On Being Wise as Serpents: Why and How Christians Should Engage Popular Culture,” The Evangelical Magazine (Evangelical Movement of 5 Wales), September/October 2010. Available online at http://www.emw.org.uk/magazine/2010/10/on-being-as-wise-asserpents/ (accessed 13th November, 2010).
  • “Review of Eyes Wide Open: Searching for God in Popular Culture,” Journal of Popular Culture vol. 42, no. 3 (June 2009): 581-83.
  • “Life in the Twittersphere,” The Gospel and Culture Project website, April 2009 (now defunct). Archived online at http://www.turnau.cz/content/life-twittersphere.
  • “Popular Cultural ‘Worlds’ As Alternative Religions,“ Christian Scholar’s Review vol. 37, no. 3 (Spring 2008): 323-45.
  • “Jack Be Evil, Jack Be Quick: Reflections on the Necessary Evils of ’24’”, in Minding Evil: Explorations of Human Iniquity, edited by Margaret Sönser Breen (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005): 109-25.
  • “Inflecting the World: Popular Culture and the Perception of Evil.” The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 38, no. 2 (November, 2004): 384-96.
  • “Equipping Students to Engage Popular Culture.” Article in The Word of God for the Academy in Contemporary Culture(s). Edited by John B. Hulst. Budapest, Hungary: Károli Gáspár Reformed University, Faculty of Theology, 2003: 135-57.
  • “Reflecting Theologically on Popular Culture as Meaningful: The Role of Sin, Grace, and General Revelation,” Calvin Theological Journal, 37, no. 2 (November 2002): 270-296. Available online at the Ransom Fellowship http://www.ransomfellowship.org/publications/ebook_turnau_reflecti ngtheologically.pdf.
  • “Speaking in a Broken Tongue: Postmodernism, Principled Pluralism, and the Rehabilitation of Public Moral Discourse.”Westminster Theological Journal 56 (Spring 1994): 345-77.