In the final episode of season 2, Prof. Kathryn Schifferdecker and Katie Langston talk with Prof. Kaalund, Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, about the question: Is Jesus the same as God?
Kathryn Schifferdecker
Katie Langston
Jennifer Kaalund
Dr. Jennifer T. Kaalund is associate professor of New Testament, a position she has held since 2021. She is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, where she serves as an editorial board member for the Bible Odyssey and co-chair of the steering committee for “Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity.” She is also a member of the American Academy of Religion, the North American Patristic Society, and the Catholic Biblical Association, and she is an editorial board member for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Her numerous publications and lectures include the monograph Reading Hebrews and 1 Peter with the Great Migration: Diaspora, Identity, and Place (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2018), part of the Library of New Testament Studies series. She previously served as assistant professor of religious studies at Iona College, where she received the Junior Faculty Award in 2020. Kaalund received her Ph.D. in New Testament and early Christianity from The Theological School at Drew University. Her current research interests include contextual biblical hermeneutics, contemporary uses of the New Testament, and material culture.
Kathryn M Schifferdecker is Professor and Elva B. Lovell Chair of Old Testament at Luther Seminary. Ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2001, Schifferdecker was associate pastor for five years at Trinity Lutheran Church, Arkdale, Wisconsin, before coming to Luther in 2006. Schifferdecker is a frequent contributor to Working Preacher, Word & World, and the author of "Out of the Whirlwind: Creation Theology in the Book of Job" (Harvard University Press, 2008). She is currently writing a commentary on the book of Esther.
Katie Langston is a doubter by nature and a believer by grace. She grew up Mormon in a small Utah town and still isn't sure she fits in anywhere sophisticated enough to have a Target. She's the author of Sealed: An Unexpected Journey into the Heart of Grace, an acclaimed spiritual memoir about her conversion to orthodox Christianity. Katie is Pastor of Mission and Outreach at New Promise Lutheran Church in St. George, Utah. From 2020-2025, she was the director of digital strategy for Luther Seminary's innovation team, where she oversaw digital projects aimed at cultivating vibrant Christian spirituality in a post-modern, post-Christian cultural context.
