Authors

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  Bill Smith

  CSLI City Director, Atlanta
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Team Members

Bill Smith
CSLI City Director, Atlanta
Bill Smith, is the Director of C.S. Lewis Institute Atlanta. His desire is for others to grasp God’s perspective and experience God’s presence throughout all of life. Bill teaches and facilitates discussions in a variety of contexts including schools, churches, businesses, conference/retreat centers, coffeehouses, bookstores, and homes. His interest in the life and writings of C.S. Lewis has resulted in a book titled Conversations on the Question of God with C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud. Bill holds a B.S. in Biblical Studies from Toccoa Falls College and a M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
 
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  Stuart McAllister

  Apologist
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Team Members

Stuart McAllister
Apologist
Stuart McAllister, Apologist, born in Scotland, has been a long-time Christian mobilizer in Europe, including several brief imprisonments for preaching the gospel in communist countries. Stuart McAllister is an international apologist and an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. Formerly, he worked with Operation Mobilisation before becoming General Secretary for the European Evangelical Alliance. Pluralism, postmodernism, and consumerism are regular topics addressed by Stuart in his leadership seminars. Stuart has been a lecturer at Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, New York, where he was honored with a doctor of divinity. Additionally, he has been a featured speaker several times at the European Leadership Forum.
 
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  Cameron McAllister

  Author
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Team Members

Cameron McAllister
Author
Cameron McAllister, Author, is the host of the Vital Signs podcast, a weekly podcast exploring signs of life in today’s culture, and the co-host of Thinking Out Loud, a podcast that considers current events and Christian hope. Cameron is also a staff writer with Christ and Pop Culture, where he explores the intersection of Christianity and popular culture. His film and television reviews have appeared in Christianity Today and Think Christian. He holds a degree in philosophy and religion from Toccoa Falls College and recently earned a master in cultural apologetics from Houston Baptist University Christ.
 
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  John Lennox

  Professor
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Team Members

John Lennox
Professor
Dr. John C. Lennox, (PhD, DPhil, DSc) is Professor of Mathematics Emeritus at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science, and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He is a prolific author writing such acclaimed books as Cosmic Chemistry: Do God and Science Mix and his recent, 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity. He has lectured extensively in North America and in Eastern and Western Europe on mathematics, the philosophy of science, and the intellectual defense of Christianity, and he has publicly debated New Atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
 
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  Christin Ditchfield

  Speaker
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Team Members

Christin Ditchfield
Speaker
Christin Ditchfield, is the author of the best-selling A Family Guide to Narnia: Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, and more than 80 other books, including several literature curriculum guides introducing thousands of elementary school children to the world of Narnia. For seventeen years, she hosted her own syndicated radio program, Take It To Heart!® broadcast daily in the U.S. and around the world. For thirty years, Christin has been speaking at conferences and retreats all over the country, calling believers to a deeper life of faith, a life of passion and purpose. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian Leadership, a master’s degree in Bible and Theology, and a doctorate in Spiritual Formation.
 
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  Andrew Peterson

  Author
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Team Members

Andrew Peterson
Author
Andrew Peterson, Singer-songwriter, an author, and the founder of the Rabbit Room, a ministry dedicated to fostering spiritual formation and Christ-centered community through story, art, and music. He has released eleven records over the past fifteen years including his latest album, Resurrection Letters, Vol. 1. His music has earned him a reputation for writing songs that connect with his listeners in ways equally powerful, poetic, and intimate. A natural-born storyteller, Andrew has also followed his gifts into the realm of publishing. His books include The Wingfeather Saga and Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making. He lives in Nashville with his wife and about 80,000 honeybees.
 
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  David C. Downing

  Author
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Team Members

David C. Downing
Author
David C. Downing, Author, is the Co-Director of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College in Illinois. He earned his PhD from UCLA and has written four scholarly books on C.S. Lewis: Planets in Peril (1992), The Most Reluctant Convert (2002), Into the Wardrobe (2005), and Into the Region of Awe (2005.) Downing also provided a critical introduction and over 400 explanatory notes to the new edition of C.S. Lewis's The Pilgrim's Regress, originally published in 1933 and reissued by Eerdmans in the Wade Center Annotated Edition (2014). Downing is a consulting reader on C.S. Lewis for the Publications of the Modern Languages Association (PMLA), as well as Christian Scholars Review and Religion and Literature.
 
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  Karl “KJ” Johnson

  CSLI City Director, Chicago
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Team Members

Karl “KJ” Johnson
CSLI City Director, Chicago
Karl "KJ" Johnson, Lt.Col., USMC (Ret.) is the Director of the C.S. Lewis Institute in Chicago where he oversees programs that foster the discipleship of heart and mind. He’s been a C.S. Lewis Fellow since 2008 and holds a Masters in Military Studies (Marine Corps University) and two Masters of Arts from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Systematic Theology and Philosophy of Religion). KJ retired after 20 years in the Marine Corps where he served as a helicopter pilot, operations officer, and weapons and tactics instructor. He’s a veteran of numerous deployments as well as multiple humanitarian assistance/disaster relief missions—most notably Operation Unified Assistance (2004 tsunami) where he served as the Air Mission Commander for former Presidents George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton.
 
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  C.S. Lewis Institute

  Author
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Team Members

C.S. Lewis Institute
Author
C.S. Lewis Institute, In the legacy of C. S. Lewis, we develop wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ who will articulate, defend, share, and live their faith in personal and public life.
 
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  Steve King

  Pastor
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Steve King
Pastor
Steve King, served as the Senior Pastor at Cherrydale Baptist Church in Arlington, VA from 1983 to 2019, and is now Senior Pastor Emeritus. Steve has a passion to make disciples who love God and people above all else. He leads the Band of Brothers pastors’ fellowship in Arlington, has served on the board of Pioneers International for 26 years, and is part of the leadership team of One Heart DC. Steve holds degrees from the University of Georgia (BBA) and Western Seminary (MDiv).
 
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  Joel Woodruff

  President, C.S. Lewis Institute
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Team Members

Joel Woodruff
President, C.S. Lewis Institute
Joel Woodruff, President, C.S. Lewis Institute, has worked in higher education, “tent-making,” nonprofit administration, and pastoral ministries in Alaska, Israel, Hungary, France, and Northern Virginia. He served as Dean of Students, Chaplain, and Professor of Bible & Theology at European Bible Institute, where he helped train Europeans both for professional ministry and to be Christian leaders in the marketplace. Prior to joining the Institute, he was on the leadership team of Oakwood Services International, a nonprofit educational and humanitarian organization. He is a graduate of Wheaton College, earned his M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and has a doctorate in Organizational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University. As a Parish-Pulpit Fellow, he studied Biblical Backgrounds & Archaeology in Israel for a year.
 
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  Greg Jacob

  Chairman
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Team Members

Greg Jacob
Chairman
Greg Jacob, (Chairman), is a partner at the law firm of O'Melveny and Myers LLP, specializing in labor and employment law and in ERISA, which governs pension and health benefits. He also regularly advocates in court for abused children. He previously served as Counsel to Vice President Mike Pence; Solicitor of Labor, the third-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Labor; Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, with a specialization in justice and immigration issues; and in the constitutional law shop at the U.S. Department of Justice. He has completed Years One and Two of the Fellows Program, and worships at Holy Trinity Church in Mclean, VA with his wife, Corie, his daughters Catherine Grace and Avaleigh Theodosia, and his son Perrin Zephaniah.