Curriculum Vitae
Derek R. Nelson
18 S 400 W
Crawfordsville, IN 47933 USA
office: (765) 361-6274; home: (612) 968-4930
nelsond@wabash.edu
Bio
Derek Nelson was born among the white oaks and silver maples of the Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest in Goodhue County, Minnesota. Waters in his childhood flowed generally east and south, as they made their way to the Mississippi, in whose waters Derek fished and dreamed of even bigger things. He continued south and east to Wabash College, where he graduated with the legendary class of ’99, like most Wabash employees, evidently. (Marc Welch, Kim King, Mark Elrod, etc. etc.). More interested in chemistry and physics when he began at Wabash, Derek ended up going to seminary at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut, once famous as the “Elm City,” where many place names refer to the trees that are no longer there, having all died of Dutch Elm disease. Derek then moved west to the high sierra and chaparral of Northern California for a PhD from UC Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union. He hiked the Sequoias, living trees of which were there since Abraham and Moses, and the much younger Redwoods, living specimens of which are merely as old as Gautama the Buddha and Confucius, all of whom Derek counts as friends. He is the author or editor of twelve books and dozens of articles. He is a pastor and avid woodworker, which you’ll soon learn more about. He and his wife the Rev. Kelly Nelson are the proud parents of Madeleine, age eight years, and Maya, age eight months.
Academic Positions
2012-present: Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN.
Professor and Chair of Religion;
Director of Wabash Pastoral Leadership Program, (2012-2021)
Director of Early Career Pastoral Leadership Development Initiative, (2013-present)
Stephen S. Bowen Professor of the Liberal Arts (2017- present)
(Assoc. Prof., 2012-17);
2006-2012: Thiel College, Greenville, PA.
Chair of Religion (2008-12), Assistant (2006-10) and Associate (2010-12) Professor; Co-Director of Thiel Global Institute, 2007-2012
Education
Degrees Earned:
2006 Ph.D., Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, Systematic & Philosophical Theology
Dissertation Readers: Ted Peters, chair, David Kelsey, Rosemary Ruether and Richard Schenk, OP. Title: “Some Aspects of the Doctrine of Sin in Selected Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Theologies.”
2002 M.Div., Yale University, New Haven, CT. Major Areas: Philosophy of Religion, History of Christianity and Systematic Theology.
1999 A.B., Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN. Major: Religion; Minor: Chemistry; summa cum laude.
Additional Study:
2006 Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA. Certification in Clinical-Pastoral Education.
2003 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and Goethe Institut, Munich, Germany, Summer Term.
1998 Karlstads Universitet, Karlstad, Sweden, Winter and Spring Term.












