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

ted.turnau@aauni.edu

Letenská 120/5
118 00 Malá Strana

Theodore-a.-turnau-3

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 ÍæÅ¼½ã½ã 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 – 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 — 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  (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 .
  • “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’â€, 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 
  • “Speaking in a Broken Tongue: Postmodernism, Principled Pluralism, and the Rehabilitation of Public Moral Discourse.â€Westminster Theological Journal 56 (Spring 1994): 345-77.