Dr. Paul Louis Metzger is the founder and director of the Institute for Cultural Engagement: New Wine, New Wineskins, and Professor of Christian Theology and Theology of Culture at Multnomah University and Seminary. Dr. Metzger is also the editor of New Wine’s journal Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture. Integrating theology and spirituality with cultural sensitivity stands at the center of Dr. Metzger’s ministry vision. He and his wife, Mariko, a native of Japan, have been active in intercultural ministry in churches in the United States, Japan, and England.
Dr. Metzger is the author of Beatitudes, Not Platitudes: Jesus' Invitation to the Good Life (Cascade, 2018); Evangelical Zen: A Christian’s Spiritual Travels With a Buddhist Friend (2015); Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths (2012); The Gospel of John: When Love Comes to Town (2010); Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction (co-authored with Brad Harper; 2009); and Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church (2007). He is co-editor of A World for All?: Global Civil Society in Political Theory and Trinitarian Theology (co-edited with William F. Storrar and Peter J. Casarella; 2011); and editor of Trinitarian Soundings in Systematic Theology (2005). Dr. Metzger is a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey, and Senior Mission Scholar in Residence, Spring 2018, at the Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut. The Metzgers have two children and one grandchild. He has a keen interest in the art of Katsushika Hokusai and Georges Rouault, the writings of John Steinbeck, and the music of Johnny Cash, The Doors, and Nirvana. Dr. Metzger blogs frequently at "Uncommon God, Common Good." Dr. Metzger’s present research projects include a forthcoming volume on social ethics inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s personalist philosophy and public theology, most notably Dr. King’s prophetic critique of the Vietnam War.
"No single specimen--or vintage--of evangelical cultural engagement more ably and deliciously demonstrates itself than the profoundly theological cultural criticism of Paul Louis Metzger. His work occasions a hearty toast, and is worth the repeated tastings this volume so richly invites."
--Rodney Clapp
author Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction
"New Wine Tasting enables us to lift our heads and, with eyes wide open, learn how to engage our culture as we are called to do. Cutting-edge theology for our times. We need this volume."
--Michael O. Emerson
author of Divided by Faith, United by Faith, People of the Dream
"The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins, from which this volume of essays emerges, is at the cutting edge of today's wholistic ministry movement. And because it's connected to a university and seminary, it's in a great position to challenge future leaders. I am highly impressed."
--John M. Perkins
author of Let Justice Roll Down:
"This bottling collects a decade's worth of Metzger's distinctive engagement with the Bible, the Church, and our culture. You won't find the dreary arcanum of the academy in New Wine Tastings; these essays bristle with biblical and practical perspective on the most pressing issues of our times. They reveal the heart and mind of a passionate, insightful and often humorous theologian who shows us all how to live into our calling as witnesses to the Gospel. The perfect compliment to your favorite beverage!"
--Robb Redman
author of The Great Worship Awakening: Singing a New Song in the Postmodern Church
"Paul Metzger's robust Trinitarian theology, shaped through Barth and the Church Fathers, is the engine that drives his insightful and provocative cultural criticism, allowing him to explore with equal confidence Native American missions and Johnny Cash. Metzger's confident yet winsome approach to culture charts a new path for a Christian witness in and for culture in the twenty-first century. His is a voice to which I will listen closely."
--Daniel Siedell
author of God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art
"Paul Metzger, and his New Wine, New Wineskins project in theology and culture, have gathered together here a collection of occasional essays that are indeed 'tastings'-suggestive samples of what a Trinitarian and incarnational theology of cultural engagement might look like. Some brief and anecdotal, and others longer and more theoretically developed, they all bear witness to a form of cultural engagement deeply rooted in the theological tradition of the Church and attuned to the currents of contemporary culture. Though I prefer fermented grain to grapes, this is good drink!"
--Eric G. Flett
author of Persons, Powers, and Pluralities: Toward a Trinitarian Theology of Culture