Steve Guthrie

Biography

I teach courses in theology, theology and the arts, and theology of worship at Belmont. Over the course of my adult life I also have been a research fellow, a pastor, a youth pastor, a minister of music, a professional musician, and a commercial window washer. One of the wonderful things about my work at Belmont is that it includes and incorporates things I’ve loved most about each of those professions. (Except maybe the window washing bit, which actually, I’m alright with.) All of this feels like a wonderful expression of the truth that in God’s economy, nothing is lost; even apparent dead-ends and wrong turns can be caught up into God’s good, loving, and redemptive purposes.

I am especially grateful for the rich and meaningful friendships I’ve had and continue to have with Belmont students. And in fact, friendship is the appropriate context for the altogether sociable work of theology! When we do theology, we participate in the church’s long conversation about who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him; we travel alongside the many godly women and men who have walked this way of love and discipleship. It’s a privilege and a joy to be a part of this journey and this dialog.

When I’m not teaching theology I enjoy weightlifting, playing my Fender-Rhodes electric piano, and cheering for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I also chair of the Board of Directors of The Rabbit Room, a non-profit focusing on Christianity and the arts. I am married to Julie, and we have four blindingly intelligent and impossibly good-looking children.

 B. Music (Music Theory), University of Michigan School of Music
 M. Div, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
 PhD, University of St. Andrews, Scotland

Selected publications
General Editor (with Bennett Zon), The Oxford Handbook of Music and Christian Theology (5 volumes). Oxford University Press, 2025.
The Women’s Christian Theology Reader (with Beth Ritter-Conn), Wiley-Blackwell, 2025.

Creator Spirit: The Holy Spirit and the Art of Becoming Human. Baker Academic, 2011.
Resonant Witness: Conversations Between Music and Theology, ed. with Jeremy Begbie. Eerdmans, 2011.
“Music and Loneliness” in Modern Reformation, May 2021.
“In Defense of Happy Endings: Thoughts on Joy and the Hallmark Channel,” The Rabbit Room, Dec. 2020.