SCHOLAR-IN-RESIDENCE

Dr. Derek King is the Scholar-in-Residence at Lewis House. His role is both ministerial (he hangs with students) and academic (he hangs with nerds). He has a Ph.D. in Analytic and Exegetical Theology from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. His dissertation—that shows how the Church is relevant to the problem of divine hiddenness—is under contract with Routledge and will be released in 2023.

Derek joined the University of Kentucky Christian Student Fellowship (CSF) staff after participating as a student until he graduated in 2011. He took his first-ever theology class with CSF’s Christian Studies Center. While on staff at CSF, he completed a Masters of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary. He’s published on a variety of topics, including Gregory of Nyssa, divine hiddenness, the nature of theology and philosophy, and C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces. He’s also written on heaven, the sacraments, technology, the relationship between the Church and the academy, and justice and mercy for the “least of these.”

Derek and his wife, Bethany, were married in 2016. In 2020-2021, they adopted embryos. Their first child, Lewis, was born October 2021. Derek and Bethany are passionate about embryo adoption and encouraging others to consider it. As a couple, they especially enjoy cooking together, taking long walks, traveling, and reminiscing about their time living in Scotland.

In addition to spending time with his family, friends, and theological pursuits, Derek especially enjoys baseball, running, and reading. As a baseball fan, he closely follows the Chicago White Sox. As a runner, he just completed his first half-marathon and plans never to run one again. As a reader, he enjoys books of all kinds, but his favorite authors are Austen, Dostoevsky, Lewis, Tolkien, Waugh, and Wodehouse.