Coleman Barr Brown was professor of philosophy and religion and university chaplain at Colgate University for nearly three decades. A beloved teacher, minister, and mentor to generations of students and a scholar of social ethics, American religion, personal counseling methods and theory, theology, and preaching, Brown graduated
magna cum laude from Princeton University and Union Theological Seminary. He apprenticed in the East Harlem Protestant Parish and pastored an inner-city church in Chicago, where he worked with the Chicago Freedom Movement, tenant action organizing collaboratives, and the anti-war movement. Brown was deeply committed to racial and social justice in the United States. His prophetic wisdom lives on through his many students and these writings.
Michael Granzen, Ph.D. is a writer and activist with a call to transformational teaching and ministry. He grew up in New York and was captain of his high school baseball team before going to Colgate University and studying philosophy and religion with Coleman Brown. He worked as a community organizer in Boston and Oklahoma, then went to Harvard Divinity School. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and has worked in multiple cities in the United States and Scotland.
He studied social ethics at Drew University and received a Ph.D. with honors in 2011. He has lectured at Harvard University, Drew University, Colgate University, Princeton University, New Brunswick and Princeton Theological Seminary. He moderated the ordination of the Chris Hedges in Elizabeth with James Cone and Cornel West giving the charges. He is actively involved in interfaith work for justice and is co-founder of NJ Clergy for Justice. He was in a front page article of the New York Times, "Blue Shadows in Elizabeth."
Granzen lives in New Jersey with his wife, the Rev. Karen Hernandez-Granzen, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Trenton. They have two daughters Mikaella and Olivia. He is an avid bicyclist, lover of baseball, good conversation, and books. His favorite quote, "The heart has reasons that reason cannot know."
Peter Ochs is Edgar M. Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from Yale University and an MA in Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is author of over forty journal articles and reviews in theology an philosophy and has previously edited a volume enitled
Understanding the Rabbinic Mind: Essays on the Hermeneutic of Max Kadushin.
