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Anthony D. Baker Named Editor in Chief
thoughts for a nascent editorial vision
I began serving on the Board of the ATR not long after joining the faculty at Seminary of the Southwest. In those days there were big questions in the air about where and whether the Episcopal Church was going to land.
What I found at that very first meeting was a community of scholars who thought that despite all the background noise of a politicized sound-byte environment, there were theological depths that were still worth pursuing. People willing to step into a quiet, patient, scholarly space in order to tend theological growth with a confident hope that our work would be life-sustaining fruit for a church desperately in need of sustenance. When the headlines went away and the crisis of the day subsided, our journal was still there, tending and harvesting those plots. This I consider to be one of the great successes of Ellen K. Wondra's leadership.
 There is a deep Christological faith at work in that process: human beings asking human questions, using human tools of discovery, and hoping that in that very human work God will speak. The ATR is one of the primary places where our church does its deep processing of life-sustaining questions, and we do it in a way that gets into the hands of bishops, clergy, and lay people, as well as academics. Our articles carefully and patiently explore the difficult sites. Our poetry performs a Christology, you might say, by witnessing to the miracle of a divine word issuing in human language. Practicing Theology essays build that all-important causeway between the intellectual disciplines and the daily work of ministry. The book reviews invite readers into the most innovative conversations in theology today. If we are doing our job right, the articles, essays, reviews, and poetry found in the ATR will change the course and intensity of the worldwide theological conversation.
 As Editor in Chief I want to spend time building relationships with the university departments and divinity schools around the world where new and exciting scholarship is underway, so that we are a first stop for faculty and graduate students who have something remarkable to say.
I want to go to conferences and listen for the good stuff, and ask them to send it our way. I am grateful that Associate Editor Jason Fout will continue to offer his excellent collaboration in these areas.
I  am also very excited about connecting with scholars in Asia and centers of theology outside North America, with the help of our new Associate Editor Chloë Starr, who is a specialist in Asian Christianity. I want to cultivate relationships with the great theological minds, wherever they are, so that the pages of our journal continue to be a garden for the living Anglican theology of our time.
The whole world belongs to Christ, and the
ATR
exists for no other reason than to mark, perform, and celebrate this great truth of our gospel.
Anthony D. Baker, Ph.D
is the Clinton S. Quin Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, where he teaches classes in historical and constructive theology. He is the author of Diagonal Advance: Perfection in Christian Theology
(Wipf & Stock, 2011), and numerous articles in theological journals. Dr. Baker is currently working on a book that explores theological themes in the works of Shakespeare. He will take over as Editor in Chief of the ATR
in January 2016, as Ellen K. Wondra concludes her time as interim.
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Conversations with Jason Fout and Chloë Starr
the work of associate editors at the ATR
"As one of the Associate Editors of the journal, I serve chiefly in three capacities. First, I coordinate the book review editors, serving as a resource when there are questions or quandaries. I am also the book review editor for Theology and Ethics, selecting volumes for review and identifying appropriate reviewers. Second, I commission and edit book review articles that seek to provide an overview of recent works by an author of note, or on a significant topic. Our aim with these reviews and articles is to provide a wider, more synthetic account of the development of a field, figure, or subject, and to be a "go-to" resource for researchers, professors, teachers, and students. With the arrival of Tony Baker my role as a sounding board for the Editor in Chief will continue to grow and evolve. It is a pleasure and privilege to be one of the editorial conversation partners around proposed essays, thematic issues, and broader directions of the journal and field of theology."
Jason Fout
is associate professor of Anglican theology at Bexley Seabury Seminary Federation. He holds degrees from the University of Cambridge, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Fout teaches courses on Anglican theology and ethics, Christology, and liturgics as well as a course on urbanism, architecture, and city planning for church and community leaders. He also teaches the Learning from London travel course on contemporary mission and evangelism. His publications include Fully Alive: The Glory of God and the Human Creature in Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Theological Exegesis of Scripture
(T&T Clark, 2015).
"As the Associate Editor for Articles, I shall be working with the Editor in Chief in reviewing articles and assessing external reviews to ensure a broad range of high-quality essays in each edition.
I look forward
very much to working with the ATR team and Tony Baker as he implements his vision for the journal to provide a forum for an intellectually and spiritually
engaging, constructive, Christ-centered theology
that speaks to our contemporary world
. As an Anglican working in one of the centers of Christian theology lesser read in the North American world, I look forward to being a part of those conversations with contributors and readers about the future and direction of Anglican theology. At a practical level, I hope that my
disciplinary training and outside perspective
will help encourage a greater readability of articles during the editing process.
"
 Chloë Starr is Associate Professor of Asian Christianity and Theology at Yale Divinity School. She has just completed the volume Chinese Theology: Text and Context (Yale University Press, 2016). Her earlier published works include a study of the Red-light Novels of the Late Qing (Brill, 2007), and edited or co-edited volumes on Reading Christian Scriptures in China (T&T Clark, 2008), The Quest for Gentility in China (Routledge, 2007), and a textbook, Documenting China (University of Washington Press, 2011). Dr. Starr is Series Advisor for the Brill Religious Studies in Contemporary China Collection, has guest-edited the Chinese-language Journal for the Study of Christian Culture, and peer reviews for various presses and journals.
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