Education

Ph.D., Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2016)

MA, Yale Divinity School (2011)

BA, Xavier University of Louisiana (2009)

Biography

Joe Drexler-Dreis specializes in systematic theology. He particularly focuses on how theological reflection can offer ways of understanding the present historical situation, critiquing representations of meaning and value, and experimenting with new ways of expressing meaning. He teaches courses on liberation theology, the (in)significance of work and creativity within late capitalism, Christianity and racial capitalism, and political theology.

Research interests

Drexler-Dreis’s previous work contributes to liberation theology by bringing it into conversation with decolonial thought in the North Atlantic world. He has used these two traditions to offer critical and constructive accounts of christology and soteriology. His current work focuses on how political theology can explain structures of meaning within neoliberalism and express other meanings in modernity.

Selected publications

Books
Decolonial Theology in the North Atlantic World, “Brill Research Perspectives in Theology” series (Leiden: Brill, 2019)

Decolonial Love: Salvation in Colonial Modernity (New York: Fordham University Press, 2019)

Articles

“A Political Theology of Discernment: Possibilities of Theological Critique within Neoliberalism,” Louvian Studies 45, no. 1 (2022): 16–33

“Unchaining Freedom from Capitalism: W. E. B. Du Bois and a Critical Political Theology,” Theory & Event 25, no. 2 (2022): 304–31

“The Meaning of Freedom and the Kingdom of God: A Struggle Against the Fetishization of Our Present World,” Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology Society 48, no, 2 (2021): 302–19.

“The Option for the Poor as a Decolonial Option: Latin American Liberation Theology in Conversation with Teología India and Womanist Theology,” Political Theology 18, no. 3 (2017): 269–86

“James Baldwin’s Decolonial Love as Religious Orientation,” Journal of Africana Religions 3, no. 3 (2015): 251–78 

Edited volumes

Beyond the Doctrine of Man: Decolonial Visions of the Human, ed. Joseph Drexler-Dreis and Kristien Justaert (New York: Fordham University Press, 2020)