Kristine Suna-Koro
Acting Associate Professor of Worship
Degrees
PhD, Emory University, 2010
STM, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, 2003
ThM, University of Latvia, 1997
ThB, University of Latvia, 1995
The Rev. Dr. Kristine Suna-Koro joined the Candler faculty in the fall of 2026 as associate professor of worship.
Suna-Koro is a Latvian-American theologian who works at the intersection of postcolonialism, sacramental and liturgical studies, and migration and diaspora discourses. She is the author of In Counterpoint: Diaspora, Postcoloniality, and Sacramental Theology (Pickwick, 2017), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on sacramentality and liturgy, constructive postcolonial theology, diasporic imagination, theological aesthetics, and the theology of migration. Suna-Koro also served as editor of the 2011 revised and updated English language edition of The Handbook of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).
An ordained minister in the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Worldwide, Suna-Koro also maintains numerous professional memberships, including with the American Academy of Religion, the North American Academy of Liturgy, and the Society of Anglican and Lutheran Theologians. She is a founding member of the Society of Latvian Lutheran Women Theologians.
Prior to joining the Candler faculty, Suna-Koro served for 16 years on the theology faculty of Xavier University, including three years as department chair.
BOOKS
Liturgy as Migration: Reimagining the Borderlands of Liturgical and Political Theology, Bloomsbury Press (Forthcoming)
Co-editor, Borders, Religions, and Migration, essay collection, Palgrave (Forthcoming)
In Counterpoint: Diaspora, Postcoloniality, and Sacramental Theology, Pickwick Publications/Wipf & Stock, 2017
Editor, The Handbook of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Revised and Updated English Language Edition, Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 2011
CHAPTERS AND ARTICLES
“Liturgy, Corpus Mysticum and the Priesthood of All Believers in the Postcolonial World of Migratory Necropolitics,” Embodying Ecclesial Diversity, Palgrave (Forthcoming)
“Don Saliers: A Liturgical Method for All Seasons – In Season and Out of Season – With a Diasporic Twist,” Doing Liturgical Theology: Method in Context, Peeters/Liturgia Condenda, (Forthcoming)
“Silence as Liturgical Space for Lament: Praying and Listening on Christmas Eve Amidst Ecological and Migration Emergencies,” Dem Leiden Ausdruck verleien: Biblische und liturgiewissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf Klagetexte/ Giving Expression to Suffering: Biblical and Liturgical Perspectives on Texts of Lament, Ergon: Baden-Baden, Digital edition 2025, Print edition, 2026
“Liturgical Theology and Postcolonialism,” The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Liturgical Theology, Wiley Blackwell, 2025
“The Undulating and Polycentric Web of Faithfulness: Exploring the Unfolding of World Christianity with Peter C. Phan,” Horizons: The Journal of College Theology Society, Special Virtual Issue I, Cambridge University Press, 2025
“Is it a Tenebrae Moment Again? On Crisis in Liturgical Theology as an Opportunity for Renewal,” Liturgy: Journal of the Liturgical Conference 38:1, January 2023: 52-58.
“Toward Decolonizing Penitential Rites: A Diasporic and Ecumenical Exploration of Worship on (Still) Colonized Land,” Decolonial Horizons: Reimagining Theology, Ecumenism and Sacramental Praxis, Palgrave/Springer, 2023
“Sacraments and Sacramentality: Toward a Postcolonial Pluriverse with a Decolonial Twist,” T&T Clark Handbook of Sacraments and Sacramentality, T&T Clark, 2023
Co-Editor in Chief: “Dialog: A Journal of Theology,” Wiley, January 2023-present
Guest Editor: “Dialog: A Journal of Theology, Special Issue on Global Migration, Volume 60:3 Migration and Global Displacement, “Wiley, 2021.
“Grappling with Lives on the Move from Theological Perspectives: Toward an Un-alienation of ‘Others’,” Dialog 60:3, September 2021: 258-261.