Soren Hessler

The Rev. Dr. Soren Hessler joined the Candler faculty in 2024 as assistant professor in the practice of leadership and administration. Hessler was formerly director of recruitment and admissions and adjunct assistant professor of the practice of church leadership at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. In addition to these roles, he was an instructor of Christian and interreligious studies at Hebrew College in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, and a faculty mentor in the doctor of ministry program at Drew University Theological School.

Hessler holds multiple advanced degrees from Boston University (BU), including a PhD in practical theology with a concentration in leadership and administration and a master of divinity from the BU School of Theology, a master of education in policy, planning, and administration from the BU School of Education, and a bachelor and master of arts in church administration from the University Professors Program at BU. He is an ordained elder in full connection in the West Ohio Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.

Books

Co-editor, Words to Live By: Sacred Sources for Interreligious Engagement. Orbis Books, 2018

CHAPTERS AND ARTICLES

“The Order for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper to the Sick: A History of the Development of the Ritual in the American Methodist Context.” Methodist History 63, no. 1 (2025): 40-64.

“Relics in the Chapel: On the Dangers Inherent in Experiential Learning.” In With the Best of Intentions: Interreligious Missteps and Mistakes. Orbis Books, 2023

Co-author, “Building Interfaith Leadership Initiative (BILI): A Student Leadership Development Model.” The Chronicle of Mentoring and Coaching 6, no. 15 (Dec 2022): 292-300

“The Consortium Institutional Archive: A Model for Preserving Memory at a Historically Black Seminary.” The International Journal of Equity and Social Justice in Higher Education 1 (2022): 21-24.

“The Association of Theological Schools, Accreditation, and Graduate Education for Non-Christian Religious Professionals.” Journal of Interreligious Studies 35 (Mar 2022): 68-79.

“‘Nothing Off Limits’: Pedagogical Reflections by a Christian Teaching Christianity at Rabbinical School.” In Deep Understanding for Divisive Times: Essays Marking a Decade of the Journal of Interreligious Studies. Interreligious Studies Press, 2020.

Spring 2026 Purposeful Teaching Fellow, Emory University Center for Faculty Development and Excellence