Justin Barrett

Justin L. Barrett is Professor of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary’s Graduate School of Psychology, and Chief Project Developer for Fuller’s Office for Science, Theology, and Religion Initiatives. Barrett previously taught in the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, which he helped establish, and at the University of Michigan and Calvin College. He is author or editor of over 100 scholarly publications, mostly concerning the scientific study of religion. His books include Why Would Anyone Believe in God? (Altamira, 2004), Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology: From Human Minds to Divine Minds (Templeton Press, 2011), Born Believers: The Science of Childhood Religion (Free Press, 2012), and The Roots of Religion: Exploring the Cognitive Science of Religion (with Roger Trigg, Ashgate, 2014). He is married to visual artist Sherry Barrett. The Barretts have two adult children.

Martin Accad

Martin Accad is Chief Academic Officer and Director of the Institute of Middle East Studies at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Lebanon, and Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at ABTS and at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Born and raised in Lebanon, he lived through the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990). He undertook seminary studies at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut (1992-1996) and then completed a Master’s degree (MPhil) and a PhD (DPhil) at the University of Oxford in the UK in 2001. He has been back in Lebanon since 2001, working at ABTS. He teaches in the fields of Islam, Middle Eastern Christianity, contextual hermeneutics, Christian-Muslim Relations, and peacebuilding. He has published many articles and book chapters, and his book on dialogical theology, conflict, and Christian-Muslim relations was published in June 2019, Sacred Misinterpretation: Reaching Across the Christian-Muslim Divide (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, May 2019). Martin is also heavily involved in dialogue and peacebuilding work with Christian and Muslim faith actors and politicians. As director of ABTS’ Institute of Middle East Studies in Lebanon, his life purpose is to “bring about positive transformation in thinking and practice between Christians and Muslims in the Middle East and beyond.” With a mixed Lebanese and Swiss parental heritage, he is at home in practically any culture and lives and works in Lebanon by choice and calling. Accad blogs monthly at IMES.blog.