About
Who?
Duane R. Bidwell, Ph.D., is director of the Pastoral Care and Training Center of Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, and pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Bridgeport, Texas. Click here to see his curriculum vitae.
Duane wears various vocational hats, many at the same time: pastor, scholar, writer, spiritual director, pastoral counselor, husband, father, friend. He began publishing Spondizo for two reasons.
First, he noted that the emerging digital culture - especially the Internet - offered tremendous resources for the theory and practice of pastoral theology. (This is how he justifies time surfing the Web.)
Second, he noted that many of his colleagues spend little time exploring these resources. (This might mean other pastor-scholars manage their time better than Duane does, refusing to engage in endless trolling of the waters of the Web.)
Living with this tension - a wealth of material and a poverty of time - led Duane to conclude that it wasn't good stewardship to sift through the digital flotsam and jetsam for himself alone. A more efficient practice would involve gathering and publishing the best of his discoveries, making them more readily available to others interested in pastoral theology.
Thus, Spondizo came into being. It is poured out as an offering to those called to the vocation of care.
Duane's own research interests include spiritual formation, theological anthropology, and emerging theologies of the self. As an exegete, he tends to look at the world through the lenses of liberation theology and the theologies of hope. As a clinician, he maintains a dialogue between social constructionist theory and the practical ministries of spiritual direction, pastoral care, and pastoral counseling.
Since 1989, Duane has been married to Karee J. Galloway, who is president and publisher of Mesa House Publishing. They live with their son and two spoiled dogs in a bright pink Craftsman bungalow on Fort Worth's South Side.
Duane is the author of Short-Term Spiritual Guidance and more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles.
In previous professional lives, Duane worked as a journalist, technical writer, and director of an interfaith AIDS ministry. An ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), he is also a student of vipassana (insight) meditation and Buddhist doctrine.
