Thrive

Dr. James Thobaben

Dean of the School of Theology and Formation and Professor of Bioethics and Social Ethics.
Ph.D., Emory University
Share:
“You’re supposed to be getting somewhere. You’re supposed to be able to look at where you’ve been, where you are and where you’re going, and you should be able to discern that you are more Christ-like today than you were yesterday and that you will be more Christ-like tomorrow than you are today.”

Last updated: September 24, 2019

Since the early 2000s, Dr. James Thobaben has walked historic pilgrimage routes, such as Camino Primitivo, El Santuario de Chimayó, and most recently, Crough Patrick in Ireland and to Bad Wilsnack in Germany, but he has been on a pilgrimage his whole life. From his college days until now, Dr. Thobaben has been seeking to know more of God through the spiritual disciplines of scripture reading, prayer, fasting, and yes, walking pilgrimages.

Dr. Thobaben began his personal pilgrimage as a pre-med, biology major. Intellectually, he knew that Christianity made as much sense as any religion, but it wasn’t personal until one evening in the science building hallway. Here, like the Apostle Paul, he encountered God through intense light and sound, yet neither blinding nor deafening – more an utterly overwhelming awareness of the Person of God.

“I came to the conclusion that I had erroneously separated the idea of God as a caring God and God as Lord of the individual,” he said. “[In that moment,] those two merged.”

Pilgrimages, whether literal or in your spiritual life, aren’t quests for self-definition or discovery.

“The point of every pilgrimage, finally, is to arrive,” he noted.

Pilgrimages model Hebrews 12:1-2, which encourages us to get rid of the things that hold us back, live in a community of believers, fix our eyes on Jesus, and keep pressing toward the goal of Heaven.

“It’s supposed to be that way with your life, mine, too,” he said. “You’re supposed to be getting somewhere. You’re supposed to be able to look at where you’ve been, where you are and where you’re going, and you should be able to discern that you are more Christ-like today than you were yesterday and that you will be more Christ-like tomorrow than you are today.”

After graduating with a religion and biology degree, he enrolled in Yale Divinity School. He added a public health degree during his final year of seminary and pastored in rural Ohio for a few years prior to pursuing a Ph.D. from Emory University. Before coming to Asbury Seminary, Dr. Thobaben worked as the Vice President for Ethics and Research at Mississippi Methodist Rehabilitation Center. He was also a visiting Ethics Scholar at the University of Missouri’s Molecular Biology Program.

“I left my job [in 1995] because of the impact Asbury Seminary was having in America and in global church history,” he said.

Dr. Thobaben teaches classes on Christian ethics, theological aesthetics, rural community, morality, and healthcare ethics. In the summer of 2019, Dr. Thobaben and Dr. Chris Johnson plan to offer a class that invites students to walk the pilgrimage to Lindisfarne, one the places from which Christianity was reintroduced to northern England. Students will also walk a small section of the pilgrimage into Canterbury, England.

“It’s an extraordinary thing to kneel where someone has knelt for a thousand years,” he said. “It’s an extraordinary thing to be someplace, not where the high festivals occurred, but where believers who were poor, marginal, broken, came to Christ. It’s an amazing thing to do that and understand that they were pilgrims through life. I’m a pilgrim through life, and we can make a true connection through this cloud of witnesses.”


Prepare for the Call

Learn more about how Asbury Seminary can help prepare you for your call. Fill out the form below to get started!

Loading...

Latest

Andrea Baare

As a businesswoman and theologian with experience in both the marketplace and ministry, Andrea Baare struggled with a sense of guilt for many years. She often wondered if she made the right choice moving into the business world instead of pursuing full-time ministry. [...]

Nik Fraustro

Nik Fraustro remembers when Sunday traditions changed in his family growing up. According to him, Sundays were for football, baseball, and other sports. His family didn’t go to church and his father was a corpsman in the United States Navy, meaning they were accustomed to moving. [...]

Generation Awakened

Today on the podcast we are joined by Rev. Dr. Sarah Baldwin to talk about her book, Generation Awakened. Dr. Baldwin is the Vice President of Student Life & Dean of Students at Asbury University and […]

Eddie and Allyson Willis

Camp ministry and retreats had already played a significant role in both Eddie and Allyson’s lives before they met. When they did meet it was, serendipitously, at a United Methodist Conference camp [...]

The Global Impact of the Asbury Outpouring

Today on the podcast we are joined by Robin Lim (M.Div. ’23) and Mark Sayers. Rob and Mark became friends following the Asbury Outpouring, which began in February 2023. We talk about their individual experiences […]

Jess Avery

For Jess Avery, one of the first calls to leadership in the church came at a Dairy Queen in Dublin, Georgia, when she was 16 years old. At that age, Jess had already developed a desire for spiritual community and started a small group at her high school of like-minded students in their pursuit of the Lord. [...]