{"id":364,"date":"2014-10-21T16:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/?page_id=364"},"modified":"2024-11-10T17:39:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T00:39:29","slug":"biography","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/biography","title":{"rendered":"Bio\/Contact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Thomas Jay Oord, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery alignleft has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-default\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/LowRes_Oord_5307.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1428\" height=\"2000\" data-id=\"6789\" src=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/LowRes_Oord_5307.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6789\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/LowRes_Oord_5307.jpg 1428w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/LowRes_Oord_5307-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/LowRes_Oord_5307-731x1024.jpg 731w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/LowRes_Oord_5307-768x1076.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/LowRes_Oord_5307-1097x1536.jpg 1097w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1428px) 100vw, 1428px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author, and he has written or edited more than thirty books. Oord directs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northwindinstitute.org\/center-for-open-relational-theology\">doctoral programs<\/a> at Northwind Theological Seminary and the <a href=\"https:\/\/c4ort.com\/\">Center for Open and Relational Theology<\/a>. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times and now speaks at institutions across the globe. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, queer issues, science and religion, and freedom and relationships for transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oord was raised on a farm in Othello, Washington. He attended Northwest Nazarene College and, after four years in pastoral ministry in Walla Walla, Washington, Oord attended Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. Upon graduating, he attended Claremont Graduate University in Southern California. He earned a Masters of Arts in Religion and a Ph.D. there. While pursuing graduate studies, he was a part-time associate pastor in Bloomington, Ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oord taught philosophy at Eastern Nazarene College for three years. In 2002, he returned to the Northwest to teach at his undergraduate alma mater. He taught at Northwest Nazarene University for sixteen years. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_9977-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2420\" height=\"1936\" src=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_9977-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6791\" style=\"width:360px;height:259px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_9977-1.jpg 2420w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_9977-1-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_9977-1-1024x819.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_9977-1-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_9977-1-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_9977-1-2048x1638.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2420px) 100vw, 2420px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>In 2015, Oord endured a theological trial and was dismissed from his teaching position. In 2020, Oord began directing doctoral programs in Open and Relational Theology at Northwind Theological Seminary. He lectures and teaches at other institutions around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2024, Oord was taken to trial in the Church of the Nazarene for being queer affirming. The verdict was the removal of his ministerial license and membership in the denomination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thomas Jay Oord speaks often at churches, conferences, universities, and other settings. He serves in various consulting and administrative roles for academic institutions, scholarly projects, and research teams. Oord and his wife, Cheryl, have three daughters, a son-in-law, and two grandchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/a-TJO_1657_V1a-square-2-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/a-TJO_1657_V1a-square-2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6079\" style=\"width:440px;height:440px\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Download to Use for Promotional Purposes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Want to hear some of Dr. Oord&#8217;s views? Check out his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.owltail.com\/people\/qrHZD-thomas-jay-oord\/appearances\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than 100 podcast interviews.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to learn more about Open and Relational Theology? Check out<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/ort-shorts\/id1586477453\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Dr. Oord&#8217;s ORTShorts podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contact Dr. Oord or his assistant at <strong>tjoord (at) my.nnu.edu<\/strong> or connect on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Jay Oord, Ph.D. Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author, and he has written or edited more than thirty books. Oord directs doctoral programs at Northwind Theological Seminary and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"yst_prominent_words":[1812,5617,5389,5275,5274,5273,5272,3665,1955,1224,1413,1337,1244,1235,1234,1232,1226],"class_list":["post-364","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}