About

Jordan Cooper is an ordained Lutheran pastor, the Executive Director of Just & Sinner, Fellow of Systematic Theology at the Weidner Institute, and the Chair of Lutheran Dogmatics at the American Lutheran Theological Seminary. He also serves as Campus Minister in Residence with Lutheran Student Fellowship at Cornell University, and is a regular speaker to a variety of other campus groups at the university.

Cooper has authored several books, such as his ongoing A Contemporary Protestant Scholastic Theology series, and has written theological articles for a variety of publications, including: Credo, Modern Reformation, Logia, Conspectus, Sapientia, the Christian Research Journal, the Issues Etc. Journal, Rowan and Littlefield's Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation, and more. He has hosted the Just & Sinner Podcast since 2012, and also hosts a popular YouTube channel. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his wife Lisa and their two sons.

Featured Article

"The Use of Classical Greek Philosophy in Early Lutheranism"
This article is an examination of the use of classical philosophy in the Lutheran tradition from Martin Luther through Johann Gerhard. It focuses particularly on the essentialist philosophies of both Plato and Aristotle as used and modified in these Lutheran writers. The claim made in this article is that though critical of Aristotelian thought on certain points, the first generations of Lutheran theologians also incorporated certain aspects of these philosophies in a positive manner within their theological systems. The goal of this article is to demonstrate that such positive evaluations of certain aspects of both Aristotle and Plato’s philosophies can be found throughout these thinkers, as well as to demonstrate the usefulness of these categories in the contemporary church.