The Rev. E. Ross Kane, Ph.D. is the Associate Professor of Theology, Ethics, and Culture and Director of Doctoral Programs. His vocation joins a heart for parish ministry with a rigorous scholarship that builds up the church.
Dr. Kane is fascinated by the intersections of culture and moral decision-making. He helps students explore religious practices and teachings that enable us to form communities of love and justice and consider what ones detract from such formation. His most recent book, The Good News of Church Politics (Eerdmans, 2024), shows how healthy Christian politics starts with loving neighbors and being a caring congregation.
A Virginia native, Kane was ordained in 2009 in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. Before coming to VTS in 2017, Kane was the Senior Associate Rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria, VA. There he crafted innovative adult education offerings and played a leading role in launching and sustaining efforts to serve Alexandria’s most vulnerable citizens.
In 2002, Kane was appointed to the Episcopal Church’s Young Adult Service Corps, working for The New Sudan Council of Churches in East Africa (now the South Sudan Council of Churches). He spent three years working with South Sudanese peacemaking efforts before returning to Virginia in 2005 to attend divinity school and then serve as associate rector at St. Paul’s.
These experiences have led Kane to explore how communities shape moral identity and spiritual community. His first book is Syncretism and Christian Tradition: Race and Revelation in the Study of Religious Mixture (Oxford University Press, 2021), which explores the lived experience of religious communities, particularly incorporation of new and unfamiliar expressions of belief and practice.
Dr. Kane frequently presents lectures and seminars on topics such as:
- religion and culture
- everyday ethics
- healthy church politics
Ph.D. Religious Studies, University of Virginia
M.Div. and Certificate in Anglican Studies, Duke Divinity School
B.A. Foreign Affairs with a minor in Religious Studies, University of Virginia
Linked Publications
Syncretism and Christian Tradition: Race and Revelation in the Study of Religious Mixture. Oxford University Press, 2020.
s.v. “Syncretism,” in Routledge Encyclopedia of African Studies, forthcoming. Article-length encyclopedia entry.
“The Communion of Ancestors: From Africa, a Case for Reverencing the Dead”, Christian Century, 135.8 (2018), pp. 30-33.
Read Article“Should Episcopalians Repent? American Liberals in a Global Communion”, Christian Century, 133.4 (2016), pp. 32-36. Reproduced by permission of Christian Century.
Read ArticleAnglican Theological Review, 97, No. 3 (Summer 2015), pp. 391-412. Reproduced by permission of the Anglican Theological Review.
Read ArticleJournal of Religion in Africa, 44, No. 3/4 (2014), pp. 386-410. Accepted article reproduced by permission of Journal of Religion in Africa.
Read Article