Jason Lepojärvi, PhD

Jason Lepojärvi (pronounced "Leh-poh-yar-ve") joined the university in the fall of 2022 to serve as C.S. Lewis associate professor of theology & literature in the George Fox University Honors Program. A renowned scholar of C.S. Lewis internationally, he worked previously as a lecturer in theology and literature at Davenant Hall.

Dr. Lepojärvi's academic positions also included serving as an assistant professor of religious studies at Thorneloe University (2018-21), a postdoctoral visiting research fellow and scholar-in-residence at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. (2016-18), a junior research fellow in theology at St. Benet’s Hall at the University of Oxford (2014-16), and the president of the Oxford University C.S. Lewis Society (2012-13).

His dissertation God Is Love, but Love Is Not God (2015) analyzed love in religion, with a focus on C.S. Lewis, Anders Nygren, and St. Augustine. His first book The Body as the Image of God: Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body (in Finnish, Ruumis Jumalan kuvana: Johannes Paavali II:n ruumiin teologia, 2012) is a study of Christian anthropology and sexual ethics.

His other scholarship on theology, philosophy, literature, ethics, and politics have appeared in Harvard Theological Review, Religious Studies, and Politics and Religion, among other journals, and is freely available here. In a more popular vein, his Essays on Love (in Finnish, Perjantailahja - esseitä rakkaudesta, 2021) is a study of love in literature and in our everyday relations. You can also find Dr. Lepojärvi on YouTube here.

A native of both Finland and Canada, Dr. Lepojärvi lives in Newberg with his wife, Iisa, and their three children, Evelyn, Leona, and Kalevi. He enjoys motorcycling, hunting, and road trips.

Academic Background

PhD, Theology, The University of Helsinki
MTh, Theology, Philosophy, Education, The University of Helsinki