Ekaterina Lomperis, PhD

Richard B. Parker Associate Professor of Theology and Wesleyan Thought

Ekaterina Lomperis

Ekaterina Lomperis is Richard B. Parker Associate Professor of Theology and Wesleyan Thought, and a faculty fellow in the George Fox University Honors Program. Raised and educated in the countries of Moldova and Russia, she moved to the United States to earn her MDiv from Harvard University and her PhD from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Lomperis’s research focuses on past and present intersections between medicine and
Christianity, with particular attention to their historical, theological, and ethical dimensions. Her
areas of academic interest span science and religion in the early modern era, medical humanities,
gendered dimensions in the religious histories of suffering and healing, and contemporary
Christian spiritualities in healthcare.

Dr. Lomperis is author of two books: the academically acclaimed The Reformations of Medicine:
Early Modern Beginnings and Contemporary Possibilities (Fortress Press, 2025) and Essential
Readings in Medicine and Religion (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017). She has won
numerous grants and fellowships, including most recently two grants from the American
Academy for the Advancement of Science, deepening engagements between religion and
science. She is the winner of George Fox University’s 2024 graduate faculty Achievement Award
for Research and Scholarship.

Dr. Lomperis has contributed her leadership to national scholarly organizations. She is an elected
officer on the Executive Committee of the Society for Reformation Research and an advisory
board member for the national Conference on Medicine and Religion.

Dr. Lomperis is a passionate and caring teacher, who has been awarded several professional
development grants from the Wabash Center for the Teaching and Learning in Theology and
Religion.

Dr. Lomperis is a member of the United Methodist Church. In her free time, she intermittently
enjoys loud games with her three children and quiet walks in the Pacific Northwest’s beautiful
nature.

Academic Background

PhD, University of Chicago; MDiv, Harvard University; BA in philology and education, Moscow Pedagogical State University

Expertise and Research Interests

The Protestant Reformations, medicine and religion, suffering, healing and gender, contemporary global Christian thought, history of Christian spirituality

Research Bibliography

Books

The Reformations of Medicine: Early Modern Beginnings and Contemporary Possibilities.
Fortress Press, 2025

Essential Readings in Medicine and Religion (with Gary Ferngren). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.

Select Articles

“Medicine and Healing in Martin Luther’s Thought." Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte  -
Archive for Reformation History 114, no. 1 (2023): 51-78.

Select Presentations

“Resisting Climate Violence through Science-Engaged Theological Education.” Presenter and
panel organizer. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 2024

“Gender in Medical-Theological Interpretations of Genesis 3.” Conference on Medicine and
Religion, 2024.

“Epidural as a Challenge to the History of Exegesis of Genesis 3:16.” University of Chicago,
2023.  

“Reading the Bible as a Religious History of Medicine.” University of Pittsburg, 2023. 

“Teaching Bodies, Mothering Bodies.” Presenter and roundtable organizer. American Academy
of Religion Annual Meeting, 2022

“Martin Luther’s Theology of Healing and Medicine.” Sixteenth Century Conference. 2021.