Austin Rivera

Assistant Professor of Church History

Charles Augustine “Austin” Rivera is an historical theologian who draws on the riches of the Christian past for the upbuilding of the Church in the present day. His scholarship and teaching focus on the Church Fathers, ancient authors whose classic articulations of Christian doctrine have continued to shape the Church’s intellectual life down through the centuries to the present day. In particular, Dr. Rivera studies the writings of Origen of Alexandria and Ephrem of Nisibis, two of the most prolific and influential authors of Christianity’s early centuries.

His current research encompasses topics such as grace, atonement, and the Trinity in Origen, Ephrem and other Fathers, as well as reflection on the work of historical theology itself, especially in his own Methodist/Wesleyan theological tradition. His current major project, The Mirror of Grace: Grace, Justice, and the Gift of Salvation in Origen of Alexandria and Ephrem of Nisibis, describes Origen and Ephrem’s distinct understandings of grace, arguing that they offer a bold contrast to inherited assumptions about this central theological topic in European traditions.

Dr. Rivera also maintains an interest in ancient Christian poetry in Latin, Greek, and Syriac. With T.C. Schmidt of Fairfield University he is preparing an edition and translation of the Carmen Apologeticum of Commodian (3rd century AD), one of Christianity’s earliest poets.

A lifelong Methodist, Dr. Rivera is an ordained elder in the Great Plains conference of the United Methodist Church and has served as a pastor of local congregations in Kansas and Nebraska.

Education

BA, The University of Chicago; MDiv, Duke Divinity School; PhD Yale University

Religious Affiliation

United Methodist

Courses Taught

• History of Christianity
• Gender and the Trinity in the Early Church
• Grace: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives
• Power in the Blood: The Meaning of the Cross
• Humane Leadership: Christian and Confucian Perspectives

Select Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• “The Soul of Jesus in the Land of the Dead: Origen on the Harrowing of Hell.” Forthcoming in Harvard Theological Review.
• “God of Mercy, God of Wrath: Reading the Hard Parts of Scripture with the Early Church,” in Frederick David Carr and Brady Alan Beard, Reading Scripture in Wesleyan Ways (Abingdon Press, 2025), 85—103.
• “The Mercy Seat and the Lamb: Reframing Christ’s Priesthood and Sacrifice in Origen.” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 100.2 (2024), 257—288.

Select Academic Presentations

• “Commodian’s Anti-Jewish Patripassianism.” North American Patristics Society, May 2025.
• “The Methodist Origen: The Homily on Psalm 81 as the Heart of Origen’s Theology.” American Academy of Religion Wesleyan and Methodist Studies Unit, November 2024.
• “Piety and Peace: Framing Evangelical Catholicity with Ephrem and Limborch.” Wesleyan Theological Society, March 2024.

Professional Affiliations

• American Academy of Religion
• Wesleyan Theological Society
• North American Patristics Society
• Society of Biblical Literature

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