David J. Gouwens is Professor of Theology at Brite Divinity School. He is a graduate of Hope College, Holland, Michigan, and holds the M.Div. and S.T.M. degrees from Yale Divinity School. He received his Ph.D. in Theology from Yale University. He has taught theology at Brite since 1983, including introductory courses in both historical and contemporary theology, and advanced seminars in modern Christian thought, Kierkegaard, Barth, the Oxford Metaphysicals, and "loci" courses in such areas as contemporary theological hermeneutics, narrative theology, Christology, soteriology, and eschatology. Dr. Gouwens' publications have focused on the thought of Søren Kierkegaard, including Kierkegaard's Dialectic of the Imagination (Peter Lang, 1989) and Kierkegaard as Religious Thinker (Cambridge University Press, 1996).

He served as Vice-President and then President (1999-2000) of The Søren Kierkegaard Society of North America, and was for three years co-chair of the Steering Committee of the Kierkegaard, Religion and Culture Group of the American Academy of Religion. He served Brite as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs (2000-02) and Interim Dean (2002-05). An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), he has served on Grace Presbytery's Examinations Committee and is a frequent contributor to adult education sessions in local churches of various denominations.