As a distinguished lecturer, teacher and wisdom keeper, Randy Woodley addresses a variety of issues concerning American culture, faith, our relationship with the earth and Indigenous realities. His expertise has been sought in national venues as diverse as The Huffington Post, Moody Radio and Time Magazine.
Randy was raised near Detroit, Michigan and he is a legal descendant of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma. He has been involved in mentoring Indigenous leaders for almost three decades. Randy, with his wife Edith, is a cofounder of Eagle’s Wings Ministry and they are considered early missiological innovators in the Native American Cultural Contextual Movement.
He and Edith, (Eastern Shoshone) maintain Eloheh Farm and Eloheh Village for Indigenous Leadership Development, a permaculture, regenerative teaching farm, school and community in Newberg, Oregon. Randy is also the founder of CHCHEW (“chikoo”) The Coalition for Healing Chinook-Kalapuya Earth and Water.
Dr. Woodley (PhD Intercultural Studies) also serves as Distinguished Professor of Faith and Culture and Director of Intercultural and Indigenous Studies at George Fox Seminary in Portland, Oregon. He is a founding board member of NAIITS, the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies and directs the MA Intercultural Studies program in Portland; a partnership between NAIITS and George Fox Seminary.
Through dialogue, speaking engagements and blogging he remains active in ongoing discussions concerning spirituality, racial and ethnic justice/diversity, peace, eco-justice and earth-care, inter-religious dialogue, Indigenous theologies, postcolonial theologies and Christian mission. His most recent book is Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision, 2012 (Eerdmans). Other books include: When Going to Church is Sin: And Other Essays on Native American Christian Mission, Healing the Land Publishers, Scotland, PA, 2007. Living in Color: Embracing God’s Passion for Ethnic Diversity, Intervarsity Press, 2004.
Recent Academic Publications include:
- “Beyond Homoiousios and Homoousios: Exploring North American Indigenous Concepts of the Shalom Community of God.” Trinity in Global Perspective, Majority World Theology Series, Vol. 2, Gene L. Green, Stephen Pardue, K. K. Yeo, editors Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015.
- “Native American Hospitality and Generosity: Old Symbols of American Welcome,” Strangers in this World: Multi-Religious Reflections on Immigration, Allen Jorgenson, Hussam Timani, and Alexander Hwang, editors. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015.
- “Where Post-colonial and Pre-colonial Thought Touch Jesus,” GEEZ Magazine, Winnipeg, CA, Oct. 2015.
- “Mission and the Cultural Other: In Search of the Pre-colonial Jesus,” published OnlineFirst SAGE Journals and Missiology: An International Review in a fall 2015 or winter 2016 issue.
- Forward to Jesus and Pocahontas: Gospel, Mission and National Myth by Howard Snyder, Cascade Books, Eugene, OR, 2015.
- Forward to Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way, by Richard Twiss, Intervarsity Press, Downer’s Grove, IL, 2015.
- “An Indigenous Theological Perspective on Sabbath.” Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology, Spring 2015, pp.72-80, Institute of Mennonite Studies Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, IN.
- “Learning to See the Gift of the Common,” A Book of Days: Christmas Reflections From the Northwest. Franklin, TN: Seedbed Publishing, 2014.
- “North American Mission and Motive: Following the Markers” co-authored with Gregory Cuellar in Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations: Global Awakenings in Theology and Praxis, L. Daniel Hawk, Kay Smith and Jayachitra Lalitha, editors. Intervarsity Press: Downer’s Grove, IL, 2014.
- “Did Jesus or Custer Die For Our Sins? Exploring the Mission of Covenant Among non-Western Indigenous Cultures.” Covenant-Making: The Fabric of Relationship, Charles J. Conniry Jr. and Laura K. Simmons, editors. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2014.
- “Early Dialogue in the Community of Creation.” Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry: Conversations On Creation, Land Justice, and Life Together, Steve Heinrichs, editor. Herald Press, 2013.