Problematic Passages

Lisa Fields is one of the world’s most sought-after Christian apologists. She has produced two documentaries, Unspoken and Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom. She is the founder and CEO of Jude 3 Project. Lisa is the author of When Faith Disappoints: The Gap Between What We Believe and What We Experience. She is also a graduate of the University of North Florida, with a bachelor of science in communications and religious studies, and Liberty University, with a master of divinity with a focus in theology.

Esau McCaulley, PhD, is an author and The Jonathan Blanchard Associate Professor of New Testament and Public Theology at Wheaton College. His writing and speaking focus on New Testament exegesis, African American biblical interpretation, and public theology. He has authored numerous books, including Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, which won numerous awards, including Christianity Today’s Book of the Year. Esau also served as the editor of New Testament in Color: A Multi-Ethnic Commentary on the New Testament.

On the popular level, Esau’s recent memoir, How Far to the Promised Land, was named by Amazon as a top five non-fiction book of 2023. He has also penned works for children, including Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit and Andy Johnson and the March for Justice. Esau is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, and senior editor for Holy Post Media, as well as the host of a new podcast with the Holy Post that debuts this fall. His writings have appeared in places such as The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and Christianity Today.

Dr. Jo Vitale has always been interested in people’s questions about life and purpose, faith and culture. Growing up as a Christian in an increasingly secular society, those questions led her to pursue three degrees through the University of Oxford’s theology faculty: a theology BA, an MSt in biblical interpretation, and a DPhil in the field of Old Testament studies. A recipient of various academic awards during her time at Oxford, Jo concluded her research by focusing on depictions of female beauty in the Old Testament for her doctoral dissertation. It was during those years at Oxford that her commitment to helping a contemporary audience make sense of ancient Scripture was forged, and she often speaks on cultural misconceptions such as that the God of the Bible is sexist, racist, immoral, untrustworthy, or simply irrelevant to today’s world.

Alongside her graduate studies, Jo received ministerial training at Wycliffe Hall, an Anglican permanent private hall of the University of Oxford, before joining the Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics full-time in the capacity of an academic tutor, pastoral mentor, and public speaker. While in Oxford, Jo volunteered for the pastoral team of the undergraduate student ministry at St. Aldates Church, as well as serving as a member of the church council and standing committee.

In 2016, Jo moved to the US to take up the role of the Dean of Studies at the Zacharias Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, and to be an itinerant speaker for RZIM. Jo has spoken internationally in a variety of contexts, including at churches and Christian conferences (e.g. Passion City Church, Atlanta; Redeemer Church, NYC; Calvary Chapel, Las Vegas; Progressive Baptist Church, Chicago; The Story Church, Houston; Hillsong, Sydney; and St. Aldates, Oxford), businesses, schools, radio shows/podcasts, and on the campuses of multiple universities, including Stanford, West Point, Princeton, Yale (for the annual National Collegiate Day of Prayer), UC Berkeley, Oxford, LSE, ASU, York, Aberdeen, Cardiff, Nottingham, Leeds, and Canterbury.

Jo resigned from RZIM in 2021, and in 2022, she and Vince moved out to the Bay Area, CA, with their two young sons, Raphael and Jonathan. Jo and Vince feel called to ministry as a couple. They co-host the Ask Away podcast, which has an international listenership, and they do a lot of their speaking and writing as a team.