Jason A. Mahn

Professor of Religion, Conrad Bergendoff Professor in the Humanities

• Phone: 309-794-7324
• Email: JasonMahn@augustana.edu
• Office: Old Main 002

After completing his Ph.D. at Emory University (2004), Jason taught full time at Duke University (Durham, N.C.) for three years before coming to Augustana, where he teaches about faith in God in the contemporary world, eco-theology, vocation, restorative justice, and religious responses to suffering, and also frequently speaks at churches, colleges, and universities. He has authored or edited six books, including Fortunate Fallibility: Kierkegaard and the Power of Sin (Oxford UP, 2011), Becoming a Christian in Christendom: Radical Discipleship and the Way of the Cross in America’s “Christian” Culture (Fortress, 2016), Radical Lutherans/Lutheran Radicals (Cascade, 2017), and Neighbor Love through Fearful Days: Finding Purpose and Meaning in a Time of Crisis (Fortress, 2021), which is composed of real-time reflections on the overlapping pandemics in 2020.

From 2017 to 2026, Jason was the founding director of the Presidential Center for Faith and Learning, whose mission is to “lift up and live out Augustana’s five faith commitments." He has also worked closely with the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities (NECU) as editor of the journal Intersections for a decade and as a lead author of Rooted and Open, NECU's statement of mission. Beginning in 2026, Jason now helps other colleges and universities grapple with their collective and individual callings by serving as a NetVUE professional development program officer, responsible for helping coordinate the disciplinary summer seminars and the annual NetVUE gathering that meets in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature. 

Highlights of his first two decades of teaching at Augustana include taking students to Holden Village (a remote Lutheran retreat center in the Cascade Mountains) to think about eco-theology and purposeful living; walking beside students for 220 kms on the Camino de Santiago, a 1000-year old religious pilgrimage through northern Spain; and teaching and learning beside incarcerated students through the Augustana Prison Education Program (APEP).

Jason lives close to campus with his wife, Laura Mahn, the executive director of NEST Cafe in downtown Rock Island, their two college-age sons, dog Gracie, and about 4 to 9 chickens.

Courses taught by Professor Mahn:

• RELG-204 Christian Theology and Contemporary Issues
• RELG-207 Jesus and Discipleship, Then and Now
• RELG-217 Religion and the Vocation of Business
• RELG-218/318 Religious Pilgrimage
• RELG-360 Creator, Creation & Calling (in Holden Village)
• RELG-370 Suffering, Death & Hope
• RELG-372 Restorative Justice (an "inside/out" course through APEP)

Specializations: Christian theology, Ecology and religion, Vocation and calling, Suffering and death, Lutheran higher education