Dr. Danny Dunivan
Senior Advisor to the President
Professor of Theology
B.A. Oakland City University, M.Div. Oakland City University
Ph.D. in Historical Theology, Saint Louis University
ddunivan@oak.edu
Chapman School of Religious Studies
Chapman Seminary
I grew up in a General Baptist home in the town of Puxico, Missouri, the son of a pastor and a school teacher. My family life encouraged educational excellence and emphasized the importance of a deep relationship with God. I answered a call to ministry at the age of 14, and I was ordained in March 1996. After pursuing a major in physics for three years at a school in southeast Missouri, I decided to pursue a degree in religious studies at Oakland City University. I had planned to matriculate at OCU in the spring of 1997, but I started dating the daughter of another General Baptist minister in the fall of 1996. We made plans to be married in May 1997, so I waited to make the move. My wife Tara is currently an elementary music teacher at Dexter Elementary in Evansville, and we have two beautiful little girls, Averee and Ella.
In July 1997, we moved to Oakland City and in two years I completed my degree in religious studies. I immediately entered the Master of Divinity program and finished that degree in 2002. During seminary I was privileged to work for the Dean of the Chapman School of Religious Studies, our current OCU president Dr. Ray Barber. After finishing my MDiv, we moved back to Missouri and over the next three years I took on full-time doctoral studies at Saint Louis University. In August 2005, I accepted a faculty position here at OCU, and we returned to southern Indiana. In May 2011, I was named dean of Chapman.
I have been privileged to work in churches in both Indiana and Missouri over the last 17 years. My roles in those churches have included youth minister, associate pastor, pastor, and senior pastor. For the last few years I have served as the interim senior pastor of Northside Congregational Church in Evansville. I have fulfilled various roles for the General Baptist denomination including two terms on the Council of Associations and the executive council, the vice-chair of the Ordination Standards Commission, a member of the Church Polity and Doctrine Commission, and the chair of the denominational self-study.
My current research interests include Baptist history, philosophies of history, the interdependence of historiography and doctrine, and Arminian theology. Current research and writing projects include a book on General Baptist life and an article on the influence of a Roman Catholic educational context (Saint Louis University, where I have recently finished my PhD, is a Jesuit Catholic university) in my own research on Baptist historiography.
My personal interests revolve mostly around my family and my church, but whenever possible I enjoy fishing and hunting with my brother, father, and grandfather in Missouri. Also a part of the family tradition, I am an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan!