Bio
Jan Rippentrop Schnell is a liturgical theologian and religious ethicist. Trained as a Lutheran pastor, she is the assistant professor of liturgics at Wartburg Theological Seminary. Their 2025 book Agapic Anger: Influencing Change while Navigating Gender, an exploration in ethnography and virtue ethics, describes how Christians can do well with their anger in order to bring about positive social transformation. Schnell has consistently invested in ethnographic listening and research and lifting of stories of people embodying a multiplicity of perspectives. Often her grant-funded projects turn into resources helpful to church leaders, with focused care for those society marginalizes.
Education
PhD, University of Iowa
Master of Divinity, Wartburg Theological Seminary
Current Courses
MN106: Foundations of Worship
IN142: Formation for Discipleship
MN306: Living Liturgies
Queer Theologies
Trauma Informed Ministry
Dismantling Racism
Community Organizing
Liturgical History
Publications
“Trauma-Informed Preaching.” Presentation at the Fellowship of Preachers, Fall 2025.
“Liturgies and the Reformation” in Cambridge Companion to Christian Liturgy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.
Agapic Anger: Influencing Change while Navigating Gender. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2025.
“Trauma-informed Worship as Revival” in Liturgy. Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis, 2025.
“Loehe, Liturgies, and Lives Mattering” in Currents in Theology and Mission, Vol. 51, no 2, 2024. https://currentsjournal.org/index.php/currents/article/view/465
“Intersectionally-Aware Teaching.” Webinar through LSTC and WTS, Fall 2022.
“Tools for Ministry in Contentious Election Times: Shaping Agapic Anger.” Presentation at the Southwest Minnesota Synod, ELCA, Fall 2024.
“Arriving to Authenticity.” Presentation at the National Young Adult Gathering (ELCA), Summer 2024.
“Prophetic Anger.” Presentation Series at the Women’s Week at Luther Crest, Summer 2024.
“Holy Eucharist with a Service of Defiant Hope in the Midst of All that Crushes,” collaboratively composed at Shalom Hill Farm, Spring 2023.
“Living Liturgies for Renewal Today.” Presentation Series at Shalom Hill Farm, Spring 2023.
“Loehe’s Legacy Meets the Disinherited: on Liturgies and Lives Mattering.” Presentation at the International Loehe Society, Summer 2022.
“Resisting Cultural Appropriation in Hymnody” in CrossAccent Vol. 30 No. 1, 2022.
“The Eucharist in Advent.” Presentation at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 2021.
“Significance of the Seasons of the Church Year in Daily Living.” Lecture at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in the Held in the Seasons: A Year of Noticing series, 2021.
Schnell, Jan Rippentrop and Diana Cates. 2019. “Rethinking Anger as a Desire for Payback: A Modified Thomistic View.” Religions, 10 (11), 618-649. Accessed November 25, 2019, from https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10110618 .
“#MeToo and the Bible.” Presentation at the Styberg Preaching Institute, 2018.
“Lenten Prophets’ Insider Tips for Living Through Political Chaos” Journal for Preachers Vol. 41, No. 2, Lent 2018.
“Mark’s Passion Narrative as Political Theology” in Currents in Theology and Mission, Vol. 44 No.4 (2017). http://currentsjournal.org/index.php/currents/issue/view/50
"Lenten Preaching among Distressed Lives" Journal for Preachers Vol. XL, No.2 (Lent 2017) 44-53.
"Reconciliation--The Love of Christ Compels Us: 2 Corinthians 5:14-20: Homiletic Notes for the Week of Prayer," Ecumenical Trends 45, No. 9 (2016) 10.
“Confirmed and Sent Out: Fostering Encounters with God” in The Christian Century, Vol 133, No. 11 (May 25, 2016) 28-31.
“For a World in Need of Reconciliation: Preaching Romans in the Lectionary Year of Matthew” in Currents in Theology and Mission, Vol. 43 No.4 (2016) 3-9.
“Active Patience in the Lives and Proclamation of Moses and Martin Luther King, Jr.” Journal for Preachers Vol. 34 No. 4 (Pentecost, 2016) 26-31
“Ready for Communion: Living in Holy Space” in The Christian Century Vol. 132 No. 17: http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2015-07/ready-communion
“Liturgy Narratively: Paul Ricoeur and Aidan Kavanagh.” Presentation at the Liturgical Theology Seminar, North American Academy of Liturgy, 2013.
“The Spirit in Worship: Lutheran Theology of the Activity of the Holy Spirit in Hearing God’s Word” Presentation for Reformation Day at Emory, Emory University, 2012.
Expertise
Liturgical Theology
Religious Virtue Ethics
Trauma Informed Worship
Community Organizing for Ministry
Youth Ministry from and for the Margins