Greg Cootsona

Cootsona is a speaker, writer, and professor specializing in science and faith, emerging adults, C. S. Lewis, and Christian life and thought. He teaches religion, humanities, philosophy, and sociology at California State University, Chico, and co-directs Science for the Church, a project dedicated to bringing science into Christian congregations as a resource for spiritual growth.

Cootsona has been featured on the Today Show three times and interviewed by CNN, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, the BBC, and The New York Times. He has spoken at leading universities—including Columbia, Duke, Rice, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison—as well as at Fuller and Princeton Theological Seminaries and the Graduate Theological Union. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Christianity Today, and Theology and Science Journal. He has also delivered a TEDx talk.

He has directed more than $4.5 million in projects funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the American Academy of Religion, the Louisville Institute, and the Lilly Endowment. His most recent initiatives—Science and Theology for Emerging Adult Ministries (STEAM) and Science for Students and Emerging Young Adults—provide resources for ministry leaders and study the faith-science attitudes of 18–30 year olds.

In addition to his academic and project leadership, Cootsona serves as Associate Pastor for Adult Discipleship at Bidwell Presbyterian Church in Chico, California. He previously served at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City.

He is the author of nine books, including Science and Religions in America: A New Look (Routledge, 2023), Negotiating Science and Religion in America (Routledge, 2020), Mere Science and Christian Faith (InterVarsity, 2018), and C. S. Lewis and the Crisis of a Christian. His earlier works Say Yes to No and The Time for Yes—translated into French and Portuguese—address human flourishing in a technological world.

Cootsona studied comparative literature at UC Berkeley (B.A.), theology and biblical studies at Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and the philosophy of religion and science and religion at the Universities of Tübingen and Heidelberg and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley (Ph.D.). He also serves on advisory councils for the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER), Sinai and Synapses, BioLogos, and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences.

He lives in Chico, California, with his wife Laura. They have two adult daughters, and Cootsona enjoys cycling, reading, writing, and good coffee.