Mark R. Correll, Ph.D.
Professor of HistoryBio
| Dr. Correll grew up in the Minneapolis area. While in high school he fell in love with European history. He went to Wheaton College near Chicago where he double majored in history and theology. After college he lived for a year learning German and studying at a small Bible College in the Lahn Valley. There he met his wife, Ina, who he married in 2002. He returned to the United States to study European History at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. One of the years in graduate school he received a fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Program where he studied at Tübingen University while doing research largely at church archives in Stuttgart, Kiel, Speyer, and Berlin. He finished his dissertation in 2006 and that same year accepted the position of Assistant Professor at Spring Arbor University. He has two children and lives in biking distance from the university. While at Spring Arbor University, he has served as the chair of the department of History/Geography/Politics since 2009 and served as chair of the Academic Senate from 2018-2021. He has led and assisted on numerous Cross Cultural Studies programs to Germany, England/Scotland, India, and Hungary. |
Education
- Ph.D.: (History) University of Florida
Why SAU
My experience studying at a Christian liberal arts institution was life-changing. It was an opportunity to ask the hard questions of my faith in an environment surrounded by mentors who could provide guidance to find the right direction to draw closer to God. The world seemed to me to become considerably more complex, and immeasurably more beautiful. I have always desired to lend a hand in a similar environment where students ask hard questions and are unsatisfied with trite answers. The other truly formative experience I had was living in Germany. Naturally, Spring Arbor University’s Cross Cultural Studies Program and its international perspective excited me from the first I heard of Spring Arbor and convinced me that Spring Arbor University is a particularly distinctive institution.
Memberships and Affiliations
Awards & Honors
Publications
Shepherds of the Empire: Germany’s Conservative Protestant Leadership – 1888-1919. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014
“German War Theology, 1888-1933”, Oxford History of Modern German Theology (Contracted, Under Review)
“A Political Gospel for the Working Poor: The Use of Christian Utopia as a Political Tool in Wilhelmine Germany.” Socialist History Journal 43 (2013): 26-45.
Recent Research
Theological debates and controversies in Wilhelmine Germany particularly centered in the Old Prussian State Universities in Berlin and Greifswald.