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David Sandifer, PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Practical Ministries and Ethics
  • Chair, Department of Practical Ministries and Intercultural Studies

Personal

David Sandifer was raised in France, where his parents served as church planters. He first put his faith in the Lord Jesus at an early age; his whole life has been a process of that faith being tested and strengthened as He grew to trust His Lord more and more. While he considered an academic path early on, David felt God leading him to pastoral ministry, and is immensely thankful for the privilege of serving in churches in the US and Australia for nearly 20 years. His heart is to see God refine Tyndale students in their love for Him, and equip them for a lifetime of empowered ministry that will bear fruit for eternity. He also has a particular passion to see Christians given the spiritual discernment and intellectual framework to successfully engage and counter the totalizing secular claims of the West.

David is married to his heart, ministry and intellectual companion, Cathie, who is Australian. He has two children, Annabelle and Josiah. They are a constant source of delight to him, and his chief pastime when he is not reading books.

 

 

Education

  • Columbia International University (2 years, no degree)
  • B.A., Philosophy, Wheaton College
  • M.Div., Trinity School for Ministry
  • M. Phil., Historical Studies, University of Cambridge
  • Ph.D., History, University of Cambridge

 

Areas of Academic Interest

Pastoral ministry; homiletics; theology of marriage and family; ecclesiology; forming a Christian mind; character formation; theology of vocation and work; history of evangelicalism; Christian response to secularism.

Current Administrative Responsibilities

  • Chair, Department of Intercultural Studies and Practical Ministries
  • Admissions Committee Member
  • Director of Internships

 

Professional and Ministry Experience

  • Youth Pastor, Hopewell Presbyterian Church, Pennsylvania, USA
  • Youth Minister, All Souls Episcopal Church, Florida, USA
  • Rector, Calvary Anglican Church, Florida, USA
  • Associate Pastor, Trinity Chapel Macquarie, Sydney, Australia
  • New South Wales Director, FamilyVoice Australia, Sydney, Australia
  • Rector, St Alban’s Anglican Church, Leura, Australia
  • Adjunct Lecturer, Christ College (Presbyterian Theological College), Sydney, Australia

Academic Works, Presentations, and Theses Supervised

  • ‘“The Most Dangerous of Allies”: Evangelicals and the Novel, 1790-1840,” CHF Bulletin, Summer, 2010.

  • “Liberal Moralists: The Rise of Reticence in Pre-Victorian Britain,” LUCAS: An Evangelical History Review, Vol. 2 No.9 (March 2017).

  • “Church and World: The Third Lens,” Southern Cross, Vol. 22 No. 6 (August 2016).

  • “In Defence of Prudery: Learning from the Victorian Quest for Innocence,” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, January/February 2018.

  • “Scripture, Freedom, and Religious Toleration,” “Faith in the Public Sphere?” Veritas Forum, University of Cambridge, March 1, 2008.

  • “Virtue Ethics and the Virtue of Innocence: An Exploration,” Research Seminar, Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Tyndale House, Cambridge, February 5, 2010.

  • “Innocence Uncovered: Changes in Public Morality in Pre-Victorian Britain,” paper given at the plenary session of the Evangelical History Association annual meeting, Sydney, November, 2011.

  • “Sexual Revolutionaries? Evangelicals and Sexual Morality in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain,” “Christianity and Crisis,” Conference of the Evangelical History Association, Sydney, August 8, 2015.

  • “Joyful Exiles”, Graduation Address, Christ College (Presbyterian Theological College), Sydney, May 19, 2016.

  • “Cultivating Innocence: Character Formation in the Age of Porn,” 2016 Armitage Lecture, The Shore School, Sydney, August 26, 2016.

  • Weaver Fellow, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2009-2010.

  • Visiting Academic Fellow, Robert Menzies College, Macquarie University, 2011.

  • “Public morality and the ethic of innocence in early nineteenth-century Britain (1790-1840),” unpublished doctoral dissertation, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, 2014.

  • Member, Theology Working Group, Task Force on Marriage, Family, and the Single Life, Anglican Church in North America, 2015-2018.

  • Member, Gender Identity Subcommittee, Social Issues Committee of the Diocese of Sydney, 2018-2019.