Assistant Professor of Theology, Culture and Ethics, Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Programming; Special Assistant to the President
Research Interests
My primary research interests are studies of how orthodox doctrine and theological thought from the early church onward can inform, challenge, and reinvigorate peoples’ understanding of what it means to be a Christian and the church in the world today. My current research focuses on the writings of twentieth century thinkers Jacques Ellul and Paul Virilio on the subjects of theology, ethics, and technology, and I plan to pursue further research and publishing on these two thinkers and the related fields of technology, media, communication, fine arts, theology, ethics, and aesthetics. As I look to publish my PhD research in book form, I also am excited about other research opportunities and projects which relate to theological and ethical questions that I believe are essential for Christians and churches today. These questions relate to theological and ethical studies of disability and mental health in and outside of the local church, political thought and action, care for and cultivation of the environment, and many other timely fields of inquiry for theology and ethics.
Publications
Books
Morelli, Michael, Francis Pang, and Cynthia Tam (eds.) A Deeper Communion: Ecclesial Engagement with Disability. Hamilton: McMaster Divinity College Press, forthcoming.
Jacques Ellul. Desert, Wilderness, Wasteland, and Word: A New Essay by Jacques Ellul and Five Critical Engagements. Ed. Michael Morelli. Trans. Kelly Haskett. Pickwick Publications, 2023.
Theology, Ethics, and Technology in the Work of Jacques Ellul and Paul Virilio: A Nascent Theological Tradition. Maryland: Lexington Books. 2020.
Book Chapters
“Fortifying wine: 1 Timothy 5:23’s prescription for chronic and acute stomach problems, frequent ailments, and ecclesial disease.” A Deeper Communion: A Deeper Communion: Ecclesial Engagement with Disability. Hamilton: McMaster Divinity College Press, forthcoming.
“Eppur so muove (and yet it moves): revisiting Ellul’s thesis in Technological Society and a critical, hope-full consideration of what’s ahead.” Questioning 21st Century Technology with Jacques Ellul. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, forthcoming.
“Transference of the Transcendent in the Post-Christendom West: A Critical and Constructive Engagement with Jacques Ellul’s New Demons.” Secularism and the Pursuit of Transcendence. Hamilton: McMaster Divinity College Press, 2025.
“Stillness, silence, and prophetic visions of God’s justice against the visions of a technologically agitated world.” Awake, Emerging, and Connected: Theologies of Justice from the Missing Generation. London: SCM Press, 2024.
“Michael Morelli.” Générations Ellul. Soixante héritiers de la pensée de Jacques Ellul: Tome Deux, 2022.
“What’s in a Name? Jacques Ellul’s Reading of Naming in Genesis 1–3.” Jacques Ellul and The Bible: Towards a Hermeneutic of Freedom. Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2020.
“Charlottesville vs. The Real Revolution.” Political Illusion and Reality: Engaging The Prophetic Insights of Jacques Ellul. Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2018.
Articles
“The death of a fascist does not mean the end of fascism: a storied and theological proposal for non-violent, disruptive anti-fascism.” Political Theology Network (politicaltheology.com). Edited by Mary Tomszak. September 27, 2024.
Michael Morelli, “Seminary Faculty Reflections on Competency Based Theological Education: Confessions of a (Former) Agnostic,” Northwest Institute for Ministry Education Research. www.nimer.ca, 2024. Peer reviewed.
“Birds of the Air and Winged Creatures: An Ironic Critique of Surveillance in Ecclesiastes and an Ellulian Ethic of Language, Love, Fear, and Freedom.” Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence. Anticipated publication: May 2023. https://trivent-publishing.eu/img/cms/8-%20PJCV%207-2-%20Michael%20Morelli.pdf
“The Undivided Body: An Ecclesial Response to Surveillance Technologies and Practices,” Northwest Institute for Ministry Education Research. www.nimer.ca (retrieved Date Accessed). Peer reviewed.
“The Athenian Altar and The Amazonian Chatbot: A Pauline Reading of Artificial Intelligence and Apocalyptic Ends.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 53, March 2019.
“Aura 2.0: The Technoscientific Return of Art’s Religious Value.” Implicit Religion 20.3, 2017, 245-257.
“The Judgments We Make: Justice in a Digitised World.” Granite Interdisciplinary Journal 1.1, 2017, 7-10.
Reviews
Jens Zimmerman (ed. Human Flourishing in a Technological World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Modern Believing Vol.66, no. 1, December 2024.
https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/mb.2025.6
“Jacques Ellul, To Will and To Do Volumes 1 and 2.” Studies in Christian Ethics 36.1.
“Jacob Rollison, Revolution of Necessity: Language, Technique, and Freedom in the Writings of Jacques Ellul and Slavoj Žižek.” Studies in Christian Ethics 31.1, February 2018, 123-125.
Unpublished Manuscripts
“Either Technological Pessimism or Proleptic Christian Resistance: A Constructive Reading of Jacques Ellul’s Dialectical Writings on Technology With Paul Virilio as an Evocative Interlocutor.” PhD Thesis (Theological Ethics), University of Aberdeen, 2019. Supervisor Professor Brian Bock.
“Technology, Violence, and Ethics: Catastrophic Liturgy and Paul Virilio’s Eschatological Vision.” MTh Thesis (Theological Ethics), University of Aberdeen, 2017
Blogs
“From the Mouths of Babes: God Cares and God is With Us.” Church and COVID-19 Blog. Northwest Institute for Ministry Education Research. May 2020.
Presentations
2025 Panel Moderator at Canadian Theological Society Conference. “Moral Abdication and the Destruction of Gaza: Theological Reflections and a Call to Action.”
2025 Presenter at Surrey Christian Writers Society Conference. “Creative Processes in a World with Artificial Intelligence: How and Why God Uses the Work of Artists.” Toronto: George Brown University.
2025 Panelist at Trinity Western School of Nursing Clinical Supervisor Innovation Project Gathering.
2024 Presenter and Session Chair at International Jacques Ellul Society Conference, Jacques Ellul and the 21st Century Technological Society, “Eppur si muove (yet it moves)? Revisiting Ellul’s Thesis Regarding Technique and Capital.” Roosevelt University, Chicago.
2024 Presenter and host at Deep and Wide Deeper Communion Multisite Conference (Northwest Seminary & College, Ambrose University, and McMaster Divinity College).
“Fortifying Wine: 1 Timothy 5:23’s Prescription for Chronic and Acute Stomach Problems, Frequent Ailments, and Ecclesial Disease.”
2024 Plenary Presenter for “The Past, Present and Future of the Fellowship in a Post-Christian Context,” at Fellowship Pacific Impact Conference, Penticton.
2024 Moderator for Climate Change, Eco-Dread, and Christian Wisdom, Northwest Seminary and College, In the Book Seminar.
2023 Presenter at Awake, Emerging, and Connected: Theologies of Justice from the Missing Generation conference at Westminster College, Cambridge, England. “Stillness, silence, and prophetic visions of God’s justice against the visions of a technologically agitated world.”
2023 Presenter at Deeper Communion Conference at McMaster Divinity College (online). “Stillness and knowing, fear and trembling, groans too deep for words, and tongues of fire: re-imagining discipleship with help from people called ‘disabled.’”
2023 Presenter at Secularism and the Pursuit of Transcendence Conference at McMaster Divinity College. “Transference of the Transcendent in the Post-Christendom West: A Critical and Constructive Engagement with Jacques Ellul’s New Demons.”
2022 Moderator for “When Does Translating Change the Meaning of Scripture? How the Translator of Greek Exodus (and Jesus?) Aligns Biblical Law to Fit His Culture,” at Northwest Seminary and College, In the Book – LXX Seminar.
2022 Moderator, “Adopted by God: Restoring the Life-transforming Joy of a Neglected Pauline Doctrine.” John H. Pickford Chair of Theology Symposium, ACTS Seminaries, Langley, BC, October 12, 2022.
2022 Presenter at Religious Responses to Climate Change at Vancouver School of Theology. “Living Soil Anthropology and Ethics: Reading Jacques Ellul’s Interpretations of Genesis 2 as Resistance to Ecological Plunder and Devastation.”
2022 Presenter for International Jacques Ellul Society Conference in Strasbourg, France (online). “Living Soil Anthropology and Ethics: Reading Jacques Ellul’s Interpretation of Genesis 2 as Resistance to Ecological Plunder and Devastation.”
2022 Presenter, “Technological Pessimism or Prophetic Christian Resistance: Theology, Ethics and Technology in the Work of Jacques Ellul and Paul Virilio.” John H. Pickford Chair of Theology Symposium, Northwest Baptist Seminary, Langley, BC, March 16, 2022.
2022 Guest Lecturer for “Jacques Ellul’s Legacy for Theological Ethics, 67 years after the publication of Technological Society (or La Technique, l’eneu de siècle),” Theological ethics Reading Seminary, at University of Aberdeen, Scotland (online).
2021 Moderator, “The Many and the One: Modern Secularity and Classical Christian Theology.” John H. Pickford Chair of Theology Symposium, ACTS Seminaries, Langley, BC.
2021 Responder, “The Active Church in the Covid-19 Age.” John H. Pickford Chair of Theology Symposium. ACTS Seminaries, Langley, BC.
2019 Responder, Modern Technology and the Human Future, Trinity Western University
2019 Presenter, Society for the Study of Theology Conference, University of Warwick. “Making Brutal Architecture Beautiful: Paul Virilio’s Bunker Church and a Theology of Metamorphis.”
2018 Presenter, International Jacques Society Conference at Regent University. “The Fuirst Propaganda Campaign and the Origins of La Technique.”
2018 Presenter, CenSAMM Artificial Intelligence Conference at Bedford Panacea Trust. “The Athenian Altar and the Amazonian Chatbot: A Pauline Reading of Artificial Intelligence and Apocalyptic Ends.”
2018 Presenter, Society for the Study of Theology Conference at University of Nottingham. “Flesh and Blood in the Modern World: Reading Zombie Mythology as Negative Eucharistic Theology.”
2017 Presenter, Religion and Surveillance Network Conference at London Friend’s House. “Birds of the Air and Winged Creatures: An Ironic Critique of Surveillance in Ecclesiastes.”
2017 Presenter, Society for The Study of Christians Ethics Conference, at University of Cambridge. “Forms of Hope: Paul Virilio and the Aesthetics of Disappearance.”
2017 Presenter, Society for the Study of Theology Conference at University of Nottingham. “Catastrophic Liturgy: Paul Virilio and the Aesthetics of Disappearance.”
2016 Presenter, Religion and Surveillance Network Conference at Birmingham, England. “See Something Say Something: Lateral Surveillance in a Suspicious Society.”
2016 Presenter and Panelist, British Academy for the Study of Religions at University of Wolverhampton. “Aura 2.0. The Technoscientific Return of Art’s Religious Value.”
2016 Presenter, International Jacques Ellul Society Conference at University of Berkley, California. “Cain, The First Humanist: Jacques Ellul’s Reading of Genesis 4 and the Origins of ‘Civilization’ and The City.”
2016 Presenter, The Granite Symposium Technology Conference at University of Aberdeen. “The Judgments We Make: Justice in a Digitalized World.”
Think Tanks
2023 Nursing Education and Practice Formation and Ethical Comportment Virtue Ethics and Post-Structuralism Think Tanks Participant, facilitated by The School of Nursing at Trinity Western University.
2022 Nursing and Covenantal Care Think Tank Participant, facilitated by The School of Nursing at Trinity Western University.
Workshops
2024 Disability, Belonging, and Education Professional Development Seminar, Langley Christian Primary, Middle and High School
2024 Community, Belonging, and Disability in The Greatest Showman, SouthRidge Church, Langley
2023 Violence in and Beyond the Bible, Village Church, Surrey
2023 Community, Belonging, and Trauma in En Canto, SouthRidge Church, Langley
2023 Wrestling with Faith, Doubt & Questions, Ridge Church, Maple Ridge
2023 Community Group Curriculum: Morality, Gender & Sexuality, Suffering & Unanswered Prayer, The Bible’s Reliability for Ridge Church, Maple Ridge
2023, Suffering at Cedars Christian School Chapel
2023 Spiritual Health at Village Church Young Adults, Langley
2023 Disability, Trauma, Unity, and Healing in En Canto and the church at SouthRidge Church, Langley
2022 Loving God With Your Mind: Why Theology Matters at Ridge Church, Maple Ridge
2022 True Community in a Digital Age at Central Heights Church, Abbotsford
2022 True Community in a Digital Age at Peace Evangelical Church, Richmond
2021 True Community in a Digital Age at Central Heights Church, Abbotsford
Other
Podcasts
Personalist Manifesto(s). Podcast producer, host and content strategist.
personalistmanifesto.substack.com
Interviews
“New Wine, New Wineskins Institute for Cultural Engagement Interview on the life and work of Jacques Ellul, forthcoming.
2024 “Michael Morelli Jaques Ellul & the Technological Society.” Homebrewed Christianity Podcast. July 14 episode.
2023 “Michael Morelli / Jacques Ellul between Barth and the Frankfurt School.” The Wipf and Stock Theology Mill Podcast. August 8 episode.
2022 “Matthew Farlow and Nikolas Buys – Technology In the Thought of Jacques Ellul: An Interview with Jacob Marques Rollison and Michael Morelli.” Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture. Vol. 17 No. 2: On Technology—Prospects and Perils.
2017 AI and Religion: An Initial Conversation. The Religious Studies Podcast, February 13.
Research Grants
2021 ATS and Lilly Endowment Pathways for Tomorrow Phase Two (grant application co-author and project contributor)
2021 ATS and Lilly Endowment Pathways for Tomorrow: Canadian Schools Planning and Assessment Grant Phase One (grant application co-author and project contributor)
2020-2021 In Trust Resource Grant (grant application co-author and project contributor)
2020-2021 Trinity Western University Internal Research Grant: Educating for Human Flourishing in Nursing (project contributor)