James E. Beitler (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is the Director of the Wade Center, the Marion E. Wade Chair of Christian Thought, and a Professor of English. His scholarship focuses on the rhetoric of Christian witness and writing as a spiritual activity, looking to C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, Desmond Tutu, and other exemplary communicators as guides for faithful practice.
He is the author of Seasoned Speech: Rhetoric in the Life of the Church; Charitable Writing: Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words (with co-author Richard Hughes Gibson); and Remaking Transitional Justice in the United States. He is currently working on the collection Sites of Writing: Essays in Honor of Anne Ruggles Gere (with co-editor Sarah Ruffing Robbins) as well as a book project based on archival research conducted at the Wade Center.
Beitler has taught a variety of courses at Wheaton, including Christianity and Fantasy, Lewis and Tolkien, Tolkien and Environmental Stewardship (co-taught with Kristen Page), Teaching Writing, Writing Chicago, Persuasive Writing, and First-Year Writing. He also teaches a course in the Wheaton College Summer Institute—the Makings of Middle-earth.
He lives in Wheaton with his wife, Brita, and their boys, James and Arne.