Faculty Profiles


Ken Chase

Ken Chase, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Communication

On Faculty since 1994
630.752.5261
BGH 278


Dr. Kenneth R. Chase currently serves as Chair of the Communication Department. He has served as director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics (Wheaton), president of the Religious Communication Association, and chair of the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association.

Scholarship Interview, “Essential Questions in Faith and Communication, Interview no. 6,” August 8, 2016

“Timely Argumentation and Cultural Difference,” presentation to the 4th International Conference on Argumentation, Rhetoric, Debate and the Pedagogy of Empowerment, Doha, Qatar, 13 Jan 2012

Bible Teaching

Radical Time Out/Koinonia House National Ministries (Jan 23, 2020), “Living in the Name”

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ph.D., Speech Communication

California State University at Fullerton
M.A., Speech Communication

Biola University (La Mirada, CA)
B.A., Communications

  • Communication Ethics
  • Rhetorical Theory
  • National Communication Association (NCA)
  • Religious Communication Association (RCA)

Guest Faculty, “Rhetorical Theory and Preaching” D.Min. cohort, Andrews University (MI), March 2021

“Parrēsia and Ethical Persuasion,” paper presented to the National Communication Association (Remote/Virtual), November 2020

“Isocratean Analogy and the Hospitality of Persuasion,” paper presented to the Rhetoric Society of America biennial conference, Portland, OR, May 2020

“Rhetorical Loves and Christian Formation: Reflections on James K. A. Smith’s Cultural Liturgy Project,” paper presented to the Religious Communication Association annual convention, Baltimore, MD, November 2019

“Antiphon’s Tetralogies and the Ethics of Possibility,” paper presented to the Rhetoric Society of America biennial conference, Atlanta, GA, May 2016

  • Rhetorical Theory
  • Senior Seminar
  • Public Speaking
  • Propaganda and Image
  • Preaching as Rhetorical Practice
  • Communication Ethics
  • Rhetorical Theory

“Ancient Democracy and Ethical Persuasion,” in Political Communication Ethics: Theory and Practice, Peter Loge, ed., Rowman & Littlefield, 2020, 7-26.

“Aristotle: The Good Life” (pp 26-30), and “Isocrates: Ethics and Oratory” (pp 248-253), in An Encyclopedia of Communication Ethics: Goods in Contention, Ronald C. Arnett, Annette M. Holba, and Susan Mancino, eds. Peter Lang International, 2018.

“John Calvin: Practicing Divine Accommodation to Manifest God’s Love,” in Words and Witnesses: Communication Studies in Christian Thought from Athanasius to Desmond Tutu, Robert H. Woods, Jr., and Naaman K. Wood, eds. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2018, 105-112.

“Christian Rhetorical Theory: A New (Re)Turn,” Journal of Communication and Religion 36 (2013): 25-49

“Ethical Rhetoric and Divine Power: Reflections on Matthew 10:17-20 (and parallels),” Bulletin for Biblical Research 22.4 (2012): 199-218.

“Bodies at Peace in the Moment of Dialogue,” Interfaith Dialogue in Practice: Christian, Muslim, Jew. Daniel S. Brown, ed. Kansas City, MO: Rockhurst University Press, 2012. 123-138.

Edited Volumes

Must Christianity Be Violent: Reflections on History, Practice, and Theology, Kenneth R. Chase and Alan Jacobs, eds. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2003. Reprint by Wipf and Stock, 2007.

Guest Editor, “Christian Perspectives on Business Ethics: Faith, Profit, and Decision Making,” Business and Professional Ethics Journal 23 (2004).