Educator / Writer / Speaker
Dean of Chapel & Professor of Theology
Dordt University
Dr. Justin Ariel Bailey serves as Dean of Chapel at Dordt, where he oversees Campus Ministries, regularly speaks in chapel, and offers pastoral care. He has taught theology at Dordt for the past eight years, with his primary interest being exploring the intersection of contemporary culture and the Christian faith. Having served as a pastor in a number of diverse settings, his research seeks to bridge gaps between church and academy, and the spaces where they overlap.
He writes regularly for Christianity Today, and his work has appeared in numerous academic and popular publications. He is the author of the book Discipling the Diseased Imagination (Baker Academic, 2026), Interpreting Your World (Baker Academic, 2022), and Reimagining Apologetics (IVP Academic, 2020). He was the host of the In All Things podcast for 70 episodes (2021-2025).
I enjoy speaking at gatherings, conferences, retreats, schools, and churches. In recent years I’ve been invited as a plenary speaker at events and venues including the Jubilee Conference, the Colson Center National Conference, Converge, the Society for Classical Learning, the InspirED National Conference, the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education, the Stony Brook School, Beeson Divinity School, and Redeemer University.
Testimonial from Eric Cook, Society for Classical Learning:
Discipling the Diseased Imagination
Spiritual Formation and the Healing of our Hearts
Interpreting Your World:
Five Lenses for Engaging Theology & Culture
This short, accessible introduction to the conversation between theology and culture offers a patient, thoughtful, and theologically attuned approach to cultural discernment.
The book explores 5 dimensions of culture – meaning, power, morality, religion, and aesthetics – and shows how each needs the others and all need theology. Each chapter includes distinctive practices for spiritual formation and practical application.
Reimagining Apologetics:
The Beauty of Faith in a Secular Age
For many Christians, the traditional approach of apologetics has grown stale. In light of the current secular climate, rhetorical strategies that previously served the church and apologists well are no longer effective.
This book seeks to address this dilemma by infusing apologetics with an appeal to the imagination, the aesthetic, and the affective.
Demonstrating that this is possible, it engages with two examples of those who have done apologetics through the imagination: George MacDonald and Marilynne Robinson.
From 2021-2025, Justin hosted the In All Things Podcast. Through seventy episodes, the podcast convened conversations about living creatively in God’s created world. In pursuit of this end, we will engage in conversation with diverse voices across a wide range of traditions, vocations, and interests. You can listen through Apple, Spotify, Pandora, or Google Podcasts.