Thomas Jay Oord

Oord is a professor at NNU, where he has taught since 2002. Despite his status as a tenured professor, Oord learned that he would be laid-off at the end of the 2014–2015 school year. The reason cited by the administration was declining enrollment in the theology program, but it is surmised that he is being dismissed because of theological positions that are not in the mainstream of the Nazarene tradition.

Thomas Jay Oord (born 1965) is a theologian, philosopher, and multidisciplinary scholar who teaches at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books and hundreds of articles. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open theism, postmodernism, the relationship between religion and science, Wesleyan, Holiness, Nazarene, and evangelical theology.

Born on November 10, 1965, and raised in Othello, Washington, Oord went from high school to attend Northwest Nazarene College, graduating in 1988. After serving as a pastor for several years in a church in Walla Walla, Washington, he enrolled at Nazarene Theological Seminary, graduating with a Master of Divinity. While in seminary, he was a pastor in Lenexa, Kansas. Oord then attended Claremont Graduate University, earning an MA and PhD in religion in 1999. While at Claremont, Oord was a pastor at the Bridgepoint Church of the Nazarene in Bloomington, California. He then taught at Eastern Nazarene College before returning to his alma mater, Northwest Nazarene.