Short Bio

Nindyo Sasongko, Ph.D. is a systematic theologian and scholar of Religion, ordained Mennonite minister, and educator based in New York City. He earned his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where he also served as a Teaching Associate. He currently serves as Theologian-in-Residence at Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship.

A native of Indonesia, Nindyo brings more than a decade of pastoral experience, particularly in youth ministry and liturgical leadership. He began his pastoral vocation after completing a Bachelor of Theology at Southeast Asia Bible Seminary in Malang, East Java (2003). In 2009–2010, he was selected for the Young Anabaptist-Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN!), coordinated by Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite World Conference, serving as an intern youth minister at Meri Berhan Meserete Kristos Church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He later returned to Indonesia to continue pastoral ministry with the Muria Christian Church of Indonesia in Kudus.

Nindyo earned a Master of Arts in Transforming Spirituality from Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry in 2015. Following this degree, he was appointed the inaugural Elias Pohan Visiting Research Scholar Fellow at Jakarta Theological Seminary, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses and published his research until 2017. His scholarly interests include systematic and constructive theology, comparative and intercultural theology, political theology, spirituality and mysticism, liberation and decolonial theologies, and theological approaches to peace and conflict.

His doctoral dissertation, “Intercultural Theology of Peace: Re-mythicizing Peace beyond Kant through Raimon Panikkar,” defended on January 14, 2026, develops a sustained and original program of research in systematic and comparative theology. The project critically examines modern liberal theories of peace, especially Immanuel Kant’s vision of perpetual peace, by uncovering their implicit theological assumptions and conceptual limits. Nindyo argues that Kantian peace, while historically influential, marginalizes myth, ritual, cosmology, and religious plurality as sources of moral and political meaning. In dialogue with the intercultural theology of Raimon Panikkar, his work proposes peace as a relational, symbolic, and participatory theological imagination rather than a purely juridical or political arrangement.

Methodologically, his research integrates systematic theology, comparative studies, and political theology, informed by postcolonial and decolonial critique. A distinctive feature of his work is its sustained engagement with Asian religious and cultural contexts—especially Javanese and Southeast Asian traditions—not as illustrative case studies but as theoretically generative interlocutors that reshape Christian theological categories. Through this approach, his scholarship foregrounds questions of power, memory, colonial history, and plurality within contemporary theological debates on peace.

Nindyo has published in leading international peer-reviewed journals, including Political Theology, Feminist Theology, Ecclesiology, Ecumenical Review, Dialog: A Journal of Theology, Toronto Journal of Theology, Exchange, and International Review of Mission. His work has been presented at major academic conferences across North America, Europe, and Asia. From 2019 to 2021, he was a Doctoral Fellow of the Louisville Institute.

Beyond academia, Nindyo is deeply involved in global Anabaptist and ecumenical networks. He served on the Mennonite World Conference Creation Care Task Force (2022–2025), is a member of the Asia Anabaptist Mennonite Theology Task Force (2025–present), and participates in the Mennonite Scholars and Friends organizing committee. In July 2022, he delivered a keynote address at the closing ceremony of the Mennonite World Conference General Assembly in Indonesia. In June 2025, he led a plenary session on apocalyptic theology at the Believers Church Conference in Amsterdam. Portions of this work are forthcoming in Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology and in an edited anthology on apocalyptic and Trinitarian theology from Pacific perspectives.

He is also the co-founder and moderator of Theovlogy Channel, a digital platform dedicated to critical, accessible conversations on theology, religion, and public life.