Staff and Faculty Directory

Isaiah has been a soldier in the Salvation Army since 1985, originally from Upstate New York, now living in Winnipeg. He inherited a love for scripture from his mother Irma and has invested his life in studying and teaching the Bible. He aims to inspire others to love the scriptures and the triune God that they reveal. Before entering the Salvation Army's College for Officer Training (Suffern, NY), he was a "starving artist" (ballet dancer). A proud alumnus, he finished his four-year undergraduate degree in Christian ministry at Booth University College while serving with his wife Ellen as a Corps Officer for nine years in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Drawn toward the formation of people learning scripture for personal and professional development, he entered academia fulltime, earning a MDiv in biblical studies from Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, KY) and a PhD in biblical studies from London School of Theology/Middlesex University (London, UK). He taught ballet and danced as a soloist to pay for graduate school. Before returning to Booth UC as Assistant Professor of Religion, he completed a two-year fulltime post-graduate fellowship as Teaching Fellow of Biblical Languages (NT Greek) at Asbury Theological Seminary (2014-2016) and served as Director of Corps Leadership Development for the Salvation Army USA East (2017-2021), serving corps congregations by developing and delivering training and resources for disciple-making mission and local officership. He spent three formative summers (2013, 2015, 2016) teaching Bible and theology courses at ECWA Theological Seminary in Kagoro, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Married for 25+ years, he and Ellen have four biological (Zac, Barney, Julia, and Sophia) and two adopted (Jayden and Rosie) children. They love hiking in the mountains—plentiful in Upstate New York, sparse in the Prairies.

Teaching Philosophy: Students learn more and retain it longer when they are integrally involved in the act of discovery. Therefore, design courses around learning tasks that engage students in description, analysis, critical thought, and dialogue.

Personal Bio: Before entering The Salvation Army’s two-year ministry training school, Isaiah was a “starving artist”—a ballet dancer. He answered the call to serve the church full-time and was a Corps Officer (local pastor) for nine years in Pennsylvania and Delaware. While serving in congregational ministry full-time (as well as being a husband and a father), he finished his undergraduate degree in ministry as a part-time student at Booth University College.

Impressed with a deep sense of calling to participate in the formation of people who were learning scripture for personal and ministry purposes and who would enter the workplace and marketplace as ambassadors of Christ, he plunged full-time into academia, earning an MDiv and a Ph.D. He worked for his denomination, The Salvation Army, at the USA Eastern Territorial Headquarters as Director of Corps Leadership Development (2017­-2021), serving the 350+ corps (congregations) in the USA East. He feels alive when he is learning alongside others from diverse backgrounds, engaging in dialogue around society’s most difficult issues, and listening for scriptural insights into questions of race, religion, and sexuality.

His Ph.D. thesis applied insights from cognitive linguistics, specifically relevance theory, to the interpretation of scripture, with Titus 1:12 as a test case. He taught NT Greek full-time at Asbury Theological Seminary 2014-2016 as a Teaching Fellow of Biblical Languages. He has also taught part-time at Asbury University, Asbury Theological Seminary, and Booth University College. He has taught several Bible courses during three summers (2013, 2015, 2016) at ECWA Theological Seminary in Kagoro, Kaduna State, Nigeria. He specializes in the NT epistles, particularly the Pastorals (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus), and linguistic hermeneutics.

Isaiah has been married to Ellen for well over two decades. And, together, they have been raising six children (Zac, Barney, Julia, Sophia, Jay, and Rosie—four biological and two adopted)—a busy household. Dr. Allen acquired a love for scripture as a child from his mother, Irma; and after falling in love with the Bible as a child, invested his life in studying and teaching it in the hopes that others might also fall in love and learn to live in fruitfulness and harmony with its valuable insights.

He is delighted to be teaching at Booth University College, his Alma Mater.