Profiles

Dr. Noah Toly serves as Provost of Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Previously he served as Executive Director of the Center for Urban Engagement and Professor of Urban Studies and Politics & International Relations at Wheaton College. He also serves as Non-Resident Senior Fellow for Global Cities at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and teaches on cities and urbanism in the Free University of Berlin’s Center for Global Politics. He has written numerous books and articles on urban and environmental politics. In 2011, he was named an Emerging Leader by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. In 2012-2013, he served as Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion. In 2015, he was the first recipient of the Emerging Public Intellectual award given by a coalition of faith-based North American think tanks (The Acton Institute, Cardus, and The Center for Public Justice) in collaboration with the Centre for Christian Scholarship at Redeemer University College. He currently serves on the Advisory Council of Together Chicago, as well as the Steering Committee of the Thriving Cities Project and on the research team for the Project on Vocation and the Common Good, both based at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Toly is a frequent speaker on cities, urban life, and the environment. Along with invited lectures at colleges and universities, he has given invited talks to industry groups, investment professionals, and municipal administrations. His work has appeared in Books & Culture, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Comment, The Hedgehog Review, and other publications, and he has made appearances on Moody Radio and NPR, and has been interviewed for stories by the New York Times and The Atlantic. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Toly has published Cities of Tomorrow and the City to Come: A Theology of Urban Life (Zondervan) and What is Mercy Ministry? (Presbyterian & Reformed, co-authored with Philip Ryken). His recent book is The Gardeners' Dirty Hands: Environmental Politics and Christian Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2019).