Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Abel lives with the love of his life, Hana, and their furry family member, Bimo, in Lënapehòkink, the ancestral homelands of the Lenape people (today's South Philly), where other Asian immigrants also live. His research focuses on political theology in conversation with ecotheology, discourse on sexuality and marriage, care ethics and theories, and new colonial studies. But what unites all of them is his attention to the Dutch East Indies and globally executed exploitation of people and the earth in the guise of human survival. After graduating from Southeast Asia Bible Seminary (B.Th) and Boston University (M.T.S.), Abel is pursuing a Ph.D. at Villanova University's Theology and Religious Studies Department. His additional studies include external courses and workshops at the Center for Decolonial Thought (dialogoglobal), Harvard University, Boston College, University College London, and the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS). Abel currently serves as a College Theology Society's co-convener of "Theology, Ecology, and Natural Science" working group and Vice-Chairperson at the Indonesian Theologians Association (both for the 2025-2028 term), while building a resource portal for Religion, Ecology, and Coloniality, funded by the 2024 Henry Luce-AAR Advancing Public Scholarship. In 2022, he founded Discerning, a global mentoring program that prepares Indonesian youths to pursue graduate studies in theology and religion abroad, among whom are those accepted at Duke, Vanderbilt, Vancouver Seminary, Boston U., Boston College, Göttingen, and others. Outside of the academic world, Abel is a youth minister and spiritual mentor in the Protestant circle. He served on the Advisory Board of the 11th World Council of Churches General Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, particularly in advising the Youth Ecumenical Gathering and co-creating documents on the climate crisis. Weekly, he attends PC(USA) Christ's Community Church, Drexel Hill, PA, where he and his colleague have become part of the Children, Liturgy, Ecology, & Renewal (CLEAR) Project, hosted by Villanova, funded by Lilly Endowment.
- Restructured the Political Theology Network's membership system (+/- 3000 members) in coordination with the Villanova IT team. - Prepared for the upcoming Political Theology conference, which would take place in the Philadelphia area. - Took charge as the PTN outreach person in contact. - Promoted the newly published articles in the Political Theology journal. - Developed PTN YouTube channel, while continuing to make creative content for PTN's Instagram and Facebook handles. - Served the logistical needs for members who initiated book interviews, reading groups, publication promotions, etc.
- I teamed up with established scholars to assist with the logistical needs of over 100 attendees of the Political Theology Network Conference, Nashville, Oct 23-26, 2025, in collaboration with Vanderbilt University and Princeton Theological Seminary. - I published a monthly newsletter and boosted the readership to a 52% open rate. - I designed the branding and managed PTN social media, reaching an average of 63% non-followers for each post and +566.2% readership since I handled.
- Studied and made a report on the current scholarship related to world Christianity as represented in the established journals in the field, concerning their significance to the question of the particular and the global.
- Teamed up with Katherine Tarrant (University of Virginia) in coordination with the College Theology Society Executive Director. - Wrote a call for papers and selected articles for the "Theology, Ecology, and Natural Science" unit.
Editorial Team
- Co-organized academic events: annual conferences, regional meetings, webinars, etc., and identified potential manuscripts for the association's future publication. - Managed grant projects: IJT Young Research Grant (IDR 18mil), Migration Researcher Grant (IDR 15mil), WoW Worship Grant (IDR 3mil). - Co-edited ATI's book publications (all in Bahasa Indonesia): Liturgy and Public Space (2024), The Dark Alley of Struggle: Gender and Sexuality (2026), The Blossom and The Wave: Theology in Indonesia (upcoming). - Managed ATI's social media channels and grew its followers and engagement for outreach and promotional purposes.
- Teamed up with 3 other emerging scholars to prepare for the APARRI regional meeting in the Mid-Atlantic area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, etc.), in coordination with Princeton Theological Seminary.