Rev. Galen Guengerich, Ph.D. has served as a minister of All Souls since 1993, and as Senior Minister since 2009. He is the author of The Way of Gratitude: A New Spirituality for Today (2020) and God Revised: How Religion Must Evolve in a Scientific Age (2013). He studied classics at Franklin and Marshall College, received his M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and went on to earn a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Chicago. He has written for Psychology Today, Reuters, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Huffpost, FaithStreet and TIME. His sermon at All Souls on Sept. 16, 2001 (the Sunday after 9/11), titled “The Shaking of the Foundations,” was selected for inclusion in Representative American Speeches 2001-2002.

Galen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he focuses on how traditional religious beliefs and practices, both in the US and abroad, usually reinforce patriarchy to the detriment of women and democracy. Since 2015, he has been involved in academically-based efforts to foster Jewish-Palestinian collaboration in Israel/Palestine, and leads the “Humanities in a Conflict Zone” initiative at Tel Aviv University.

Galen has spent time in numerous areas of both Israel and the West Bank. In 2013, he visited Afghanistan with a delegation of CFR members and fellows, meeting with top military, diplomatic, and civilian leaders in Kabul, Kandahar and Helmand. He was part of a 15-member delegation of senior clergy from New York City to visit Israel and the West Bank in 2012, the first such delegation to meet with a broad spectrum of religious and political leaders, including Shimon Peres, President of Israel, and Salem Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority.

In the past, Galen has served as a Lecturer in Preaching and Worship at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He served for 12 years on the Board of Directors of Interfaith Alliance, the national non-partisan advocacy voice for religious pluralism. He has also served on the boards of Dads and Daughters, which is a national advocacy nonprofit for fathers and daughters; the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, a human rights organization; and the New York City Audubon Society.

Galen lives in Manhattan with his wife, Holly G. Atkinson, M.D., who is Affiliate Medical Professor, Department of Clinical Medicine at the CUNY School of Medicine.

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