Elizabeth (Lisa) Sung, Ph.D., is a systematic theologian and a spiritual director. She is a Research Fellow at Regent College; Visiting Professor at Northeastern Seminary (Rochester, NY); Visiting Researcher at The University of Saint Mary of the Lake (Mundelein, IL); and Theologian-in-Residence at The InterVarsity Institute. In both academic and ministry contexts, she teaches theology to foster the lived reality of personal integrity and flourishing in Christ as the catalyst for missional living, in a framework that explicitly reconnects systematic theology to spiritual formation, moral transformation, and world service.

Her specializations include theological anthropology (especially personhood and identity; and race, ethnicity, and culture) and soteriology (sanctification, spiritual formation, and character development). Currently, she is writing two books: Race, Racism, and Christian Moral Identity; and the theological anthropology volume for the “Foundations of Evangelical Theology” series. She also speaks on these topics at churches, conferences, and professional development workshops. 

She has served as Scholar-in-Residence at Regent College; the first Protestant scholar to hold the Chester & Mary Paluch Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary, commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation at the largest Catholic seminary in the U.S.; and Associate Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where she taught for nine years, received the “Faculty of the Year” award, and pioneered student covenant groups singularly focused on spiritual formation. Her dissertation (2011) is titled “‘Race’ and Ethnicity Discourse and the Christian Doctrine of Humanity: A Systematic Sociological and Theological Appraisal.”

Drawing on mentoring experience in vocational ministry, and as a spiritual director, she accompanies persons in discernment, teaches at conferences, and leads group retreats. Previously, she served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as a theological consultant and as a campus minister with University of Chicago graduate students and the Michigan State University and Hillsdale College undergraduate chapters. She also served as the first Director of Contemporary Worship at First Presbyterian Church (River Forest, IL).

Christianity Today profiled her in Ten New or Lesser Known Female Theologians Worth Knowing.

The Global Church Project named her among 18 Asian Female Theologians You Should Know About.

Women in the Academy and Professions featured her in an interview: A Call to Unity in Christ: An Interview with Lisa Sung.

Areas of Expertise

• Theological Anthropology
• Theology and Social Science
• Culture, Race, and Ethnicity in Relation to Theology and Christian Identity
• Sanctification, Spiritual Theology, and Spiritual Formation

Media & Publications

• "A Theo-Anthropological Exposition of Aemilia Lanyer's Argument." In The Women's Christian Theology Reader, ed. Beth Ritter-Conn and Steven Guthrie. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2025. – Article
• Do Racial Categories Contribute to Racism? – Podcast