The Rev. Dr. Stephen Butler Murray is Senior Director of Development for Family Philanthropy at Georgetown University, where he oversees university-wide fundraising with the family members of current students and teaches in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. He served previously as President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Preaching at Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, Michigan; as Executive Director of the Congregational Library and Archives in Boston, Massachusetts; as founding Dean of the College and Associate Professor of Religion at Barrytown College; as chaplain and on the faculty at Harvard University Divinity School, Skidmore College, Endicott College, and Suffolk University; and as Magee Fellow and Director of the Public Service Internship Program at the Dwight Hall Center for Public Service and Social Justice at Yale University. He also has taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Auburn Theological Seminary, Niagara University, and the Advanced Studies in England Program in Bath. Formerly Executive Minister and Head of Communion of the International Council of Community Churches, he has served as the pastor of American Baptist, Congregationalist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Unitarian Universalist, and United Church of Christ congregations in urban, suburban, and rural settings of Massachusetts, Michigan, and New York.
Dr. Murray earned the B.A. in philosophy and religion from Bucknell University, the M.B.A. from Endicott College, the M.Div. from Yale University Divinity School, and the M.Phil. and Ph.D. in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary in New York. A scholar in the fields of Christian theology, religion and the arts, homiletics, and interfaith dialogue, he has published five books in these fields.
The Center for American Progress named Dr. Murray among “16 Faith Leaders to Watch in 2016” for his advocacy on LGBTQ issues before the Michigan legislature. In 2015, the Metropolitan Christian Council of Detroit-Windsor presented him with the Stewart Kerr Ecumenical Award, and in 2017, the Detroit City Council awarded him with a “Spirit of Detroit” Award for his work in religious and spiritual leadership in Detroit. In 2019, Dr. Murray received the Luke Mowbray Ecumenical Award, the highest honor for ecumenical and interfaith ministry awarded by the American Baptist Churches USA. In 2011, he was the subject of an Emmy award-winning episode of EBRU TV’s show PODIUM, focusing on the challenge of moving from debate to dialogue in inter-religious encounter.
Dr. Murray is on the Commission on Interfaith Relations (2020- ) and the Commission on Baptist Doctrine and Christian Unity (2025- ) of the Baptist World Alliance (having served previously on the Commission on Christian Ethics from 2015-2020), and is a member of the Board of Governors for Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. and the Alumni Board of Yale University Divinity School. He previously served on the Governing Board of the National Council of Churches, the Religions Advisory Board of the National Museum for American Religion, and the Board of Directors of the Dwight Hall Center for Public Service and Social Justice at Yale University, the Massachusetts Bible Society, the Massachusetts American Baptist Historical Society, and the Capital Region Theological Center in Albany, New York. He was Co-Chair of the Theologians Commission of the American Baptist Churches USA, served as a member of the international think tank of The Elijah Interfaith Institute in Jerusalem, on the Alumni/ae Council of Union Theological Seminary in New York, was the founding Managing Editor of The Journal of Inter-Religious Studies, and is a past president of the North American Paul Tillich Society.
Dr. Murray lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife, the violinist and conductor Jordan Delphos Murray.