Christianity Today has a short piece on Timothy Dalrymple, the editor of my Patheos columns and one of the genius’s behind the rapid growth of this religious website. Here is taste:
After majoring in philosophy and religious studies at Stanford, earning an M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in religion at Harvard, and studying at Oxford as well as two universities in China, Timothy Dalrymple had had enough of academia. So he plunged into the online world at Patheos.com, a growing multireligious website, as manager of its evangelical portal.
In 2010, the multifaith site grew from 15,000 monthly visitors to about half a million with just 11 full-time employees. Most notably, Dalrymple lured North Park University professor Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed blog away from Beliefnet. (McKnight said he thought Patheos “was a better fit—more exclusively directed toward an educated audience.”) Patheos is based in Denver, but Dalrymple, 34, works from his laptop in Atlanta.
“He’s kind of come out of nowhere,” said Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Patheos covers a wide range of topics, but Cromartie particularly notices Dalrymple’s political commentary: “Many young evangelicals spend a lot of time saying, ‘I’m not Dobson, I’m not one of them.’ But [Dalrymple] is a very thoughtful, theologically orthodox, culturally and politically conservative guy. He writes with confidence and boldness that I find bracing and refreshing.”
I REALLY enjoy Dalrymple's contributions at Patheos… he has a good perspective on things and is rather refreshing in that he doesn't take the typical “Republicans are the only true Christians” rhetoric of the typical evangelical.