Jordan Baker has a M.M. in musicology and a Ph.D. in philosophy, both from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His musicological work focuses on how the stabilization of Gregorian chant modes in the early Middle Ages was an intentional project for unifying Western Christian identity. Similarly, his philosophical work focuses on individuals’ identity as agents and the nature of mental actions. These academic concerns with identity formation now inform his vocational discernment for ordained ministry in the Lutheran Church (ELCA). At the ISM he hopes to explore how liturgical practices shape people’s sense of agency, especially communal agency.
