Arthur B. Dobrin is the leader emeritus of the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island and a professor of humanities at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. He teaches courses in ethical education, personal ethics and religious ethics. His books include, as author, Ethics for Everyone: How to Improve Your Moral Intelligence (John Wiley & Sons, 2002).

Michael Gomez is a history professor at New York University with a focus on the African diaspora. He wrote Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas (Cambridge University Press, 2005), which deals in part with Noble Drew Ali, Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam.

Richard Barrett is the United Nations Coordinator of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Implementation Monitoring Team, also known as the al-Qaeda and Taliban Monitoring Team. Barrett advises the Security Council on the threat posed by al-Qaeda.

Michael Plekon is professor of religion and culture at City University of New York in New York City. He wrote a chapter titled “The Russian Religious Revival and Its Theological Legacy” in The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology (2008).

Peter C. Bouteneff is a professor of systematic theology at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y. He is interested in popular culture and has worked for the World Council of Churches. He wrote the article “All Creation in United Thanksgiving: Gregory of Nyssa and the Wesleys on Salvation” in the book Orthodox and Wesleyan Spirituality.

The Rev. Patrick Lynch is chair of the religious studies department at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y. He is a Jesuit priest and has taught courses on Catholic social ethics, religion & politics and the Jesuits.

Cris Beam, an adjunct assistant professor of creative writing at Columbia University in New York City, wrote Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers (Harcourt, January 2007). Read a Jan. 5, 2007, Salon.com article.

Veselin Kesich is professor emeritus of the New Testament at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, N.Y.

Aristotle Papanikolaou is Archbishop Demetrios Professor of Orthodox Theology and Culture and Senior Fellow and co-founder of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University in the Bronx, N.Y.