Richard B. Wilke is a retired United Methodist Bishop and the author of Christmas: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (August 2010), an Advent study focusing on Herod, the shepherds and others from the Christmas story.

Jacqueline Hagan is a distinguished professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include religion and migration. She is the author of Migration Miracle: Faith, Hope and Meaning on the Undocumented Journey.

The National Campus Ministry Association is a professional organization for those working in Christian ministry in higher education. It’s based in Charlotte, N.C.

The Department of Pastoral Services at the Duke University Medical Center provides spiritual services for individuals experiencing health crises.

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church evolved from the experience of African slaves in America. It is headquartered in North Carolina.

Diana Jones Wilson is president of Faith Partnerships Inc., a network of congregations based in Raleigh, N.C., that works collaboratively to address issues of poverty.

Jonathan Hess is director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its faculty members are drawn from the humanities and social sciences.

Yaakov Ariel is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Evangelizing the Chosen People: Missions to the Jews in America, 1880–2000, and teaches several courses on contemporary Judaism.

Daniel Malloy teaches philosophy at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. His research focuses on ethics, and he writes frequently about the intersection of pop culture and philosophy. He wrote a chapter on the morality of Spider-Man’s jokes for the book Spider-Man and Philosophy: The Web of Inquiry.