Maximilian J. Hölzl, Ph.D., M.Phil. University of Manchester; M.A., Columbia International University.

‘Non-Conformist Anticipations of Post-Christendom Mission: Exemplified in John Bunyan and John Wesley’ (NTC), 2025. This PhD thesis was written under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Philip R. Meadows, with Rev. Dr. Joseph Wood serving as co-supervisor.

Maximilian also holds an M.A. in Missiology. He pursued studies in Classical Languages (Hebraicum, Graecum, and Latinum) and studied Theology at the Universities of Tübingen, Heidelberg, and Greifswald.

He brings extensive international experience, having presented academic papers, lectured, and preached in the USA, Germany, England, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Lithuania, Turkey, and Nepal. His vocational portfolio includes work as youth and church pastor, church planter, evangelist, PR director, and academic translator.

Maximilian has lectured in Missiology, Practical Theology, Freedom of Religion and Belief, Church History, and New Testament Theology. He served as guest lecturer in distinctive intercultural settings at Nepal Baptist Bible College and Kathmandu Institute of Theology, fostering enduring academic relationships and receiving invitations to return.

He publishes in both English and German. Along with various journal and dictionary articles, a book chapter, and several reviews his first book was released under the title Gemeinde für andere, Kassel: Oncken, 2004.

He is a member of several scholarly communities, such as the International John Bunyan Society (IJBS), Associate Fellow at the Manchester Wesley Research Center (MWRC), the Arbeitskreis für Evangelikale Theologie (AfeT, AG PT), and the Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians (FEET). He also joined a consultation of theologians from five continents to help draft the Bad Urach Statement: Towards an evangelical theology of suffering, persecution, and martyrdom—organised by the IIRF and supported by the WEA and the Lausanne Movement.

His research interests focus on mission in the Post-Christendom and Post-everything era, the Constantinian–Theodosian shift, scriptural nonconformity vs. self-secularisation, English nonconformity, Bunyan and Wesley scholarship, evangelicalism, and the global and historical persecution of Christians.

 Select Publications:

‘Beaumont, Agnes', in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) 50 (Nordhausen: Bautz, ca. 2026/27), columns in preparation.

‘Stott, John Robert Walmsley', in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) 48 (Nordhausen: Bautz, 2025), 1451-1461.

'Wesley, Susanna Annesley', in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) 48 (Nordhausen: Bautz, 2025), 1568-1575.

'Westley, Bartholomew', in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) 48 (Nordhausen: Bautz, 2025), 1576-1580.

'Westley, John', in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) 44 (Nordhausen: Bautz, 2022), 1635-1678.

'Beasley-Murray, George Raymond', in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) 41 (Nordhausen: Bautz, 2020), 115-128.

Review of The Pilgrim's Progress von John Bunyan, by Claus Bernett (Berlin: Edition Graugans, 2015), Bunyan Studies: A Journal of Reformation and Nonconformist Culture 21 (2017), 117-118.

'The Era of Constantine', in Hans Aage Gravaas, T. Engelsviken, M. Kamil, C. Sauer, and K. Jørgensen, eds, Freedom of Belief and Christian Mission, Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series 28 (Oxford: Regnum Books, 2015), 79-92.

'George Whitefield's Reception in Twentieth-Century German-Speaking Theology', in The Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture 2 (2015), 96-105.

'Religious Monopoly and the Loss of Religious Freedom in Christendom', in International Journal for Religious Freedom 7:1/2 (2014),157-173.

Review of John Bunyan: The People's Pilgrim, by Peter Morden (Farnham, Surrey, CWR, 2013), International Journal for Religious Freedom 7:1/2 (2014), 228-229.

'Peters, George W.', in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) 35 (Nordhausen: Bautz, 2014, 1076-1097.

Review of Learning from Willow Creek? Church Services for Seekers in German Milieu Contexts, by Rainer Schacke (Göttingen: Cuvillier, 2009), European Journal of Theology, 21:1 (2012), 86-88.

Review of Freiheit entdecken: Impulse für missionales Christen und Gemeindearbeit, by Michael Frost and Reinhard Brunner (Münster: LIT, 2010), Jahrbuch für Evangelikale Theologie 25 (2011), 374-377.

Co-author and co-translator of 'Bad Urach Statement: Towards an evangelical theology of suffering, persecution and martyrdom for the global church in mission', in Christof Sauer and Richard Howell, eds, Suffering, Persecution and Martyrdom: Theological Reflections (Religious Freedom Series 2), Johannesburg: AcadSA/Bonn: VKW 2010, 27-106. 

Translation of 'Bad Urach Call' into German ('Bad Urach Aufruf'), 2010.

Review of Wie die Kirche wachsen kann und was sie davon abhält, by Peter Böhlemann (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006), Jahrbuch für Evangelikale Theologie 21(2007), 423-425.

Review of Gottesdienste für Kirchendistanzierte by Christian Schwarz (Wuppertal: R. Brockhaus, 2006), Jahrbuch für Evangelikale Theologie 21(2007), 434-435.

Gemeinde für andere: Die Anwendbarkeit der Willow Creek Gemeindeaufbauprinzipien für den Aufbau neuer freikirchlicher Gemeinden im deutschen Kontext (Baptismus-Studien 4), Kassel: Oncken, 2004.

Email: m.hoelzl@t-online.de