Daniel Sihombing is Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Pilgrim Theological College. He was born and raised in Indonesia and is a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church in Australia.

Daniel’s teaching and research are very much informed by his experience living on the other side of empire and his commitment to the liberation of the Global South, as a prerequisite for the wider liberation across the globe. He is committed to the nurturing of dialectical thinking through his teaching and research, where discussions of theological thoughts are not abstracted from concrete socio-historical dynamic and where competing historical praxes in theological reflections are critically examined, with a view towards the totality of social relations and contradictions.

Daniel’s PhD on the contextual-liberative reading of Karl Barth’s theology of evil in engagement with three Indonesian theologians is from the Protestant Theological University, Netherlands. It is now being revised and prepared for monograph publication. Other topics of research more recently include the Uniting Church in Australia’s Basis of Union, José Míguez Bonino’s liberation theology, Indonesian ecofeminist Christology, and liberation theology’s engagement with Marx’s critique of religion.

Daniel is part of the International Network on Theology in the Capitalocene. He is the Book Review Editor of Critical Research on Religion journal.

Since joining Pilgrim in 2025, he has taught Jesus, Discipleship and Justice; Christianity’s Big Ideas; Trinity, Society and Solidarity; and co-taught Uniting Church History and Theology and The Cracking of Christendom: Theological Issues of the Reformation. In 2027, he will teach Jesus, Discipleship and Justice and Christianity’s Big Ideas, and co-teach Uniting Church History and Theology and Asian Theologies.

Daniel has written for a number of media in Indonesia, such as Tirto, IndoProgress, Islam Bergerak, and Suara Papua, on the theme of Christianity and emancipatory politics. For a few years he was part of the core editorial team of IndoProgress, a major socialist media in Indonesia.

Daniel is a Fellow at The Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy. He is currently a member of the UCA Assembly Continuing Witness Task Group. Prior to his appointment at Pilgrim, he has served in Monash Uniting Church, Korean Church of Melbourne, and Caulfield Indonesian Uniting Church.

University Appointments

Lecturer in Systematic Theology (Pilgrim Theological College)
HDR supervisor (Pilgrim Theological College)