Olli-Pekka Vainio is University Lecturer of Systematic Theology at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Theology. Vainio’s research is focused on following themes: 1) contemporary systematic and analytic theology, 2) theological epistemology, 3) theology of the Reformation and 4) political theology.

In his doctoral dissertation Justification and Participation in Christ. The Development of the Lutheran Doctrine of Justification from Luther to the Formula of Concord (Brill, 2007), Vainio studied various interpretations of justification in Early Lutheranism. His habilitation Beyond Fideism: Negotiable Religious Identities (Ashgate, 2010) focused on the recent discussion on theological method and religious identity.  

Vainio is a Member of Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, where he was a resident scholar in 2008 adn 2016-2017. The latter visit was enabled by the NASA-funded research project on the Societal Implications of Astrobiology. He was a visiting faculty member at the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford (2011-2012) and a member in Philosophical Psychology, Morality and Politics Unit (2008-13), which was one of the National Centres of Excellence in Research funded by the Academy of Finland. He is a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.