Renowned Theologian And Author To Join Baylor's Truett Seminary As Distinguished Professor Of Theology
One of the top evangelical theologians, scholars and authors in North America, Dr. Stanley J. Grenz, will join the faculty of Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary this fall as Distinguished Professor of Theology, as announced today by Dr. Donald D. Schmeltekopf, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
"Without a doubt, Stan Grenz is one of the very top Baptist theologians in the world today. Indeed, he is a top theologian period," Dr. Schmeltekopf said. "I am ecstatic about his coming to Baylor and contributing not only to the education of future ministers and theologians, but also to the very best theological scholarship."
Grenz's primary teaching responsibilities will be at Truett Seminary. He also will work with Baylor's department of religion and its doctoral program.
"The position at Baylor provides me the opportunity to participate in the life of a Christian university, and a theological school on the campus of a university, with a venerable past and a promising future," Grenz said. "I am gratified by Baylor 2012, the university's bold 10-year vision, which embodies a faith-based, communally-pursued, life-directed, excellence-encouraging, integratively-oriented educational vision. I believe that we are living in an opportune time to rekindle the ideal of the true university that has been shared by a great legacy of Christian educators. This vision arises from the realization that the intellectual endeavor is ultimately 'faith seeking understanding,' and hence that intense faithfulness to the Christian tradition fosters, rather than deprecates, intellectual excellence."
Raised in the home of a Baptist minister, Grenz comes to Truett Seminary from Vancouver, British Columbia, where he was the Pioneer McDonald Professor of Baptist Heritage, Theology and Ethics at Carey Theological College, and professor of theology and ethics at Regent College. Grenz is a 1973 graduate with distinction of the University of Colorado, where he was inducted as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his master's of divinity degree with honors from Denver Seminary in 1976 and four years later completed his doctorate in theology magna cum laude from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany, where he studied under theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg.
Grenz is the author or co-author of 23 books, including The Social God and the Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei and Renewing the Center: Evangelical Theology in a Post-Theological Era. Two of his books, Who Needs Theology? and the award-winning 20th Century Theology: God and the World in a Transitional Age, were co-written with Dr. Roger E. Olson, professor of theology at Truett Seminary. Grenz also has published more than 100 essays and 80 book reviews in journals, such as Christianity Today, the Christian Century, Christian Scholar's Review, Journal of Church and State, Theology Today and the Journal of Ecumenical Studies. He has been included in two editions of Who's Who in Religion, as well as in the 2002 edition of Who's Who in U.S. Writers, Editors and Poets.
Before joining Regent College and Carey Theological College in 1990, Grenz was professor of systematic theology and Christian ethics at the North American Baptist Seminary for nine years. He also carried an additional appointment from 1996-99 as professor of theology and ethics at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Ill. He received a Fulbright Grant for sabbatical study in Munich from 1987-88 and a Theological Research Fellowship awarded by the Association of Theological Schools in 1993. In 1999, he was named a fellow with the Henry Luce III Fellowship in Theology program, the first scholar at a Canadian institution to receive the grant.
An ordained minister, Grenz served as youth director and assistant pastor from 1971-76 at Northwest Baptist Church in Denver, pastor of Rowandale Baptist Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, from 1979-81, and interim pastor on three occasions. While in the pastorate, he taught courses at the University of Winnipeg and at Winnipeg Theological Seminary, now Providence Seminary. He has preached and lectured in numerous churches, colleges, universities and seminaries in North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia.
Grenz has served as president of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion and as a member of the national board of the American Academy of Religion, the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and the steering committee of the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association. He currently participates in both the Doctrine Commission and the Theological Education Committee of the Baptist World Alliance, is a consulting editor of Christianity Today and sits on the advisory boards of several publishing companies and Christian organizations.
Grenz's wife, Edna, a Vancouver native, serves as minister of worship at First Baptist Church of Vancouver. They have two children, Joel and Corina.