John Warwick Montgomery (born October 18, 1931) is an American-British lawyer, professor, Lutheran theologian, and author living in France. He was born in Warsaw, New York, United States. Montgomery maintains multiple citizenship in the United States, United Kingdom, and France. From 2014 to 2017, he was Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University, Wisconsin. He is currently Professor-At-Large, 1517: The Legacy Project. He was named Avocat honoraire, Barreau de Paris (2023), after 20 years in French legal practise.[2] He continues to work as a barrister specializing in religious freedom cases in international Human Rights law.[3]
He is chiefly noted for his major contributions as a writer, lecturer, and public debater in the field of Christian apologetics.[4]
From 1995 to 2007 he was a Professor in Law and Humanities at the University of Bedfordshire, England;[5] and from 2007 to 2014, the Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Christian Thought at Patrick Henry College in Virginia, United States.[6] He remains Emeritus Professor at the University of Bedfordshire. He is also the director of the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism & Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and is the editor of the theological online journalGlobal Journal of Classical Theology.[7]
Family
Montgomery's family derives from County Antrim in Ireland. His parents were Maurice Warwick Montgomery (owner of a retail feed company) and Harriet (Smith) Montgomery. His one sibling, a sister, died in 2008. He has three children (two daughters and a son) with his first wife, who is deceased. In 1988, he married Lanalee de Kant, a professional harpist, with whom he has an adopted son and two grandchildren;[8][9] she died in March 2021.[10] Montgomery subsequently married Carol Gracina Maughan in February 2022.[11]
Montgomery became a Christian in 1949 as an undergraduate student majoring in the classics and philosophy at Cornell University.[15] Upon graduation Montgomery then began studies in librarianship through the University of California, followed by two degrees in theology and ordination as a Lutheran clergyman. His M.A. thesis in library science was published by the University of California as A Seventeenth Century View of European Libraries.[16] In 1959–60 he served on the faculty of theology as principal librarian in the divinity school's library at the University of Chicago, while simultaneously undertaking doctoral studies in bibliographical history.[17]
He then served as chairman of the Department of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, where he began to develop a reputation as a Christian apologist. Some of his earliest apologetic lectures in defending the historical reliability of the gospel records were presented at the University of British Columbia and the lectures were subsequently published in his book History and Christianity.[18]
On receiving a Canada Council Senior Research Fellowship, Montgomery commenced doctoral studies in theology at the University of Strasbourg, France. His doctoral dissertation, which was on the life and career of the Lutheran pastor Johannes Valentinus Andreae and his alleged connections with Rosicrucianism, was subsequently published as Cross and Crucible. Montgomery regards this particular text as his most important piece of scholarship.[19]
After completing his Th.D in 1964, Montgomery assumed a post as professor of church history at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois (1964–1974). It was during the 1960s that he emerged as a significant spokesman for Protestant Evangelicals, writing as a regular columnist in the flagship periodical Christianity Today (1965–1983).[20]
Montgomery, since 1965, is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.[27]
During the 1970s, Montgomery began training in the law with the twin aims of reintegrating Christian foundations into jurisprudence, and to integrate insights from legal theory and doctrines of proof relevant to furthering Christian evidentialist apologetics. To that end Montgomery established, in 1980, the Simon Greenleaf School of Law in California, which is now Trinity Law School, the law school of Trinity International University.[28] Montgomery worked as dean and professor from 1980 to 1989. Montgomery was editor of The Simon Greenleaf Law Review, which was published in seven volumes between 1981 and 1987.[29] Montgomery resigned his post as dean and professor in 1989, under a cloud of controversy [30] The same year, Montgomery and Michael Richard Smythe founded the Irvine, California-based Institute for Theology and Law which, in 1995, became the current International Academy of Apologetics and Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.[31] In 1991, Montgomery relocated to London, where he became a Barrister-at-Law,[32] wrote widely on apologetics, defended international cases of religious freedom, and taught at the University of Bedfordshire.[5] In 2009, Montgomery passed the French bar examinations and became an avocat à la Cour, barreau de Paris; he is a member of the Paris law firm of Noual Hadjaje Duval.[33]
Montgomery researched the claims of evidence for Noah's Ark for two years. His quest took him through two thousand years of reports, sightings, and claims, and on two ascents of Mount Ararat: in August 1970 on the South Face and in summer 1971 on the North Face. His effort to collect data and sift fact from fiction yielded his work "The Quest for Noah's Ark". In the introduction he writes that he merely presents the facts and allows the readers to come to their own conclusions.[36] He was a contributing scholar on two film documentaries on the topic: "Noah's Ark and the Genesis Flood" (1977) and "In Search of Noah's Ark" (1976).[37]
Montgomery's interests in the occult has also yielded his studies on early Rosicrucianism (Cross and Crucible), demonic phenomena (Demon Possession), and analytic considerations of the occult as a spiritual search for truth (Principalities and Powers).[38] In the 1980s, he spent eight years as a Sunday evening radio broadcaster in California, and from 1988 to 1992, as a television presenter of "Christianity on Trial".[39]
In his legal career Montgomery, in addition to teaching law, has practiced law in California, been admitted to the English bar as a barrister, been licensed in France, taken higher degrees in ecclesiastical law at Cardiff University,[40] and served as Director of Studies for the International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg (1979–81). He has written on legal-moral problems such as cryonics, stem-cell research, euthanasia, abortion, and divorce, as well as arguing for a transcendental perspective in international human rights and jurisprudence. He has successfully represented clients in religious liberty cases before the Court of Appeals (1986) in Athens, Greece, and the European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg (1997 and 2001).[3][41][42][43][44]
John Warwick Montgomery manuscript collection established at Syracuse University Library, 1970, but this archive has now been transferred to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
John Warwick Montgomery, The Altizer-Montgomery Dialogue (Chicago: InterVarsity Press, 1967).
Christ as Centre and Circumference: Essays Theological, Cultural and Polemic (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2012). ISBN978-1-62032-519-3
Christ Our Advocate: Studies in Polemical Theology, Jurisprudence and Canon Law (Bonn, Germany: Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft/Culture and Science Publishers, 2002). ISBN3-932829-40-9
(ed.) Christianity for the Tough-Minded (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1973). ISBN0-87123-079-8
and C. E. B. Cranfield & David Kilgour, Christians in the Public Square: Law, Gospel & Public Policy (Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute for Law, Theology and Public Policy, 1996). ISBN1-896363-05-9
Chytraeus on Sacrifice: A Reformation Treatise in Biblical Theology (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1962). ISBN0-570-03747-6
Ecumenicity, Evangelicals and Rome (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1969).
(ed.) Evidence for Faith: Deciding the God Question (Dallas: Probe Ministries, 1991). ISBN0-945241-15-1
Faith Founded On Fact: Essays in Evidential Apologetics (Nashville & New York: Thomas Nelson, 1978). ISBN0-8407-5641-0
Fighting the Good Fight: A Life in Defense of the Faith (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2016). ISBN978-1-4982-8234-5
Giant in Chains: China Today and Tomorrow (Milton Keynes, UK: Word, 1994). ISBN0-85009-550-6
(ed). God's Inerrant Word (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1974). ISBN0-87123-179-4
Heraldic Aspects of the German Reformation (Bonn, Germany: Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft/Culture and Science Publishers, 2003). ISBN3-932829-83-2
History, Law and Christianity (Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute for Law, Theology and Public Policy, 2003). A revised and expanded version of History and Christianity (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1971).
How Do We Know There Is A God? (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1973). ISBN0-87123-221-9
Human Rights and Human Dignity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986). ISBN0-310-28571-2
In Defense of Martin Luther (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing, 1970).
(ed). International Scholars Directory (Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1975).
The 'Is God Dead?' Controversy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1966).
(ed). Jurisprudence: A Book of Readings (Strasbourg: International Scholarly Publishers, 1974).
The Law Above the Law (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, Minnesota, 1975). ISBN0-87123-329-0
Law and Gospel: A Study in Jurisprudence (Oak Park, Illinois: Christian Legal Society, 1978).
"The Marxist Approach to Human Rights: Analysis and Critique" in The Simon Greenleaf Law Review 3 (1983–84).
(ed.) Myth, Allegory and Gospel (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1974). ISBN0-87123-358-4
Principalities and Powers (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1973). ISBN0-87123-470-X
The Quest for Noah's Ark 2nd edition (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1974). ISBN0-87123-477-7
The Repression of Evangelism in Greece: European Litigation vis-à-vis a Closed Religious Establishment (Lanham, New York & Oxford: University Press of America, 2001). ISBN0-7618-1956-8
A Seventeenth-Century View of European Libraries: Lomeier's De bibliothecis, Chapter X (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1962).
The Shape of the Past (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1962; rev. ed. 1975). ISBN0-87123-535-8
The Shaping of America (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1976). ISBN0-87123-227-8
The Slaughter of the Innocents (Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1981). ISBN0-89107-216-0
Situation Ethics: True or False (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1972). ISBN0-87123-525-0
The Suicide of Christian Theology (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1970). ISBN0-87123-521-8
The Transcendent Holmes (Ashcroft, British Columbia: Calabash Press, 2000). ISBN1-55310-013-1
Tractatus Logico-Theologicus (Bonn, Germany: Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft/Culture and Science Publishers, 2003). ISBN3-932829-80-8
Where Is History Going? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1969).
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1 2 3 Ten Old Square, London, England Archived 2019-02-21 at the Wayback Machine locate by Directory, also Ten Old Square, Lincoln's Inn Chambers of Leolin Price CBE QC
↑ William Dembski and Thomas Schirrmacher eds. Tough-Minded Christianity: Honoring the Legacy of John Warwick Montgomery, Nashville, Tennessee: B & H Publishing Group, 2008. ISBN978-0-8054-4783-5
1 2 Marquis Who's Who biographies updated 30 May 2011: Who's Who in Finance and Business, 31st Edition; Who's Who in the World, 8th through 27th Editions; Who's Who in American Law, 4th through 14th, 16th Editions; Who's Who in America, 44th through 47th, 51st through 65th Editions. Lexis Nexus access date 06 Aug 2011.
↑ Cornell Daily Sun, vol. 68, Issue 181, 06 June 1952, p. 10, baccalaureate candidate announcements.
↑ Rudolf Hirsch, Review of A Seventeenth-Century View of European Libraries, Library Quarterly 33 (1963): 23-224.
↑ James R. Moore, "John Warwick Montgomery" in Christianity for the Tough-Minded, Montgomery ed. Minneapolis: Bethany, 1974, 291.
↑ See Ross Clifford, Leading Lawyers' Case for the Resurrection, Edmonton: Canadian Institute for Law, Theology & Public Policy, 1996, 30. Craig J. Hazen, "Ever Hearing but Never Understanding": A Response to Mark Hutchins's Critique of John Warwick Montgomery's Historical Apologetics" in Tough-Minded Christianity, Dembski & Schirrmacher eds. 22. Also refer to Montgomery, History and Christianity, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1979, 5.
↑ Philip Johnson, "To Every Occultist an Answer: Assessing John Warwick Montgomery's Apologetic Critique of the Occult," in Tough-Minded Christianity, Dembski & Schirrmacher eds., 176.
↑ Montgomery's Christianity Today Articles are referenced in Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Vol. 28, p. 766; Vol. 29, p. 782; Vol. 31, p. 752; Vol. 32, p. 768; Vol. 33, p. 700; Vol. 34, p. 713; Vol. 35 p. 710; Vol. 36 p. 718; Vol. 37, p. 732; Vol. 38, p. 883; Vol. 38, p. 897; Vol. 40, p. 986; Vol. 41, p. 1057; Vol. 42, p.1017, H. W. Wilson Co., New York, 1968–83.
↑ L. Russ Bush, "Preventing Theological Suicide: John Warwick Montgomery's Quest in the 1970s," in Tough-Minded Christianity, Dembski & Schirrmacher eds., 113–124. David R. Liefeld, "Lutheran Orthodoxy and Evangelical Ecumenicity in the Writings of John Warwick Montgomery," Westminster Theological Journal 50 (1988): 110–111. Kurt E. Marquart, Anatomy of An Explosion: A Theological Analysis of the Missouri Synod Conflict, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978, 117.
↑ Dr. John Warwick Montgomery debated Madalyn Murray O'Hair on live Chicago radio broadcast, 1967.
↑ Dr. John Warwick Montgomery debated Joseph Fletcher, at San Diego State University, February 11, 1971.
↑ Dr. John Warwick Montgomery debated Mark Plummer, in Sydney, Australia, February 14, 1986.
↑ Dr. John Warwick Montgomery debated Dr. George A. Wells, in London, England, February 10, 1993.
↑ Primary source recordings of, and information about the actual Montgomery debates Canadian Institute for Law, Theology and Public PolicyArchived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine These debates are discussed in Dallas K. Miller, "The Role of Public Debate in Apologetics" in Tough-Minded Christianity, Dembski & Schirrmacher eds., 452–477.
↑ Ross Clifford, John Warwick Montgomery's Legal Apologetic: An Apologetic for all Seasons, Bonn: Verlag fur Kultur und Wissenschaft, 2004, 40–46. Kenneth D. Boa & Robert M. Bowman, Faith Has Its Reasons: An Integrative Approach to Defending Christianity, Colorado Springs: NAV Press, 2001, 167–169.
↑ Gary Habermas,"Evidential Apologetic Methodology: The Montgomery-Bahnsen Debate", p. 426ff, in Dembski & Schirrmacher eds. Tough-Minded Christianity, 426ff. Boa & Bowman, Faith Has Its Reasons, 194–196.
↑ The Quest for Noah's Ark, Bethany Fellowship, 1972, 2nd edition, Pyramid, 1974.
↑ Case of Larissis & others v Greece European Commission and Court of Human Rights 140/1996/759-761/958
↑ Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia & others v Moldova ECHR 45701/1999 (judgment 13.12.01)
↑ Terry Carter, "Fighting on foreign soil, religious right groups prepare for European legal battles" American Bar Association Journal, June 1998, Vol.84, p.32.
↑ Staff Writer, "Un american pe frontul romano-rus" Romanian Global News, Bucuesti, Romania, Friday, 23 March 2007. Extensive interview in Romanian with Dr. John Warwick Montgomery on the case of Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia & others v Moldova ECHR 45701/1999, and receiving the Patriarchal medal.Romanian Global NewsArchived 2012-04-22 at the Wayback Machine
↑ Montgomery's articles in these various journals are listed by Will Moore, "Bibliography" in Tough-Minded Christianity, Dembski & Schirrmacher eds, 704–734.
Kenneth D. Boa and Robert M. Bowman, Jr.Faith Has Its Reasons: An Integrative Approach to Defending Christianity (NAV Press, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2001). ISBN1-57683-143-4
David R. Liefeld, "Lutheran Orthodoxy and Evangelical Ecumenicity in the Writings of John Warwick Montgomery," Westminster Theological Journal 50 (1988) pp.103–126. ISSN0043-4388
Liviu, Damian, "John Warwick Montgomery: şi necesitatea istoriei în susţinerea adevărului teologic; Tratat de epistemologie teologică evidenţialistă" (thesis defended at the Baptist Theological Faculty, University of Bucharest, Romania, June, 2007).
James Lutzweiler, "The Papers, Pulse, Person, Pictures, and Porpoise of John Warwick Montgomery (Special Collections Interest Group)," American Theological Library Association 2006 Proceedings, 68-70.
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