W. Robert Godfrey | |
---|---|
Born | 1945 |
Nationality | American |
Education | Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary Stanford University |
Occupation(s) | Professor, seminary president, author, minister |
Notable work | An Unexpected Journey, God's Pattern for Creation, Pleasing God in Our Worship |
Spouse | Mary Ellen |
Theological work | |
Tradition or movement | Reformed |
Main interests | Church history |
W. Robert Godfrey is a minister in the United Reformed Churches in North America and formerly served as the third president of Westminster Seminary California. As of 2017 he is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history. He currently is chairman of Ligonier Ministries, located in Sanford, Florida, a position he took over from the late Dr. R. C. Sproul. [1]
He has taught at Westminster Seminary California since 1981 and previously taught at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, as well as Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Stanford University. He is a council member of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, an organization of pastors and theologians from the Baptist, Presbyterian, Reformed, Anglican, Congregational, and Lutheran church communities. He has been a speaker at many theological conferences, including those sponsored by the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, Ligonier Ministries, and the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. [2]
Godfrey earned his Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts and PhD from Stanford University.
Godfrey grew up in Alameda, California, where his father and grandfather each served as mayor. [3] [4] He was introduced to Calvinism when he was a teenager. [5] He lives in California with his wife Mary Ellen, with whom he has three grown children, who also reside in California. [6]
In 2010 a Festschrift was published in his honor. Always Reformed: Essays in Honor of W. Robert Godfrey included contributions from R. Scott Clark, Sinclair B. Ferguson, D. G. Hart, Michael S. Horton, Richard Muller, R. C. Sproul, and David VanDrunen.
Books written by Godfrey include the following:
He has written chapters or articles for the following books:
Godfrey has also written articles for journals such as the Westminster Theological Journal , Archive for Reformation History , and Sixteenth-Century Journal .
Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS) is an evangelical seminary with its main campus in Hamilton, Massachusetts, and three other campuses in Boston, Massachusetts; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Jacksonville, Florida. According to the Association of Theological Schools, Gordon-Conwell ranks as one of the largest evangelical seminaries in North America in terms of total number of full-time students enrolled.
Michael Scott Horton is an American theologican who is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California. He is a scholar and theologian, having written and edited more than forty books and contributed to various encyclopedias, including the Oxford Handbook of Reformed Theology and Brill’s Encyclopedia of Christianity.
The Cambridge Declaration is a statement of faith written in 1996 by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, a group of Reformed and Lutheran Evangelicals who were concerned with the state of the Evangelical movement in America, and throughout the world.
Robert Charles Sproul was an American Reformed theologian, Christian apologist, and ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America. He was the founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries, and could be heard daily on the Renewing Your Mind radio broadcast in the United States and internationally. Under Sproul's direction, Ligonier Ministries produced the Ligonier Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, which would eventually grow into the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. Along with Norman Geisler, Sproul was one of the chief architects of the statement. Sproul has been described as "the greatest and most influential proponent of the recovery of Reformed theology in the last century."
Sinclair Buchanan Ferguson is a Scottish theologian known in Reformed Christian circles for his teaching, writing, and editorial work. He has been Chancellor's Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary since 2017, commuting from Scotland, where he was an assistant minister at St. Peter's Free Church of Scotland, Dundee. He is currently a preaching associate at Trinity Church, Aberdeen.
Westminster Seminary California is a Reformed and Presbyterian Christian seminary in Escondido, California. It was initially a branch campus of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia until 1982 when it became fully independent. It has 13 full-time faculty members and enrolls approximately 155 full-time students.
Covenant Theological Seminary, informally called Covenant Seminary, is the denominational seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Located in Creve Coeur, Missouri, it trains people to work as leaders in church positions and elsewhere, especially as pastors, missionaries, and counselors. It does not require all students to be members of the PCA, but it is bound to promote the teachings of its denomination. Faculty must subscribe to the system of biblical doctrine outlined in the Westminster Standards.
John Henry Gerstner was an American Reformed and Presbyterian theologian and professor of Church History at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Knox Theological Seminary. He was an expert on the life and theology of Jonathan Edwards.
Robert Scott Clark is an American Reformed pastor and seminary professor. He is the author of several books, including his most recent work, Recovering the Reformed Confession.
Robert Craig Sproul, better known as R. C. Sproul Jr., is an American Calvinist writer, theologian, and pastor, and the son of R. C. Sproul.
Ligonier Ministries is an international Christian discipleship organization headquartered in the greater Orlando, Florida area. Ligonier was founded in 1971 by R. C. Sproul in the Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh. Ligonier is distinguished by its teaching of Reformed theology.
Bryan Chapell is an American pastor and theologian who currently serves as the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in America. He was previously the senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois. Prior to that he was president and chancellor of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri for twenty years. Chapell is also an author, lecturer, and conference speaker specializing in homiletics. He served as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in America in 2014.
Darryl G. Hart is an American religious and social historian.
Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. is a Calvinist theologian, Presbyterian minister, and was the Charles Krahe Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1999 to 2008. He became the Professor Emeritus, Biblical and Systematic Theology in 2008.
Roger R. Nicole was a native Swiss Reformed Baptist theologian and proponent of Christian egalitarianism and biblical inerrancy. He was an associate editor for the New Geneva Study Bible, assisted in the translation of the New International Version, and was a founding member of both the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy and the Evangelical Theological Society, serving as president of the latter in 1956.
Derek W. H. Thomas is a Reformed pastor and theologian known for his teaching, writing and editorial work. He retired in December, 2023 as the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, South Carolina. He is currently serving as interim preacher at First Presbyterian Church in Yazoo City, MS. He continues as distinguished visiting professor of systematic and historical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia.
Paul Chang-Ha Lim an American ecclesiastical historian who serves as professor of church history at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. His main research involves the intellectual history and historical theology of Reformation and post-Reformation England.