William Edgar | |
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| Born | 1944 Wilmington, NC |
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| Occupation(s) | Professor, Author, Theologian, Apologist |
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| Theological work | |
| Era | 20th and 21st century |
| Tradition or movement | Reformed |
William "Bill" Edgar (born 1944 in Wilmington, North Carolina) is an American apologist and was professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary. [1] He has been called by Charles Colson "one of evangelicalism's most valued scholars and apologists". [2]
Edgar grew up in Paris, New York and Geneva. He studied at Harvard University (Honors B.A. in Music 1966), Westminster Theological Seminary (M.Div. 1969), and the University of Geneva (Dr. Théol. 1993). He served as home missionary of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Pennsylvania, 1969–1970. Between 1970 and 1978, he taught at the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Connecticut, and 1979–89 at the Faculté Libre de Théologie Réformée, in Aix-en-Provence, France, where he continues as Professeur Associé.
Since 1989, he has been professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary. He is also coordinator of the Apologetics Department and director of the Gospel and Culture Project. He was chairman of the faculty until 2010. He is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America since 1978. [3]
Edgar is married to Barbara Smyth Edgar. They have two children, William Keyes Hill-Edgar and Deborah Boatwright Edgar.
Edgar is a member of American Musicological Society, the Evangelical Theological Society, the Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship, the American Historical Association and the Society for Ethnomusicology. He is also a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum.
He is president of the Huguenot Fellowship Director of the Gospel & Culture Project and serves on the Institutional Review Board and the Medical Ethics Committee of the Chestnut Hill Hospital. He is a fellow at the Wilberforce Forum and at Colson Center, honors trustee at the Greenwood School, and senior fellow at the Trinity Forum. He is on the editorial advisory committee of La Revue Réformée. He speaks regularly at the Veritas Forum programs. He frequently participates in the China Christian Scholars Association, and often travels to China. He has taught in French-speaking Africa in several countries. [4]
In his books and articles, Edgar has treated topics such as cultural apologetics, the music of Brahms, the Huguenots, and African-American aesthetics.
Edgar is a jazz pianist and regularly performs an evening concert combined with a lecture on the history of jazz. In 2007, it was recorded live on a double-CD, Heaven in a Nightclub, during a benefit concert for Chesterton House, a Center for Christian Studies at Cornell University. The concert and recording feature Edgar, vocalist Ruth Naomi Floyd, saxophonist Joe Salzano, and bassist John Patitucci. His compositions include La Sainte Victoire, which premiered in Aix-en-Provence, June, 2007. He has also set the Psalms to music in an African mode. He manages a professional jazz band, Renewal. [4]
Francis August Schaeffer was an American evangelical theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He co-founded the L'Abri community in Switzerland with his wife Edith Schaeffer, née Seville, a prolific author in her own right. Opposed to theological modernism, Schaeffer promoted what he claimed was a more historic Protestant faith and a presuppositional approach to Christian apologetics, which he believed would answer the questions of the age.
Carl Ferdinand Howard Henry was an American evangelical Christian theologian who provided intellectual and institutional leadership to the neo-evangelical movement in the mid-to-late 20th century. He was ordained in 1942 after graduating from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary and went on to teach and lecture at various schools and publish and edit many works surrounding the neo-evangelical movement. His early book, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (1947), was influential in calling evangelicals to differentiate themselves from separatist fundamentalism and claim a role in influencing the wider American culture. He was involved in the creation of numerous major evangelical organizations that contributed to his influence in Neo-evangelicalism and lasting legacy, including the National Association of Evangelicals, Fuller Theological Seminary, Evangelical Theological Society, Christianity Today magazine, and the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies. The Carl F. H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity International University seek to carry on his legacy. His ideas about Neo-evangelism are still debated to this day and his legacy continues to inspire change in American social and political culture.
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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.
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John Samuel Feinberg is an American theologian, author, and professor of biblical and systematic theology. He is currently listed as Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology (retired) at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is noted for his expertise in theodicy.
Pierre Courthial (1914–2009) was a French pastor and Reformed Church (Calvinist) theologian. His pastoral career was spent in Lyon, La Voulte-sur-Rhône, and Paris. He helped establish theological study centres in France, and in later life completed two volumes of theological writing.
Robert Letham is Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at the Union School of Theology. He is also Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary.
Wilbur Moorehead Smith (1894–1976) was an American theologian and one of the founding members of Fuller Theological Seminary.
Willem A. VanGemeren is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of a number of books, including Interpreting the Prophetic Word (Zondervan) and a commentary on Psalms in the Expositor's Bible Commentary series (Zondervan). He was a senior editor of the five-volume work The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis in which ten essays have been compiled to thoroughly explain proper hermeneutics and Biblical interpretation. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Evangelical Theological Society, and the Institute for Biblical Research.
Gavin R. Ortlund is a writer, theologian, and Christian apologist. Ortlund is the author of eight books and multiple academic articles. He serves as President of Truth Unites, a ministry which seeks to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. He is also Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville.
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