LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–James Parker III has been named professor of worldview and culture at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Parker, 50, will also serve as associate dean of the newly created Worldview and Culture division of the School of Theology. He is the fourth professor named to lead one of the new divisions of the theology school. The other three associate deans recently appointed are Daniel Block, Scripture and Interpretation; Bruce Ware, Theology and Tradition; and Hershael York, Ministry and Proclamation.
“Dr. Jim Parker is one of America’s leading scholars in the defense of the Christian faith and in our engagement with the culture,” President R. Albert Mohler, Jr. said. “He brings a national reputation and his genius for collaboration among evangelical scholars. A committed Southern Baptist, he will lead the new division of Worldview and Culture as we enter a new millennium.”
Parker joins noted author Ronald Nash, whom Mohler has called “one of the premier apologists in the world,” in the Worldview and Culture division.
Parker, a native of Abilene, Texas, has served as founder and director of The Trinity Institute since 1991. It is a study center which equips people to understand and to articulate the Christian worldview and to apply it to their lives. Since 1993, he also has been volunteer coordinator of the Religious and Theological Studies Fellowship of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. In this position he edited “Foundations,” an international theological journal with a circulation of about 5,000.
Parker hopes the Worldview and Culture division will “help teach people to think Christianly and biblically in every area of reality, not just in the theological disciplines,” he said. “We want to equip people to help shape culture in a way that honors Christ.”
Prior to his tenure with The Trinity Institute, Parker was professor of theology and New Testament at Criswell College in Dallas, associate professor of philosophy and religion at Dallas Baptist University and assistant professor of theology at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Parker also has taught at McMurry College in Abilene and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.
Parker earned a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University in 1970, a master of arts degree in biblical studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1971, a master of divinity degree (1973) and a master of theology degree (1974) from Princeton Theological Seminary and a doctor of theology degree from Basel University in Basel, Switzerland, in 1976.
He has written numerous articles for such publications as “Christianity Today” and “Criswell Theological Review.”
