Ben Witherington III

Ben Witherington III (born December 30, 1951) is an American Wesleyan-Arminian New Testament scholar. Witherington is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, a Wesleyan-Holiness seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church.

Biography

Witherington was born on December 30, 1951, in High Point, North Carolina.Template:Sfn He is son of Ben, a banker and Joyce West, a piano teacher.Template:Sfn On June 1, 1977, Witherington married Ann E. Sears, an educator. He had two children, Christy Ann and David Benjamin.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On January 11, 2012, Witherington's daughter died of a pulmonary embolism.Template:Sfn

Witherington attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn along with minors in Philosophy and Religious Studies.Template:Sfn He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (1977) and a Ph.D. from Durham University in England (1981).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Career

From 1984 to 1995 he was professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He is currently "Jean R. Amos" Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary (1995-)Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Witherington has also taught at Vanderbilt University, and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland.Template:Sfn

From 1982 to 1983 he had been a faculty member of the Duke Divinity SchoolTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and the High Point College. In 1988, 1990, 1992, he was a visiting professor of the Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary. He was a research fellow (1992), and member (1996) at Robinson College, Cambridge University.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Society for the Study of the New TestamentTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and the Institute for Biblical Research.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In 1982, he was ordained as a Methodist elder.Template:Sfn Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings in the United States, England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia.Template:Sfn He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.Template:Sfn His books The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest were selected as top biblical studies works by the Evangelical magazine Christianity Today.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E and PAX Network.Template:Sfn He was featured in the BBC and PBS special entitled The Story of Jesus.Template:Sfn

Theology

Witherington is a prominent evangelical scholar.Template:Sfn He is Wesleyan Armininan in his theology.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In The Problem with Evangelical Theology Witherington strongly challenges the exegetical foundation of Calvinism on each of its distinctive tenets.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He often insists on the possibility of apostasy of the believer and the related doctrine of conditional preservation of the saints (conditional security).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He generally refers to the character of God, the nature of his grace and his love as a justification for his soteriology.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He is also a devout pacifist.Template:Sfn

Selected works

Books

Witherington has written over sixty books.

Articles

Witherington has written articles in different journals as: Ashland Theological Journal, Bible Q & A, Beliefnet, Bible Review, Biblical Archaeology Review, Christian History, Christianity Today, Journal of Biblical Literature, New Testament Studies, North Carolina Christian Advocate, Quarterly Review, Tyndale Bulletin, UM Publishing House.Template:Sfn

External links

• Ben Witherington III introduction website
• Ben Witherington on Patheos
• Ben Witherington on Beliefnet
• Ben Witherington on Seedbed