March 06, 2024
WBS Announces Robert A.J. Gagnon will be Visiting Scholar in 2024-2025 academic year
Dr. Robert Gagnon, the leading expert in biblical sexual ethics, will serve as a visiting scholar starting in the Fall Semester of 2024, teaching courses through Wesley Biblical Seminary along with other activities.
Gagnon is known the world over for being the foremost expert in the Bible’s view of homosexual practice, having risked his career to defend the historic scriptural view in a mainline denominational context while others kept silent. His book, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Text and Hermeneutics, is considered the definitive work on the topic, along with his over 23 scholarly articles and presentations, and he continues to be a key voice in the contemporary debates on human sexuality. He is currently working to complete Speaking the Truth in Love, a book that will both update and popularize his research on homosexuality and transgenderism in the Bible. Dr. Gagnon is also working on a book about the most important passages in the Bible.
Dr. Gagnon has degrees from Dartmouth College (B.A.), Harvard Divinity School (M.T.S.), and Princeton Theological Seminary (Ph.D.). He has been a passionate teacher of Scripture for thirty years, first at Middlebury College, then for 23 years at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and for the past 5 years at Houston Christian University and Seminary.
“We are honored to have Robert partner with us, and excited that our students will have an opportunity to study with him,” said Dr. Andy Miller, Vice President of Academic Affairs. “He has been an exemplar of clarity of biblical interpretation as a scholar, and a shining light for truth in our culture. Every Christian leader in our times is being pressed to effectively teach, defend, and pastorally apply biblical sexual ethics, so this is a critical subject for those seeking to be equipped for ministry today.”
“Every Christian leader in our times is being pressed to effectively teach, defend, and pastorally apply biblical sexual ethics.”
Last year, Gagnon worked with WBS to publish an online response to megachurch pastor Andy Stanley’s position on human sexuality. He also participated in a scholarly conference at WBS convened to address the question, of whether human sexuality is merely a debatable issue about which Christians can disagree or an essential matter of orthodox faith and practice. As a visiting scholar, WBS will work with Gagnon to provide similar scholarly conferences, seminars, or discussions, in addition to teaching.
“Since our classes are always available online,” explained Miller, “his classes will be available to students everywhere, as well as those who might wish to audit a course with him.” Gagnon will teach on The Bible and Sexuality in the Fall Semester of 2024, followed by a course in biblical exegesis in the Spring Semester of 2025.
Visiting Scholars at WBS are members of another institution or independent researchers who hold a terminal degree and are considered experts in their field. They are appointed for periods of one year, which may be renewed. Dr. Gagnon was “enthusiastically and unanimously approved” by the WBS faculty for this appointment after an interview determining his alignment with our core values of biblical inerrancy and the transformed life of holiness.