Asbury Theological Seminary

Larry Wood, Frank Paul Morris Professor of Systematic Theology at Asbury Seminary, has written two scholarly articles that will be published in The Wesleyan Theological Journal. 

"The Need for a Contextual Interpretation of Wesley's Sermons," The Wesleyan Theological Journal Volume 45, No. 1 (Spring 2010). In this article, Wood shows that Wesley's theology underwent significant development--that one must not confuse Wesley's mature theology of his later years simply with the theology of his earliest sermons and writings. Wesley was a reformer and he functioned like a trailblazer, who helped to stake out the path in helping us to understand the way of salvation. The Scriptures were the foundation of Wesley's theology, but he believed experience confirmed or disconfirmed one's understanding of doctrines contained in the Scriptures. Wesley's own experience helped him to develop new nuances of understanding. His openness to new insights means one must respect the fact that Wesley did not intend to be an academic theologian, but he was an evangelist who wrote out of the practical needs of his burgeoning Methodist movement. Wood also argues this is one of the enduring insights of Wesleyan theology--theology is best done in the context of real life and the believing community. Wood also offers a critique of Wesley scholars who treat Wesley as if he were a Protestant scholastic and fail to take adequate notice of Wesley's developing theology out of the learning experiences of his ministry.

"Divine Omniscience: Boethius or Open Theism?" The Wesleyan Theological Journal, Volume 45, No. 2 (Fall 2010). This article explores the meaning of human freedom and God's foreknowledge--considering whether or not these ideas are in conflict. This is a hot topic in Evangelical circles, and Wood defends the historical view (as also defended by John Wesley) that God's eternity is the "instant" moment of the past, present, and future, and what God knows of our future is caused by what will be as opposed to the idea that God's knowledge causes it to happen. So God's omniscient knowledge is not in conflict with human freedom. Wood uses space-time relativity theory to show that the concept of the instant moment is an intelligible idea--by illustrating it from Einstein's theory of time dilation.

Dr. Bill Arnold, Paul S. Amos Professor of Old Testament Interpretation, has received a substantial Lilly Faculty Fellowship for 2010-2011. According to Dr. Carol E. Lytch, assistant executive director of The Association of Theological Schools, Dr. Arnold "as a holder of this grant, ... join(s) a distinguished group of scholars that has provided theological studies with fresh insights, strong leadership, and significant contributions to the academy, the church and the wider audience of the general public."

Dr. Leslie A. Andrews, provost, states, "Bill's recognition as one of today's bright, leading Old Testament scholars brings honor not only to himself but also to Asbury Seminary. Congratulations, Bill!"  

Dr. Leslie A. Andrews is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Russell W. West as the Associate Dean of the Beeson International Center for Biblical Preaching and Church Leadership.  West will help oversee each area of the Center’s mission to bridge Asbury Seminary to the global Church. Those areas include the doctor of ministry programs, the center for lay ministry, the center for lifelong learning, our extension campuses and our research and development work supporting pastoral leaders. 



West is currently the holder of the Ira L. Gallaway Professor of Leadership Development for Mission and Evangelism chair. He received a B.S. from Southeastern University, 1987; a M.A. from Old Dominion University, 1988; a M.A. from Regent University School of Divinity, 1988; and a Ph.D. from Regent University School of Communication and the Arts, 1997.  After eight years of leading doctoral programs in leadership and mentoring doctoral students through their dissertations, more than 75 Ph.D. and D.Min. completed dissertations, at Regent University’s Center for Leadership Studies and School of Divinity (Virginia Beach, VA), West joined the faculty of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism. He was the 2002 Teacher of the Year at Regent University’s School of Divinity.  West will continue to serve as professor of leadership education.

West is an organizational and leadership development consultant and coach for executive and emerging leaders. He co-founded several organizations including Leadership Training International and The Leadership Emergence Group International.  He has also served as staff pastor in areas of ministry and leadership development in several churches throughout his career. West and his wife, Jeri, have one son.

Dr. Tom Tumbiln, Dean of the Center, said, "Russell will bring exceptional leadership instincts, an engaging academic prowess and a contagious love for Christ's Church to the Beeson mission.  He pioneered the Regent University Doctor of Ministry Program. He served as college President at Tidewater Bible College, Virginia Beach, Virginia. He founded a consulting group. His default modes are entrepreneurship and mentoring-focused experiential learning. Students regularly praise his commitment to mentoring and the impact his wisdom is having in their lives. He will accelerate our ability to deliver on the Beeson Center's potential."

Asbury Seminary’s Dr. John Oswalt has returned to the Kentucky campus from a teaching appointment in Russia, where he experienced what he described as a fruitful effort under way to train new generations of ministers in theological foundations for successful ministry.

Oswalt, who is Visiting Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Asbury Seminary, taught for two weeks in Russia’s capital city at Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary. The course he led in the Major Prophets marks the latest of several teaching opportunities Oswalt has had at the Moscow seminary.

Founded through funding from the Korean Holiness Church, Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary has a staff made up mostly of Asbury Seminary graduates, including the Rector, Alexander Tsutserov; the Dean, Sergei Koryakin; and Andrei Blinkov, a member of the faculty. The seminary’s students come from across the former Soviet Union, as far as Kaliningrad in the west and Sakhalin Island in the east.

Asbury Seminary professors have had a significant part in the instruction the Moscow seminary offers. Oswalt is one of at least seven Asbury Seminary faculty members, including Emeritus Professor Harold Burgess, who have traveled to teach courses at the institution, and most of them, like Oswalt, have made multiple trips. Asbury Seminary has made these course sessions possible by providing travel funds.

Oswalt said teaching the Bible’s prophetic books to the seminarians in Moscow is a joy for him, and one reason is that, except for end-times predictions, the content of the prophets often has been largely a “closed book” for the students. Their discovery of these books’ depth of theology frequently takes on the nature of a “paradigm shift” in their lives, he said. Representative of this impact was one comment by a student after this year’s class: “This course has finally enabled me to put some things in order in my life that have always been out of order before.”

Oswalt, who holds B.D. and Th.M. degrees from Asbury Seminary and the Ph.D. from Brandeis University, taught at Asbury Seminary from 1970 to 1982 and again from 1989 to 1999 and began his current position in 2009. He also has taught at Wesley Biblical Seminary and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and he was Asbury College President from 1983 to 1986.

In addition to having numerous articles published in journals, periodicals and encyclopedias, Oswalt has written eight books, most recently On Being A Christian (2008), a study of First John. Oswalt, who was a member of the New International Version translation team, serves on a six-member editorial team that revised the Living Bible (New Living Translation, 1996) and continues the revision process with Tyndale House Publishers. He was Old Testament editor of the Wesley Bible (1990) and was consulting editor for the New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (1997).

An ordained minister in the United Methodist Church with membership in the Kentucky Annual Conference, Oswalt has served as a part-time pastor to congregations in New England and Kentucky and is a frequent speaker in conferences, camps and churches. He and his wife, Karen, have three children and two grandchildren.