Jim Edwards
(1997-present)
Professor of Theology

This year marks the completion of 10 wonderful years at Whitworth, and my 29th year as a college professor. I no longer teach the wide array of classes I did in my early years of teaching – including Bible, languages, theology, history, world religions, Christian literature, and philosophy. I now concentrate largely on my academic first love: Scripture and exegesis, which includes Gospel of Mark, Romans, and Greek exegesis; and in my adult Sunday school class this past year on Genesis. The focus on fewer subjects has made them all the richer. I also continue leading Jan Term study programs. This past January, Janie and I led 31 students on a first-ever trip for Whitworth: Ancient Christian sites in Turkey. It was a feast of learning. Our theology and philosophy department is growing larger (13 members), our collegiality is growing deeper, and our majors continue to be stimulating.

This year also signals several important transitions for me. Our son, Mark, and his wife, Janine, welcomed their first child (and our fourth grandchild), a daughter, Adeline Eleanor Edwards. Next year I begin occupancy of the Bruner-Welch Endowed Chair of Theology, which allows me to teach one semester and do research and writing another. My responsibilities in the Bruner-Welch Chair will relieve me of being chair of theology and philosophy. Janie and I will spend fall semester 2007 in Princeton, where I'll be at the Center of Theological Inquiry finishing my book on the Hebrew Gospel and the formation of the synoptic tradition, to be published by Eerdmans.

A quite prophetic book that has helped me understand our post-Cold War world more than any other has been Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations; and a volume that has deepened my prayer life more than any other has been Volume One of The Philocalia.