Speakers
David Wilhite
Dr. David Wilhite serves as Professor of Historical Theology at Baylor University’s Truett seminary. He is also the interim Pastor at First Baptist Church of Valley Mills Texas. He has written four books, over 30 articles and essays, and he has helped edit numerous research projects. His primary work has been in ancient African Christianity and more generally in the development of early Christian theology. He is currently co-authoring a three volume work on early Christology, focusing on how the early Christians understood Jesus’ pre-existence and how he was the one appearing in the scriptures as “LORD.” In addition to spending time with his family and anything involving the outdoors, Dr. Wilhite is currently learning to play the blues on his guitar autographed by Waylon Jennings.
Edwina Murphy
Dr. Edwina Murphy is the Deputy Dean and Director of Research at the Australian College of Theology in Sydney. Prior to that she was Senior Lecturer in Church History and Director of Research at Morling College, Sydney. Her recent publications include The Bishop and the Apostle: Cyprian’s Pastoral Exegesis of Paul, and the co-edited volume Deacons and Diakonia in Early Christianity. She has also published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Edwina is co-chair of the Contextualizing North African Christianity section at SBL and is a member of the Council of the International Association of Patristic Studies, as well as the National Correspondent for Australia. Prior to her academic career, she served as a Baptist pastor and still preaches at her local church.
Don Collett
The Rev. Dr. Don C. Collett is Professor of Old Testament at Trinity School for Ministry. Don’s primary research interest is the Book of the Twelve (Minor Prophets). He is the author of Figural Interpretation of the Old Testament, co-editor of The Identity of Israel’s God in Christian Scripture, and many research articles on the Old Testament. Don is known to his students, colleagues, and friends as an indefatigable advocate for the reception of the Old Testament as an equal partner in the Christian canon. An old Montanan at heart, he is reported to sometimes wear cowboy boots in class.
David Ney
The Rev. Dr. David Ney is the Associate Professor of Church History at Trinity School for Ministry and the Director of the Robert E. Webber Center. He is the author of The Quest to Save the Old Testament, co-editor of All Thy Lights Combine, and several research articles. His primary research interest is the Church of England of the long eighteenth century. As an unapologetic providentialist, his goal as a teacher is always to search the Scriptures for the divine meaning of history. David is a native of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He is the father of four school-aged children, and he loves to lead them in hiking expeditions over the hills of Pennsylvania in search of mountains.
Jonathan Parker
The Rev. Dr. Jonathan (Jon) Parker is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Berry College, where he has been teaching for the last ten years. He received his PhD in Old Testament from Durham University, specializing in theological interpretation and Second Temple Jewish use of the Old Testament. Prior to teaching, he worked as a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and is now a local faculty advisor for the local IVCF chapter on his campus. A proud graduate of Trinity School for Ministry, he is a priest in the ACNA (Anglican Diocese of the South), a member of the direction team for the Campus Leadership Network (Next Generation Leadership Initiative of the ACNA), and an assistant church planter of Christ the Servant Anglican Church (Rome, GA). When Jon isn’t writing articles and teaching students, he’s either out running or spending time with his four sons and beloved wife, Amelia.
About the Conference
The New Ancient Evangelical Future
The Robert Webber Center has been hosting Ancient Evangelical Future Conferences at Trinity School for Ministry since 2013. In these conferences, top scholars have presented on a wide range of topics, including early Christian biblical interpretation, medieval wisdom, and post-Christian catechesis.
This June, the Robert Webber Center is rebooting this august tradition as Common Roots: Ancient Evangelical Future Conference as a tribute to Webber’s book Common Roots, which expresses his passionate desire to draw Christians in a fractious age towards a common center. Along with this name change comes a change in emphasis. For Webber, ressourcing the Christian tradition was always about congregational renewal, and particularly, lay catechesis. Our vision for our 2023 conference is to honor his vision by creating venues for participants to tease out the implications of the scholarly presentations for their own ministry contexts. Participants will be invited to select from a number of ministry streams, including adult catechesis, liturgy, music, preaching, children’s ministry, classical education, and homeschooling.
We are working with experienced leaders in these areas, who will both bring together participants who share their ministry context, and lead them in discussion throughout the event. Our hope is the relationships that are formed in these discussions will be the basis of mutual encouragement throughout the year. Please reach out to Lee-Anna Upperman, Robert Webber Center Administrator, if you would like to help us in this work.