Directors and Research Fellows

Dr. Coleman M. Ford

Dr. Coleman Ford (Ph.D., Th.M.) is founder and editor of Center of Ancient Christian Studies and Fides et Humilitas: The Journal of the Center for Ancient Christian Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Church History and a Th.M. in Spirituality from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also holds a Th.M. in Historical Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He is currently a minister at The Village Church in Dallas, TX. He also serves as an Adjunct Instructor for both Boyce College and California Baptist University and teaching assistant at Southern Seminary. His research interests include the spirituality and pastoral theology of Augustine of Hippo, the transcendentals (truth, goodness, beauty) in the patristic tradition, virtue and ethics in the patristic tradition, Christianity in late antiquity, and the history of Christian spirituality. Coleman is a member of the American Academy of Religion, American Historical Association, American Society of Church History, Evangelical Theological Society, North American Patristics Society,  Royal Historical Society, Society of Biblical Literature, and the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality. 

He has contributed numerous articles and reviews in journals including Churchman, Evangelical Quarterly, Expository Times, Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry, Journal of Evangelical Theological Society, Midwestern Journal of Theology, Tyndale Bulletin, Themelios, and Reading Religion.

You can follow Coleman on Twitter @colemanford and academia.edu.

Dr. Shawn J. Wilhite

Dr. Shawn J. Wilhite (Ph.D., Th.M.) is founder and editor of the Center for Ancient Christian Studies and Fides et Humilitas: The Journal of the Center for Ancient Christian Studies. He is Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at California Baptist University. Additionally, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Historical and Theological Studies (Patristics) at Durham University. He is also a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, North American Patristics Society, and Society of Biblical Literature. His research interests include the New Testament and Early Christian Origins, Early Christianity and Patristic studies, the book of Hebrews, the Didache, History of New Testament Interpretation and Theological Interpretation of Scripture, Early Christian and Patristic Hermeneutics, and Greek and Latin Studies.

Shawn has published articles in dictionaries and journals. He co-authored Patrick of Ireland: His Life and Impact with Michael A.G. Haykin and Aaron Matherly. Currently, he is editor of a mid-tier commentary series on the Apostolic Fathers with Paul Hartog and writing a commentary on the Didache for this series (Cascade), and he is a series editor and contributor (Didache and Martyrdom of Polycarp) to the Apostolic Fathers Greek Reader (Glossahouse, 2015).

You can follow him on Twitter @shawnwilhite, his personal website: Shawn J. Wilhite, and academia.edu.

Reference Board

Dr. Brian Arnold

Dr. Brian Arnold (Ph.D., M.Div.) serves as President of Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix, AZ. He is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society. His research interests include second and third century Christianity, Greek and Latin, Wirkungsgeschichte, and Historical Theology.  

Brian has published Justification in the Second Century (de Gruyter, 2017; Baylor University Press, 2019), and Cyprian of Carthage: His Life and Impact (Christian Focus, 2017). He is currently working on a commentary on the Epistle to Diognetus (Cascade, Forthcoming), and an introduction to Irenaeus of Lyons (Lexham Press, Forthcoming). He is married to Lauren and they have two young children, Jameson and Natalie.

You can follow him on Twitter @BrianJ_Arnold.

Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin

Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin (Th.D., M.Rel.) is Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He serves as the chair and Sr. scholar representative for the Center for Ancient Christian Studies. He is currently a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and North American Patristics Society. His research interests include Ancient and Late Antique studies, Patristic theology and exegesis, and Baptist and Andrew Fuller studies.

Dr. Haykin has contributed to countless journals and regularly contributes to scholarly societies. He is the author of numerous books, including The Spirit of God: The Exegesis of 1 and 2 Corinthians in the Pneumatomachian Controversy of the Fourth Century (Brill, 1994); Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They were and How They Shaped the Church (Crossway, 2011); Patrick of Ireland: His Life and Impact (Christian Focus, 2014). He has contributed chapters to Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith?: A Critical Appraisal of Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Scriptures (Crossway, 2012), From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective (Crossway, 2013), and many more.

Senior Fellows

Dr. Megan DeVore

Dr. Megan DeVore (Ph.D., M.A.) is Associate Professor of Early Christian Studies and the History of Christianity at Colorado Christian University. She is currently a member of North American Patristics Society, Society of Biblical Literature, American Society of Church History, and the Colorado Classics Association.  Her research interests include hagiography, heresiology, Patristic anthropology, commemoration practices and identity formation in early Christianity and its social contexts, Graeco-Roman benefaction, early to late antique material culture, and historic Christian spiritual formation. Megan contributes regularly in presentations to academic societies and has publications in Studia Patristica (2017), Southern Baptist Theological Journal (forthcoming), and Classical Outlook. Her monograph The Passion of Perpetua in Context: The Formation of Early Christian Identity is forthcoming with Fortress Academic Press.

Megan has been a professor to undergraduates for eleven years in CCU’s Department of Theology (with occasional moonlighting in the history department for courses in antiquity). She has twice been granted the faculty teaching excellence award from her peers and the faculty member of the year award from students. She is married to Trevor, a local pastor, and they are in the wondrous throes of parenting two young children.

Dr. Matthew Y. Emerson

Dr. Matthew Y. Emerson (Ph.D., M.Div.) is Dickinson Associate Professor of Religion Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, OK. He is currently a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, the North American Patristics Society, and the Society of Biblical Literature. His research interests include New Testament theology, theological and hermeneutical method, and Patristic theology and exegesis. Regarding his involvement with the Center for Ancient Christian Studies, he is an editor for Fides et Humilitas and regularly contributes to the online forum.

Dr. Emerson is the author of Christ and the New Creation: A Canonical Approach to the Theology of the New Testament (Wipf and Stock, 2013), and is working on a forthcoming lay-level volume on reading Revelation. He has published articles in Biblical Theology Bulletin, Currents in Biblical Research, Southeastern Theological Review, and The Journal of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, and has contributed entries to the Lexham Bible Dictionary. Matt also is co-editor of The Journal of Baptist Studies.

You can find Dr. Emerson on Twitter at @M_Y_Emerson, and he blogs with Luke Stamps and Luke Wisley at Secundum Scripturas. 

Dr. STEFANA DAN LAING

Dr. Stefana Dan Laing (Ph.D., M.Div.) is Assistant Professor of Divinity and Theological Librarian at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. She previously served as Theological Librarian at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s J. Dalton Havard School for Theological Studies in Houston. She has also taught at Houston Baptist University and Houston Graduate School of Theology. She is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, serving as co-chair of the Patristics/ Medieval section’s steering committee, and is also active in the American Theological Libraries Association (ATLA), and Association of Christian Librarians (ACL).

She has researched, published, and presented in the areas of historiography, hagiography, hermeneutics, spiritual direction, martyrdom, and the life and work of Theodoret of Cyrus. Additional research interests include early church catechesis, Christian funereal practices and beliefs about the afterlife, and Christian art in late antiquity. Dr. Laing is the author of Retrieving History: Memory and Identity Formation in the Early Church (Baker Academic, 2017). She has contributed  to books such as Worship, Tradition, and Engagement (Pickwick, 2018), Eschatology: Biblical, Historical, and Practical Approaches (Kregel, 2016). She has contributed entries to Evangelical America (ABC-CLIO, 2017), Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Zondervan, 2006) and the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Holman, 2003). She has contributed to journals such as Renewing Minds, Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care, and The Christian Librarian.

Stefana is married to John D. Laing, who currently serves as State Chaplain for the Texas Army National Guard, and a theologian who specializes in the doctrine of Middle Knowledge (author of Middle Knowledge, Kregel, 2018). They are raising three delightful “tweens” who are growing way too fast.
 

Dr. John Meade

Dr. John Meade is Associate Professor of Old Testament and Co-Director of the Text & Canon Institute at Phoenix Seminary. He serves as co-chairman of the Septuagint Studies section at the Evangelical Theological Society and Member at Large on the Executive Committee of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies. His research interests include canon formation, Old Testament textual criticism, Origen’s Hexapla and the philological project of the Caesarean Library, and the biblical languages.

Dr. Meade has published articles on Origen’s Hexapla, Septuagint, and Old Testament Textual Criticism. He co-authored The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis (OUP 2018) and his A Critical Edition of the Hexaplaric Fragments of Job 22–42 (Peeters forthcoming) will appear soon. He is a member of ETS, SBL, and IOSCS. He has just returned from moderating a workshop on Early Christians and the Books at the Edges of the Canon and giving a paper on Origen’s philological work on books outside of the Jewish canon at the International Conference on Patristic Studies in Oxford.

You can follow him on Twitter @drjohnmeadeand he blogs at the Evangelical Textual Criticism Blog.

Dr. David Robinson

Rev. Dr. David Robinson (Ph.D., M.A.) is senior pastor at Westminster Chapel (Toronto, Canada), an adjunct professor in the Biblical Studies and Theology department at Tyndale University College & Seminary, a fellow of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity, and presently serves as chairman of the ETS Ontario-Quebec region. His research interests include early North African Christianity and the history of biblical interpretation, particularly the book of Revelation. 

Dr. Robinson has published articles in Studia Patristica, Worship, Theoforum, Humanitas, and Revista Vida y Espiritualidad. He and Francis X. Gumerlock have recently completed an annotated translation of Tyconius of Carthage’s Exposition of the Apocalypse, which is forthcoming (Tyconius: Exposition of the Apocalypse. Translated by Francis X. Gumerlock. Introduction and notes by David C. Robinson. Fathers of the Church, no. 134. Washington, DC: Catholic University of American Press). He’s currently working on Tertullian: An Introduction to his Life and Thought(Christian Focus). 

Dr. Robinson is married to Megan and they have three children, Samuel, Leah, and Lucas.

Dr. R. Lucas Stamps

Dr. R. Lucas Stamps (Ph.D., M.Div.) is assistant professor of Christian Studies in the College of Christian Studies and the Clamp Divinity School at Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina. He also serves as an executive director for the Center for Baptist Renewal, an organization that seeks a retrieval of the Great Tradition for the renewal of contemporary Baptist faith and practice. His research interests include Christology, the Trinity, liturgical and sacramental theology, and Baptist theology. Dr. Stamps will be assisting the Center for Ancient Christian Studies by providing theological counsel and guidance within the ancient Christian tradition. 

Dr. Stamps is the author of the forthcoming Thy Will Be Done: A Contemporary Defense of Two-Wills Christology (Fortress Press) and is co-editor of the forthcoming Baptists and the Christian Tradition: Towards an Evangelical Baptist Catholicity (B&H Academic). He has also published a number of journal articles and book chapters in the area of systematic theology.

You can follow Dr. Stamps on Twitter @lukestamps and can read his blogposts at Biblical Reasoning and the Center for Baptist Renewal.

Dr. Michael J. Svigel

Dr. Michael Svigel (Ph.D., Th.M.) serves as Department Chair and Professor of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. Besides teaching both historical and systematic theology at DTS, Dr. Svigel is actively engaged in teaching and writing for a broader evangelical audience. His passion for a Christ-centered theology and life is coupled with a penchant for humor, music, and writing. He worked for several years in the legal field as well as serving as a writer with the ministry of Insight for Living. His books and articles range from text critical studies to juvenile fantasy. He and his wife, Stephanie, have three children, Sophie, Lucas, and Nathan.

Dr. Svigel is the author numerous books, including The Center and the Source: Second Century Incarnational Christology and Early Catholic Christianity (Gorgias Press, 2016), RetroChristianity: Reclaiming the Forgotten Faith (Crossway, 2012), and serves as editor of the Exploring Christian Theology series (Bethany House, 2014-15). He has also published a number of journal articles and book chapters in the area early Christianity and systematic theology.

You can follow Dr. Svigel on Twitter @Svigel and can read his blogposts at RetroChristianity.

Junior Fellows

Aaron Matherly

Aaron Matherly (M.Div.) is currently a Ph.D. student in Patristics at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His current research interest focuses on the Latin Fathers including Augustine, Patrick of Ireland, and Bede. He recently co-authored Patrick of Ireland: His Life and Impact with Michael A.G. Haykin and Shawn Wilhite, and currently teaches at Immanuel Baptist Church in Danville, Kentucky.

Trey Moss

Trey Moss (M.Div.) is a Ph.D. student at Southern Seminary. He is currently a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Evangelical Theological Society. His research interests range from pauline theology, biblical theologies of race, Christian identity formation, and Second Temple Judaism. Regarding his involvement with Center for Ancient Christian Studies, Trey serves as part of the editorial staff and book acquisitions editor for Second Temple Judaism. Currently, he attends Antioch Church with his wife, Hayley.

Trey is currently contributing Letter to Polycarp in Apostolic Fathers Greek Reader (Forthcoming; Glossahouse, 2015).

You can follow him on Twitter @treyemoss; he blogs here.

DR. Wyatt Graham

Wyatt Graham (Ph.D) serves as the Executive Director of The Gospel Coalition Canada. His interests include the Psalms, ancient Christian studies, Hebrew language, and biblical theology. Wyatt serves as part of the editorial staff for the Center.

You can follow him on Twitter @wagraham; he also blogs at wyattgraham.com.