George Fox University | Academics | Departments | Religious Studies | Faculty | Paul Anderson

Specialities: Johannine, Jesus and Quaker Studies

Education
B.A., Malone College; B.A., Trinity Lutheran Seminary; M.Div., Earlham School of Religion; Ph.D., Glasgow University. George Fox University 1989-

I've been teaching in the Department of Religious Studies since January 1989 and absolutely love it! We really do have one of the finest religion departments in the Northwest - perhaps in the nation - and I count it a great privilege to serve here. My teaching specialties include New Testament studies, Quaker studies, and an assortment of other issues ranging from worship and ministry, to peace work, to dialogues between science and religion.

My own calling to ministry came after my senior year of high school, when I was preparing to speak to campers at Quaker Canyon Camp in Ohio. As I developed the words of Jesus about the ripe harvest and the few laborers, I was surprised at what I found. I don't know if any of the campers were moved during the meeting, but in preparation, I found myself addressed by the Holy Spirit and felt personally called to gospel ministry.

This led to a clear decision to major in Christian ministries and psychology at Malone College (where my father was a professor), and after my college experience I felt called to learn to listen (leading to counseling experience), to write (leading to publishing ministries), and to broaden my understandings of the early church and Quaker faith and practice. These leadings gave way to pursuing seminary studies, and after a year at Trinity Lutheran Seminary I transferred to the Earlham School of Religion, where I graduated in 1981.

In seminary, I pastored a small church in Indiana (West River Friends Meeting) and then came out to serve on the pastoral team at Reedwood Friends Church in Portland upon graduation. There I met Carla, whom I married a couple of years later. Before heading to the University of Glasgow in pursuit of a Ph.D. in New Testament, I served for two years as pastor of Clackamas Park Friends Church.

My callings now are to pursue the truth (Jn. 14:6-7), and to be a faithful steward of it; to prepare formative lives for Christian leadership and service; to write; and to minister faithfully as Christ leads. I believe in my students, and I pray for them as well as challenging them. Indeed, they are not only Christ's servants in the future; they are his ministers today.

- Paul