Historian Gregory A. Wills to join Southwestern Seminary faculty, lead B.H. Carroll Center for Baptist Heritage and Mission

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Adam W. Greenway announced Tuesday his presidential appointment of leading historian Gregory A. Wills as research professor of Church History and Baptist Heritage and as founding director of the seminary’s new B.H. Carroll Center for Baptist Heritage and Mission.

“I rejoice in God’s kindness displayed to Southwestern Seminary in leading Greg Wills to join our faculty and to lead our new Center for Baptist Heritage and Mission,” said Greenway. “Dr. Wills has a demonstrated and distinguished track record of teaching and scholarship, and he is firmly committed to the primacy of the local church and to Baptist distinctives.

“Both personally and professionally, Dr. Wills stands squarely in the Carroll tradition of ‘scholarship on fire,’ and I can think of no one in Southern Baptist life more capable to lead this new institutional initiative, fittingly named for our founder and first president, than he. I look forward to welcoming Greg and Cathy Wills to Seminary Hill and the Southwestern Seminary family.”

“Since its founding in 1908 under the leadership of B.H. Carroll, Southwestern Seminary has played a critical role in equipping in Scriptural conviction and zeal those called by God to serve His church as pastors, missionaries, and teachers,” Wills said. “I am grateful to God for the privilege I have had of serving at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for 25 years and will always treasure the many joys shared with wonderful students and colleagues there.

“With full confidence that God is now leading me and my family to become members of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary family, I look forward to joining the long tradition of vital Kingdom work there.”

Wills most recently served as the David T. Porter Professor of Church History at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He first came to Southern Seminary in 1994 as archives and special collections librarian, then joined the faculty full-time in 1997. He later served as dean of the seminary’s School of Theology from 2013-18.

“Greg Wills is a first-rate scholar, theologian, and churchman,” said Southwestern Seminary Provost Randy L. Stinson. “What he brings to Southwestern in terms of Baptist heritage and scholarship is unparalleled in the Southern Baptist Convention. I am thrilled that he will be the first director of our new B.H. Carroll Center for Baptist Heritage and Mission.”

Wills completed his Bachelor of Science and Master of Theology degrees at Duke University; his Master of Divinity degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; and his Ph.D. at Emory University. His dissertation, Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South, 1785-1900, was published by Oxford University Press.

Wills has contributed numerous articles to various theological journals and is the author of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009, also published by Oxford. He is currently writing an updated history of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is scheduled to be released by B&H Publishing in 2020 during the Convention’s 175th anniversary year.

“I am so glad that Greg Wills is coming to join us at Southwestern Seminary,” says D. Jeffrey Bingham, dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern Seminary. “As a well-known author in the area of Baptist history, specializing in Baptist life over the last two centuries, Dr. Wills brings immediate expertise and prestige to the B.H. Carroll Center for Baptist Heritage and Mission. His scholarly work and experience as an academic administrator make Dr. Wills an invaluable asset to Southwestern Seminary. He will do wonderful things.”

The B.H. Carroll Center for Baptist Heritage and Mission will be housed in the newly-constructed building on the Southwestern Seminary campus just south of the Horner House. During its construction, the building was referred to as the Baptist Heritage Center, but the name has now been modified to pay tribute to B.H. Carroll, Southwestern Seminary’s founder and first president. The Carroll Center will house significant Baptist archival collections, will serve as a research hub for doctoral students in the area of Baptist studies, and will sponsor lectures and events designed to promote and perpetuate Baptist history and identity.

“Gregory Wills is one of the most respected historians in the world, and that reputation is well-earned,” says Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. “His scholarship is consistently characterized by skill, insight, and intellectual integrity. What’s more than that, though, is Greg Wills the Christian, the husband, the father, the teacher, the churchman. In our 20-plus years of friendship with Greg, his wife Cathy, and their children, we’ve seen Christ alive in them, in lives of godliness, self-sacrifice, and service to the people of God. Greg Wills is a gift to his students, to his readers, and to the church of Jesus Christ.”

Wills will officially begin his service at Southwestern Seminary in the fall semester.