Williams, Wilkinson named to doctoral leadership roles at Southwestern Seminary

Associate Professor of Old Testament Joshua E. Williams and Associate Professor of Theology Michael D. Wilkinson have been appointed directors of the Research Doctoral Studies (RDS) and Professional Doctoral Studies programs, respectively, announced today by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary academic leadership.

Associate Professor of Old Testament Joshua E. Williams was named director of the Research Doctoral Studies Program at Southwestern Seminary.

“Dr. Josh Williams has faithfully served Southwestern Seminary and its students for seventeen years in the classroom,” said Matt Queen, interim provost and vice president for academic administration. “I am excited about his leadership over our research doctoral programs because of his genuine care and desire to see student scholars trained and substantively contribute to their fields.”

Williams, who has served at Southwestern Seminary since 2006, holds Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Divinity degrees from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. During his tenure at Southwestern, Williams has twice held the chair of the biblical studies division (2010-2011 and 2014-2015) and the Old Testament department (2009-2010 and 2016-2020).

“I am excited about this ministry entrusted to me by the Lord and Southwestern Seminary,” Williams said. “I have such love and respect for our doctoral students and their faculty supervisors. I look forward to serving the students by providing a roadmap for them to become Christian scholars in the service of God’s kingdom.”

Before serving at Southwestern, Williams served two years as an invited lecturer at the Biblical Theological Seminary in Pehlrimov, Czech Republic, teaching in the area of the theology of the Pentateuch. He has additional teaching experience at North Raleigh Christian Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was a teaching assistant in 2001 at Southeastern Seminary.

In addition to his classroom experience, Williams brings both editorial and research experience to his new role. He was the assistant editor of the Southwestern Journal of Theology from 2007 to 2016 before he assumed the role of book review editor of the SWJT for four years. Williams has contributed articles to the SWJT, the Southeastern Theological Review, the Association of Biblical Counselors eJournal, and the Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Additionally, Williams has published essays in Texts and Canon: Essays in Honor of John Sailhamer and Reverberations of Exodus in Scripture.

Williams said in addition to “serving my faculty colleagues by ensuring that they have what they need to lead students down this path of becoming Christian scholars” that it is “working with the people of Southwestern to accomplish the mission of Southwestern” that “excites me the most.”

Michael Wilkinson, associate professor of theology at Southwestern Seminary, was named director of the institution’s Professional Doctoral Studies program.

A two-time graduate of Southwestern Seminary, Wilkinson began serving at the institution as assistant professor of Bible in 2012, the year after he earned his Ph.D. From 2013 to 2020, Wilkinson served as the dean of what is now known as Texas Baptist College and transitioned to associate professor of theology in 2018.

“Dr. Mike Wilkinson has served the SWBTS and Texas Baptist College community in a variety of ways in his eleven years here,” Queen said. “His administrative experience as a former dean of TBC, as well as his church ministry experience, will serve our professional doctoral students extremely well.”

Before serving at Southwestern, Wilkinson served for more than two decades on church staffs in Arkansas and Texas, including 14 years as the minister to single adults and missions at Central Baptist Church in Bryan, Texas, and almost five years as the minister to young and median adults at the First Baptist Church of Rockwall, Texas. Prior to serving local churches, Wilkinson was a mathematics instructor at the Northwest Campus of Tarrant County Junior College.

“I am very excited, and honored, about directing the Professional Doctoral Studies program,” Wilkinson said. “Having served in three churches for 22 years before joining the faculty at SWBTS, I know the joys and challenges of ministry.”

Wilkinson has been published in the SWJT and in The Anabaptists and Contemporary Baptists. His dissertation, A Necessary Smelting: Leonhard Schiemer’s Theology of Suffering, was published under the same title by Lambert Academic Publishing in 2015. Additionally, Wilkinson has made presentations at the academic conferences Anabaptists and Contemporary Baptists Conference (2012) and the Anabaptist Convictions After Pilgram Marpeck Conference (2009).

“I eagerly look forward to working with pastors and church leaders as they seek to build biblically healthy churches in today’s world, wherever they are located around the globe,” Wilkinson added. “To assist these pastors, church planters, and missionaries in some measure is a great privilege for me.”

Concluding he is “honored to serve” the students in the PDS program and “the Kingdom of God,” Wilkison said his “goal is that the Professional Doctoral Studies program will provide these church leaders with whatever support we can give them as they lead their churches to fulfill our Lord’s Great Commission.”

Both roles were effective June 1.