EO JCBS

Staff & Faculty

Dr. Bruce Birch

Instructor
Bruce C. Birch is Dean and Professor of Biblical Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.. A native of Kansas, he received his B.A. from Southwestern College, his B.D. from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and his Ph.D. from Yale University. He did post-doctoral study at Tübingen University in West Germany. He taught at Yale, Iowa Wesleyan College and Erskine College before coming to Wesley in 1971. He has taught as visiting professor in numerous international settings including Russia, Israel, Liberia, Mexico, Korea, Indonesia, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom. He is an ordained United Methodist Elder in the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference. He has been a delegate to General and Jurisdictional Conferences of that denomination and served on its General Board of Church and Society. He has lectured and consulted in a wide range of denominational and ecumenical events and projects. A frequent contributor to journals and periodicals, he has authored sixteen books including What Does the Lord Require?; Singing the Lord’s Song; Let Justice Roll Down: The Old Testament, Ethics and Christian Life; Hosea, Joel, Amos for the Westminster Bible Companion, and To Love As We Are Loved: The Bible and Relationships. With Larry Rasmussen he has co-authored The Predicament of the Prosperous and Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life. He has served as one of the Old Testament editors for the New Interpreter’s Bible and contributed the commentary on 1 and 2 Samuel. With Walter Brueggemann, Terence Fretheim, and David Petersen, he co-authored A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament, now in its second edition. He co-authored with Lewis A. Parks Ducking Spears, Dancing Madly: A Biblical Model of Church Leadership. Dr. Birch serves as the on-site administrator for Wesley Theological Seminary in its joint Doctor of Ministry program with Wesley House, Cambridge.