Biographical Information:
John Thompson has taught at Fuller since 1989, and serves as professor of Historical Theology and Gaylen and Susan Byker Professor of Reformed Theology. He has taken an active role in the life of the seminary, providing leadership in the School of Theology by chairing the Theology Division as well as the Academic Affairs Committee. He has taught at several Fuller regional campuses, including Orange County, Menlo Park, Colorado Springs, Tacoma, Seattle, Phoenix, and Houston, as well as in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Thompson’s research and writing interests address gender issues, as well as the question of how the history of interpretation can serve as a resource for the proclamation of the gospel. Among his many essays and reviews, he has recently contributed to
A Companion to Paul in the Reformation (2009), and has written popular essays for
Sacred History magazine and
Modern Reformation. His study of the “texts of terror” in the history of exegesis appeared as
Writing the Wrongs: Women of the Old Testament Among Biblical Commentators from Philo Through the Reformation in 2001. Thompson’s most recent book is
Reading the Bible with the Dead: What You Can Learn from the History of Exegesis That You Can’t Learn from Exegesis Alone (Eerdmans, 2007). Currently he is working on the initial volume of
The Reformation Commentary on Scripture (InterVarsity), on Genesis 1–11.
Thompson was a research fellow with the Pew Evangelical Scholars Program in 1994-1995 and has twice received a Lilly Faculty Fellowship, in 1997 and in 2003. In 1994 his essay, “Patriarchs, Polygamy, and Private Resistance,” was awarded the Harold J. Grimm prize by the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference. He was a Pew Christian Scholars Lecturer in 2003, and in 2007 his colleagues at Fuller Theological Seminary selected him to receive the C. Davis Weyerhaeuser Award for Faculty Excellence.
Thompson is a member of the American Society of Church History, the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, and the Calvin Studies Society, and participates in the International Congress for Calvin Research. He served for six years on the governing board of the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Research and is a member of the editorial boards of several series, including Texts in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought (Baker), Studies in Early Modern Religious Reforms (Springer), and The Reformation Commentary on Scripture (InterVarsity). Prior to beginning his graduate studies, Thompson spent seven years on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Washington and California. An ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), he enjoys working closely with students preparing for ordination.
Courses Taught:
CH503 Medieval and Reformation Theology
CH508/808 Historiography
CH501 Patristic Theology
CH505 Post-Reformation and Modern Theology
TH832/522 Seminar in Reformed Theology:The Doctrines of Creation and Fall in
Early Reformed Theology
CH575 Women in Church History and Theology
CH549 Presbyterian Creeds
MH801 Methods in Mission History
CH553/853 Calvin and Calvinism Seminar: Calvin’s Controversies
Areas of Expertise, Research, Writing, and Teaching:
Church history through the Reformation, gender issues, historical theology, John Calvin