Vita

Dr. Gregory A. Boyd

Ministry
Greg Boyd’s ministry is driven by the conviction that the it is as important to worship God with all your mind as it is to worship him with all your heart, and that faith should be both intellectually grounded and passionately lived. Greg believes there is no conflict between faith, on the one hand, and critical philosophical, scientific and historical reasoning, on the other. To the contrary, he believes that the best philosophical, scientific and historical reasoning strongly supports the core convictions of the Christian faith.

Greg’s driving passion is to see people become radical kingdom disciples who experience the abundant life of Christ deeply, who love God, themselves and others profoundly, and who live to see God’s will done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10). Though his writings and public speaking, Greg challenges people to wake up to the many ways they have been “conformed to the pattern of this world” (Rom 12:2). He believes that wherever the life of Jesus takes root in peoples’ hearts, all forms of hatred and violence are replaced with love, even (and especially) for one’s “enemies.” When the Kingdom of God is manifested, racial, socio-economic, gender and nationalistic walls are torn down and people are set free from the lies of religion and nationalism as well as the lies of their culture.

Greg teaches that this radical transforming power can’t come from human self-effort, but only by the Holy Spirit as he gives us a clear vision of the beauty and love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. God is a God of unsurpassable love who gives himself totally to us in Jesus Christ as the means of inviting us into the ecstatic, eternal, triune dance of love. The beauty of “the dancing God” revealed in Christ lies at the foundation of Greg’s theology, for he believes that one can only be as transformed as their mental picture of God is beautiful.

Occupation
Greg Boyd is the Senior Pastor at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Greg, along with several others, started this church in 1992 and it now averages 3500 attenders each weekend. It is a church that is centered on passionate worship, biblical preaching and small group communities. It emphasizes the truth that Jesus died to reconcile people to God and to one another. Woodland Hills therefore embraces the truth that reconciliation along ethnic, socioeconomic and nationalistic lines is a non-negotiable mandate for the body of Christ.

Greg also served as a Professor of Theology at Bethel College for sixteen years, where he received the Teaching Excellence Award and Campus Leadership Award. In 2000, Greg founded Christus Victor Ministries (CVM), a nonprofit organization that promotes Greg’s ministry outside of Woodland Hills Church.

Greg has authored or co-authored 18 books and written articles for numerous academic books and journals. Greg regularly speaks at academic and religious conferences, university campuses and churches throughout the United States and around the world, engages in formal debates over theological and apologetic issues, and has frequently appeared on radio and television shows.

Education
Greg received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Minnesota (1979), his M.Div. from Yale Divinity School (Cum Laude, 1982), and his Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary (Magna Cum Laude, 1988).

Published Works
• The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historic Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition, co-authored with Paul Eddy (Baker, 2007)
• Lord or Legend? Wrestling With the Jesus Dilemma, co-authored with Paul Eddy (Baker, 2007)
• The Myth of a Christian Nation: How The Quest For Political Power is Destroying the Church (Zondervan, 2006)
• Contributer to The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views, eds. J. Beilby and P. Eddy (InterVarsity, 2006)
• Escaping the Matrix: Setting Your Mind Free to Experience Real Life in Christ, co-authored with Al Larson (Baker, 2005)
• Repenting of Religion: Turning From Judgment to the Love of God (Baker, 2004)
• Seeing is Believing: Experience Jesus Through Imaginative Prayer (Baker, 2004)
• Contributer to Semper Reformandum: Studies in Honor of Clark H. Pinnock, eds. Stanley Porter and Anthony Cross, (Paternoster , 2004)
• Is God to Blame? Moving Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Evil (InterVarsity, 2003)
• Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology, co-authored with Paul Eddy (Baker, 2002)
• Satan and the Problem of Evil: Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy, Vol. 2, Satan and Evil Series (InterVarsity, 2001)
• Contributor to Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views, eds. Jim Beilby and Paul Eddy (InterVarsity Press 2001).
• God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God (Baker, 2000).
• God at War: The Bible & Spiritual Conflict, Vol. 1, Satan and Evil Series (InterVarsity, 1997).
• Contributor to Trinity in Process: A Relational Theology of God, eds. Joseph A. Bracken and Marjorie Suchocki (Continuum, 1996).
• Jesus Under Siege (Victor, 1995)
• Cynic Sage or Son of God? (Victor, 1995)
• Letters From a Skeptic, co-authored with Edward K. Boyd (Cook, 1994)
• Contributor to The Quest Study Bible (Zondervan, 1994)
• Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity (Baker, 1992)
• Trinity and Process: A Critical Evaluation and Reconstruction of Hartshorne’s Di-Polar Theism Towards a Trinitarian Metaphysics (Peter Lang, 1992)

To Be Published
• Revolting Beauty: A Manifesto and Practical Guide for Kingdom Revolutionaries (Zondervan, 2009)
• The Myth of the Blueprint, Vol. 3, Satan and Evil Series (InterVarsity, 2012 [anticipated])
• The Cosmic Dance: What New Scientific Theories Are Teaching Us About God, Time, Freedom and Life (publisher pending)

Recently Published Articles
• “Omniscience and the Open View of the Future,” co-author with Alan Rhodes and Tom Belt. Faith and Philosophy (2006)
• “Neo-Molinism and the Infinite Intelligence of God.” Philosophi Christi, (2003)

Personal
Greg (b.1957) and his wife Shelley (b.1958) have been married for 28 years and have three children, Denay, Alisha and Nathan, and two grandchildren, Soel and Sage. Greg and Shelley, along with their son Nathan and two dogs (Riley and Max), live in St. Paul, Minnesota.