DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Pursue Academic Excellence in Community.
Join a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program that will challenge you academically, grow your network of Christian colleagues and equip you to expand God's kingdom in the classroom.
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Academics
Our goal is to fully equip you for a career as an academic or a pastor-scholar. By the time you graduate, you will have completed a dissertation, demonstrated competencies in comprehensive exams, presented a paper as an academic conference, submitted an article to a peer-reviewed journal and gained actual teaching experience. We are focused on guiding students through a rigorous program that will entirely prepare you to follow God's calling on your life. Don't accept shortcuts - pursue excellence in your studies alongside a cohort of challenging, gospel-minded students.
Upon entering the program, you will pursue a major in either Old Testament, New Testament or Theology and a minor in Old Testament, New Testament, Theology, Church History or Applied Theology. Your major will require 12 credit hours of seminars and your minor will require 9 credit hours of seminars. Students in each major participate in 9 credit hours of common required seminars, 6 credit hours of one-on-one mentorship for comprehensive exams and dissertation prospectus development, and at least 6 credit hours of dissertation writing.
In lieu of a minor, you can substitute additional major seminars for a more focused experience.
You will be expected to complete a number of non-seminar requirements such as proficiency in two modern languages. These requirements are not included in your seminars to lower your tuition costs, provide flexibility and to simplify your degree plan.
Theology Major
| S5525 Research Methods Seminar | 3 hrs |
| E5711 Teaching in Higher Education | 3 hrs |
| S5511 Hermeneutics | 3 hrs |
| Required Seminars Total | 9 hrs |
| L5522 Theology Reading Colloquium | 3 hrs |
| Major Seminars | 12 hrs |
| Minor Seminars | 6 hrs |
| Core Seminars | 21 hrs |
| P5000 Comprehensive Exam Mentorship | 3 hrs |
| P5100 Dissertation Prospectus Mentorship | 3 hrs |
| P5111 Dissertation [for each semester enrolled] | 6 hrs |
| Comprehensive Exams and Dissertation | 12 hrs |
| Total Program | 42 hrs |
A student pursuing a theology major will develop a deep understanding of the history of theology by studying historical, contemporary and systematic works. The student will produce an innovative and substantive dissertation that demonstrates awareness of primary historical, philosophical, theological and methodological issues in the specific field of study.
Non-Seminar Requirements
In an effort to reduce overall costs and to create a simpler path to completing your degree, we have moved a number of degree requirements out of our course requirements. For instance, modern research languages and comprehensive exams are still requirements to graduate, but instead of listing these as classes and charging tuition for them, we have categorized them as Non-Seminar Requirements, all of which are listed below:
- Two Modern Research Languages
- Teaching Experience
- Comprehensive Exams
- Academic Conference Participation and Report
- Present a Paper at an Academic Conference
- Submit a Paper to a Peer-Reviewed Journal
Biblical Studies Major
Old Testament Major - A student pursuing an Old Testament major will do creative, contemporary research founded on the historical, philosophical, theological and methodological issues of the Old Testament using biblical Hebrew extensively.
New Testament Major - A student pursuing a New Testament major will do creative, contemporary research founded on the historical, philosophical, theological and methodological issues of the New Testament using biblical Greek extensively.
Non-Seminar Requirements
In an effort to reduce overall costs and to create a simpler path to completing your degree, we have moved a number of degree requirements out of our course requirements. For instance, modern research languages and comprehensive exams are still requirements to graduate, but instead of listing these as classes and charging tuition for them, we have categorized them as Non-Seminar Requirements, all of which are listed below:
- Two Modern Research Languages
- Teaching Experience
- Comprehensive Exams
- Academic Conference Participation and Report
- Present a Paper at an Academic Conference
- Submit a Paper to a Peer-Reviewed Journal
| S5525 Research Methods Seminar | 3 hrs |
| E5711 Teaching in Higher Education | 3 hrs |
| S5511 Hermeneutics | 3 hrs |
| Required Seminars Total | 9 hrs |
| S5521 Old Testament Reading Colloquium | 3 hrs |
| or |
|
| S5522 New Testament Reading Colloquium |
3 hrs |
| Major Seminars | 12 hrs |
| Minor Seminars | 6 hrs |
| Core Seminars | 21 hrs |
| P5000 Comprehensive Exam Mentorship | 3 hrs |
| P5100 Dissertation Prospectus Mentorship | 3 hrs |
| P5111 Dissertation [for each semester enrolled] | 6 hrs |
| Comprehensive Exams and Dissertation | 12 hrs |
| Total Program | 42 hrs |
PhD Program Faculty
Theology and Church History
Chris Chun
Director of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Gateway Seminary | Professor of Church History
Chris Chun is professor of church history and director of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Gateway Seminary. He served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society (Far West Region) and is one of the editors for a forthcoming critical edition of The Works of Andrew Fuller (De Gruyter Press). He is the author of Legacy of Jonathan Edwards in the Theology of Andrew Fuller and co-author of Golden Gate to Gateway: A History (published for the 75th anniversary). Chris is co-editor of Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things: William Carey & Adoniram Judson, Mission Pioneers and Regeneration, Revival, and Creation (JEC inaugural conference volume). He has contributed chapters in Baptists and Revivals, Jonathan Edwards and Scotland, Crossing Baptist Boundaries, and Understanding Jonathan Edwards: An Introduction to America’s Theologian.
Chris is an ordained SBC pastor and a frequent speaker at churches, seminars, and retreats.
Phil Hopkins
Professor of Missions
Phil Hopkins is an American religious historian. His main interests concern the church in modern Iran and the Caucasus area, contextualization/theology of missions, Christian/Muslim relations, comparative religions, and persecuted minorities and peoples – how they interact among themselves and among the general population. Hopkins lived outside of the United States for nearly 20 years.
His works include American Missionaries in Iran during the 1960s and 1970s (currently being translated into Farsi and possibly Russian), "The Forgotten Armenians,” (being translated into Russian and Turkish), and "Iran’s Ethnic Christians: The Assyrians and The Armenians," (translated into Korean).
Christopher Morgan
Dean, School of Christian Ministries | Professor of Theology at California Baptist University
Christopher Morgan serves as professor of theology and dean of the School of Christian Ministries at California Baptist University in Riverside. He is the author or editor of over 20 books, including Christian Theology: The Biblical Story and Our Faith, A Concise Dictionary of Theological Terms, Baptists and the Christian Tradition, and Biblical Spirituality, Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment and Faith Comes by Hearing: A Response to Inclusivism.
Morgan is also lead pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, California. Chris and his wife Shelley have one daughter Chelsey. He enjoys walking, reading, baseball, golf, and especially time with his family at the ocean.
David Rathel
Director of Academic Graduate Studies Program | Associate Professor of Christian Theology
Dr. Rathel received his ThM from Southeastern Seminary and his PhD from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He is interested in the following fields: Christology, the doctrine of God, retrieval theology, and 18th-Century Baptist theology. He is the author of the forthcoming books: Andrew Fuller and the Search for a Faith Worthy of All Acceptation (T & T Clark), John Johnson and His Influence: Selected Writings from an Eighteenth-Century Baptist (Regent’s Park College Oxford), and Retrieving Classical Christology (B & H Academic). He has written Baptists and the Emerging Church Movement and peer-reviewed articles that have appeared in Journal of Reformed Theology, Baptist Quarterly, American Baptist Quarterly, Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, and Southeastern Theological Review. Dr. Rathel co-leads the Evangelicalism in the Long Eighteenth Century session for ETS, is a member of the Baptist Dogmatics Roundtable, and serves on the board of directors for London Lyceum.
John Shouse
Senior Professor of Christian Theology
John Shouse is senior professor of Christian theology at Gateway Seminary. He is a native of Washington, D.C. and has served as pastor and interim pastor at over twenty churches in California, Texas, Nevada, Connecticut, Washington D. C. and Kentucky. He has published in the area of Christian worship, Christology, Soren Kierkegaard and Jonathan Edwards. His research interests include theological method, narrative theology, Trinitarian appropriations and homiletical theology. He is a practicing Gospel Illusionist and Shakespearean actor having leading or major roles in King Lear, Henry IV, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing and many more. He has presented professional papers at over twenty conferences and been featured speaker at conferences nationally and internationally.
Biblical Studies
Dan Gurtner
Professor of New Testament
Dr. Gurtner publishes broadly in Synoptic Gospels, especially Matthew, and their interface with the literature and languages of the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism. His publications span from a commentary on the Septuagint of Exodus from Codex Vaticanus (Brill, 2013), critical editions of Qumran manuscript fragments (4Q488, 4Q489; Mohr Siebeck, 2019) to a monograph on the torn veil in Matthew 27 (Cambridge, 2007), among various other books and articles. He is currently writing the Word Biblical Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.
Dr. Gurtner welcomes inquires from students who are serious about making contributions to scholarship and learning to think and perhaps stretch themselves, studying diligently and worshipfully to the glory of God. Gurtner’s primary competencies lie in the areas of his substantial publications (see his gs.academia.edu/DanielMGurtner site), but he is more concerned about the kind of student than the topic per se. Students should be self-motivated, mature, and willing to push themselves to the extent of their natural capacities, and explore where those limits may (or may not) be. Developing critical thinking skills, reading broadly, and learning to ask critical questions and frame constructive arguments are all part of the student-advisee relationship Dr. Gurtner seeks to cultivate. Students need not be committed to academia as a vocation. Pastors and missionaries are welcome in terms of vocational calling and objectives.
David Howard
Professor of Old Testament at Bethlehem College and Seminary
Dr. David Howard grew up in Costa Rica and Colombia, son of missionary parents, and he has also taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and Bethel Theological Seminary.
He has many publications, including numerous journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia essays, and book reviews. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including The Psalms: Language for all Seasons of the Soul (2013) and Reading the Psalms Theologically (2023), as well as several on OT narrative texts: An Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books (1993), The Structure of Psalms 93-100 Biblical and Judaic Studies from the University of California, San Diego (Eisenbrauns, 1997) Joshua (New American Commentary; 1998), and Giving the Sense: Understanding and Using Old Testament Historical Texts (2003).
He is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, the Institute for Biblical Research, and the Society of Biblical Literature. He served as Book Review Editor for the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and was elected to the ETS Executive Committee in 2000-2007, serving as president of the Society in 2003. Since 1998, he has traveled once or twice a year to Oradea, Romania, where he teaches at the Emanuel University of Oradea. He also has taught in recent years in several countries in Southeast Asia. He and his wife Jan have two married daughters and eight grandchildren.
Richard Melick
Senior Distinguished Professor of New Testament
Richard Melick's primary research and writing interests are biblical hermeneutics, Greek grammar and exegesis, and biblical theology. Major writings include Philippians, Colossians, Philemon in the New American Commentary series, of which he is a New Testament editor. He is currently writing Philippians in the Christian Standard Bible Commentary series, of which he also serves as a New Testament editor, and 1-2 Peter and Jude in the Lexham Biblical Theology Commentary Series. Additionally, Melick is author of Called to Be Holy: Growing in the Likeness of Jesus, and co-author along with his wife, Shera, of Teaching that Transforms: Facilitating Life Change through Adult Bible Teaching.
He contributed to a number of works including the Worldview Bible Encyclopedia, In Defense of the Bible, A Theology of Family Ministry, The Glory of God, Bible Versions and Translations and many more.
Alexander E. Stewart
Dean to the Faculty | Professor of New Testament Studies
Alexander E. Stewart’s research focuses broadly on understanding early Christianity within its historical context. He is currently studying the rhetorical function of divine judgment in Greco-Roman moral philosophy, diasporic Jewish authors of the Second Temple period, and the material culture of the ancient Mediterranean world. Future research projects will explore 2 Peter. Past published studies have focused on rhetorical and argumentation analysis of Revelation, the rhetorical function of fear, confidence, and hope in Revelation and 1 Peter, interdisciplinary research on fear appeals with particular attention to the Extended Parallel Process Model, the ethics of fear appeals in biblical argumentation, the use of ekprhasis in biblical persuasive contexts, the use of the argumentum ad baculum in biblical rhetoric, the structure of the Olivet Discourse, source and redaction criticism of the Gospel infancy narratives, the use of Psalm 110:1 in the New Testament, numismatics and New Testament interpretation, early Christian hermeneutics, messianic expectation in Second Temple Judaism, 4 Ezra, the relationship of inaugurated eschatology to inaugurated soteriology in 1 Peter and Hebrews, and the question of soteriological synergism in James.
John Taylor
Chair, Biblical Studies, Professor of New Testament
Dr. John W. Taylor is Professor of New Testament and Chair of the Biblical Studies Department at Gateway Seminary. Originally from Australia, he studied urban planning before going into missions, spending over 20 years in England in urban missions, evangelism, discipleship and mission leadership. He has taught and preached in churches, conferences and seminaries in many nations. He taught New Testament at Southwestern Seminary before coming to Gateway in 2016.
He sees his current role as a teacher and scholar in direct continuity with his missionary experience. His passion is to teach people to read the Bible well, because it is the word of God, and in order to multiply the ministry of the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit into the world. He has published broadly in the areas of Pauline theology, and Paul and economic life.
He and his wife Heidi have four children and five grandchildren. His hobbies include painting, playing guitar and walking on the beach.
Paul Wegner
Senior Distinguished Professor of Old Testament Studies
Paul Wegner earned a BA in Pastoral Training at Moody Bible Institute, and an MDiv and a ThM from Trinity Divinity School. Then Wegner went to the University of London to pursue his PhD under Ronald Clements and wrote his dissertation on the book of Isaiah. He has a particular interest on the prophets and in Old Testament Textual Criticism. With my free time I enjoy hiking, riding my bike and spending time with my grandchildren.
Paul has written numerous articles and has the following books in print: The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible (Baker Academic, 2004); A Student’s Guide to Textual Criticism: It’s History, Methods, and Results (IVP, 2006); Using Old Testament Hebrew in Preaching: A Guide for Students and Pastors (Kregel Academic, 2009), and he has revised Walter C. Kaiser, A History of Israel (Louisville: Broadman and Holman). Dr. Wegner worked on the ESV Study Bible, specifically working on the notes for Habakkuk, Daniel, and an article on the Reliability of the Old Testament. In addition, he has delivered many lectures and papers for academic and popular audiences. His specialty is the book of Isaiah and he recently completed a commentary on Isaiah for the distinguished Tyndale Old Testament Commentary series.
Gateway's Doctor of Philosophy program features...
Accessible Delivery
As a student, you will attend one in-person, week-long session at the start of each semester for seminars and fellowship with faculty and fellow students, followed by monthly seminar meetings via remote access.
One-on-One Mentorship
In Gateway's PhD program, you will receive structured mentoring from your advisor to prepare you for a lifetime of academic work and to help you stay on course for graduation. You will be expected to select an advisor during your first semester to guide you through seminars.
Global Community
Gateway Seminary is known as the most diverse seminary in the United States, and the Ph.D. program demonstrates why diversity in thought, ethnic background and ministry experience is a vital component of a strong learning environment.
Gateway PhD Experience
"Gateway's PhD program fostered my growth academically, spiritually, and professionally. I was stretched and encouraged to rise to the next level in my scholarship, teaching, and ministry."
Christy Gonet
Assistant Professor of Theology, Assistant Director of Applied Theology
California Baptist University