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shurden_wb@mercer.edu

Walter B. Shurden

It is very difficult for me to believe that I am the senior member of The Roberts Department of Christianity. I am senior in two ways: I am chronologically older than any member of the department (but still young!), and have been at Mercer longer (I joined the faculty in 1983). I have loved most every minute of it.

The life of a college professor is a golden job. A professor gets paid to read books, and a professor gets the luxury of an audience with whom to discuss those books! Lots of people read books, but have no one with whom to discuss what they have read. I have been reading and discussing books with marvelous students since 1967. What a way to draw a paycheck!

In addition to teaching at Mercer, I have taught in Canada (McMaster Divinity College), Tennessee (Carson-Newman College), and Kentucky (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). If I could do my life over again I would try to do a lot of things differently and better, but one thing I would not do differently is my career.

My career! It really is a "calling" far more than it is a career. I see myself fundamentally as a person who was called to Christian ministry. That "calling" gripped me in my first year of college, and it changed the direction and purpose of my life. Everything I have done, from serving as a pastor, a professor, an administrator, and a writer, I have done in the context and calling of Christian ministry.

A church historian by training, I have specialized in American Christianity. Most of my writings have been in the area of Baptist Studies. However, all areas of theological studies attract me. When I was trying to decide on my academic specialty in graduate school, I was torn between the study of New Testament, Theology, Christian Ethics, and Church History. In the end I chose Church History because I though it was the broadest. One of my favorite courses to teach at Mercer is the introduction to the New Testament. I am still partial, however, to courses I teach on "Religious Groups in America," and "The Baptist Traditions."

What do I love? I really do love the mystery of life, even in the face of all its tragedy. I love my wife (honestly, one of the best theologians I know), my three grown children (all three amazingly mature, for which I claim no credit at all), and my five grandchildren (who have brought smiles to my face for the last fifteen years). I love great Christian worship with majestic hymns and anthems, especially with thoughtful and warm-hearted preaching.

And my likes? I like (almost worship) the Atlanta Braves, Ireland, Southern cooking, a well kept lawn, the music of John Denver, the PBS Evening News, "The Daily Show," and "Everybody Loves Raymond."