William David Spencer

William David Spencer (born 1947) is a theology professor, Presbyterian minister, writer, and composer.

Education

In 1986, Bill earned his Doctor of Theology (ThD) degree at Boston University School of Theology in Theology and Ancient Literature, having been invited to teach adjunctively in 1983 for Gordon-Conwell’s Hamilton campus. In 1992, he began teaching the required systematic theology classes at Gordon-Conwell’s Boston Campus/Urban Ministerial Education. In 2000, he was granted faculty status, as its theology professor.

Career

William David Spencer is Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Theology and the Arts at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. In response to questions of whether eternal subordination exists in the Trinity, he drafted in consultation with theologians, exegetes, and historians,An Evangelical Statement on the Trinity.

He has written on theology, the arts, and the nature of God, including the Trinity, as well as having written contemporary novels. He has also served in street and music ministry, urban missions, college chaplaincies, pastoring, teaching, and writing with over 300 publications including 18 books.

Bill for a decade (2004-2014) edited “Priscilla Papers,” the journal of Christians for Biblical Equality, which addressed various issues important to women. Bill has won 20 writing and editing awards.

Bill served as Protestant Chaplain for three years, between 1971-1974, at Rider College (now Rider University).

Personal life

William David Spencer was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, to William Day Spencer, (painting contractor and mineralogist, who has some First Nations (Leni Lenape) ancestry) and Helen Catherine (salesperson honored at Ambassador status and as junior executive, maiden name Collis, a shortening of her family name Callogeines, who is the daughter of a Greek father and a Czech mother). Bill is married to Aida Besancon Spencer, who is an educator, minister, and a world-renowned New Testament Scholar and author and editor of many books. They cowrite the blog “Applying Biblical Truths Today”. They edit the Africanus Journal and the House of Prisca and Aquila series. Their son, Stephen William Spencer, is the director of programming at a public access cable station.

Publications

William David Spencer,Three in One: Analogies for the Trinity Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2022 ISBN 978-0-8254-4606-1

William David Spencer, “Mysterium and Mystery; The Clerical Crime Novel,” adapted from his doctoral dissertation at the Boston University School of Theology (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1989. Reprinted Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), isbn, 0-8093-1809-1) has also been identified as “the definitive work on religious detectives.”4

William David Spencer, “Name in the Papers” (Levittown, PA: Helping Hands Press, 2013), a novel that won the Golden Halo Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literature from the Southern California Motion Picture Council. 5 (2013).

William David Spencer, “Dread Jesus” London: SPCK, 1999 (reprinted, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011), isbn 978-1-61097-256-7.

William David Spencer, Nathaniel Samuel Murrell and Adrian Anthony McFarlane, editors, “Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader,” (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, simultaneously published by Kingston, JA: Ian Randle, 1998, isbn 978-1566-395847 (which has been called the definitive work in its field6).

References

1 Evangelical Press Association, as writer and editor of the Priscilla Papers.

2 Evangelical Press Association award-winning Africanus Journal 2015 Higher Goals in Christian journalism award

3 http://www.satvonline.org/wordpress/staff/.

4 Jon L. Breen, “Introduction,” in Joh L. Breen and Martin H. Greenberg, “Synod of Sleuths: Essays on Judeo-Christian Detective Fiction” (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1990), p. vi, isbn 0-81d08-2382-9. Also, “Spencer’s analysis and reference on this sub-genre has been a classic since its original publication in 1989,” University Press Book News, December 1992. “Spencer’s book can immediately be called the ‘definitive’ work on mystery and crime novels solved by clerics who also serve as detectives” Books in Religion vol. 16:2 Spring/Summer 1988. “Professor Spencer offers a first-class analysis of the goodness and appeal of mysteries featuring religious functionaries as sleuths. This is a worthy piece of literary criticism,” J.I Packer, Dec. 3, 1988. “William David Spencer does us all a favor in his monumental study of clerical mystery novels,” Arthur P. Boers, Religious Book Journal. “This very learned and well-written study of religious detective stories is as much a theological treatise as a critical work on mysteries, but the author clearly has a broad and deep general knowledge of the field. Spencer’s is one of the best volumes extant of specialized detective story criticism and is highly recommended,” Books and Religion, vol. 16, no. 2, spring/summer 1989.

5 https://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/35222-2013-cause-marketing-halo-award-finalists-revealed

6 “It is sure to be the definitive reference for many years to come.” Anita M. Waters, Book Review: Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader, “The Weekly Gleaner (N.A.),” Jan. 29-Feb. 3, 1999. “Chanting Down Babylon is a brilliantly composed, penetrating documentation of the Rastafari ethos, essential for any serious study of Rastafari and for Caribbean culture.” “Spencer insightfully contextualizes with significant analytical commentary,” Diane M. Stewart, College of the Holy Cross, “Book Review: Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader,” “Journal of the American Academy of Religion,” Summer, 2000, pp. 433-436.