FACULTY:

 
 Bradley G. Beach - Associate Professor of Philosophy
BA, Houghton College, 1975; MA, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1977; PhD, Syracuse University, 1982.

 Dr. Beach joined Houghton College's philosophy faculty in the fall of 2000 and teaches introductory courses in philosophy as well as history of philosophy. 

 

 
John Brittain - Dean of the Chapel, Professor of Religion
 
AB, Brown University, 1969; MDiv, The Methodist Theological School, 1972;
DMin, St. Mary's Seminary and University, 1985

 

 

Richard K. Eckley - Associate Professor of Theology 
BS, United Wesleyan College, 1980; MDiv, Asbury Theological Seminary, 1983; ThM, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1985; PhD, Duquesne University,1998. 

  Dr. Eckley has been at Houghton College since 1990, previously having taught for two years at United Wesleyan College.  An ordained minister in The Wesleyan Church, he has pastored in suburban Allentown, PA, and in a coal-mining town near Pittsburgh, PA.  He is a member of the Wesleyan Theological Society, the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Biblical Literature, the Karl Rahner Society, and the Catholic Theological Society of America.  Dr. Eckley's theological interests include pneumatology, French mysticism, and the question of God in contemporary theology.  He enjoys serving the poor and his involvement with Buffalo's ecumenical community.  He is married to Lynn, a pianist and public music teacher at the Buffalo City School District's Olmstead School for the Gifted, and has two sons, Benjamin and James.  As for Dr. Eckley's great passions: he is torn between pondering big thoughts while sailing the Great Lakes and playing his guitar along with old Jackson Browne records.     

 

Carlton D. Fisher - Professor of Philosophy 
BA, Marion College, 1974; MA, Western Kentucky University, 1978; MA, PhD, University of Notre Dame, 1980, 1984. 

  Dr. Fisher has taught at Houghton since 1985, and since 1994 has served the college as Associate Academic Dean. After growing up in Wesleyan parsonages in Ohio and Indiana, he pastored a small Wesleyan church in South Bend while finishing his graduate education at the University of Notre Dame. His philosophical interests revolve around the intersections between epistemology, philosophy of religion, and ethics. He and his wife, Joyce, have two sons. Joyce is known around Houghton for her beautiful flowers. When the weather is good-and when it is running-Dr. Fisher can be seen driving around town in his 1973 Triumph Spitfire.  

 

 

Harold E. Kingdon - Professor of Christian Ministries 
BA, Houghton College, 1957; MDiv, ThM, Asbury Theological Seminary, 1966, 1967; DMin, Bethel Seminary, 1978. 

  Dr. Kingdon began teaching at Houghton College in 1967. He teaches courses in Bible and Practical Theology. He has conducted tours in Israel and the Middle East. An ordained elder in The Wesleyan Church, he pastored full time prior to his teaching career. He has also pastored several area churches on a part time basis while teaching at Houghton College. He has written curriculum materials for both senior high and adult Sunday school lessons. When asked why he left the ministry in order to teach he responds, "I have not left the ministry, I have multiplied my ministry, because hundreds of my former students are now engaged in many forms of Christian service around the world."  

 

Kristina LaCelle-Peterson - Assistant Professor of Religion
BA, Houghton College, 1982; MDiv, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, 1987; MPhil, PhD, Drew University Graduate School, 1992, 2001
   Dr. LaCelle-Peterson has joined the Religion and Philosophy Department as of the fall of 2001 and teaches courses in Bible, women's studies, theology, and educational ministry.

 

Benjamin Lipscomb - Assistant Professor of Philosophy 
BA, Calvin College, 1996; MA, PhD, University of Notre Dame, 1999, 2002 

 

Terence P. Paige - Associate Professor of New Testament 
BA, Seattle Pacific University, 1982; MCS, MDiv, Regent College, 1986; Graduate study at Fuller Theological Seminary, 1986-88; PhD, University of Sheffield (England), 1994. 

   Terry has taught Greek at Fuller Seminary and lectured in Biblical Studies and Greek for the Belfast Bible College and Queen's University in Belfast (Northern Ireland) prior to coming to Houghton College in 1994.  His special interests lie in Paul's letters and in the Greco-Roman background to the New Testament.  He also has interests in research on the life and teaching of Jesus, the application of social-scientific study to the New Testament, Old Testament prophecy, ancient Greek philosophy and religion, translation theory and the history of English Bible translations.  Irish history and the contemporary problems in Northern Ireland are another area of study. 
Webpage: The Home Paige  

 

Carl Schultz - Professor of Old Testament 
BRE, Malone College, 1952; BA, Houghton College, 1953; MA, Wheaton College, 1954; PhD, Brandeis University, 1973. 
   Dr. Schultz is Professor of Old Testament and for 21 years the chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy.  His teaching and research interests include wisdom literature, apocalyptic literature, Dead Sea Scrolls, and the middle (near) east crisis--past and present.  He has contributed articles for festschrifts, dictionaries (Theological Wordbook Of The Old Testament and Evangelical Dictionary of Theology), Hebrew Wordbook, and provided commentary on Job, Ecclesiastes in the Evangelical Commentary On The Bible and The Asbury Bible Commentary, and Psalms in The Wesley Study Bible.  Twice he received the Student Senate Excellence award as Faculty of the Year and the New York State Electric and Gas Company and Independent College Fund of New York Teaching Excellence Award in 1994.  He recently was granted a Templeton Award for his course "Science and Scripture." 
                         Webpage: Carl Schultz's Links

 

Paul W. Shea - Director of Off-Campus Programs and International Student's Office; Assistant Professor of Religion 
BA, Houghton College; 1969; MDiv, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1973; DMiss, Ibid, 1994. 
   Ever since college days when he served as Foreign Missions Fellowship (FMF) president and spent a summer helping missionaries in Haiti, Dr. Shea has placed the cross-cultural spread of the Gospel atop his priority list. Mobilizing and encouraging young leaders as world Christians has been a focus in four years as youth pastor, five years as pastor in Illinois, and twelve years as a missionary with Wesleyan World Missions in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He has taught missions, advised the very active World Missions Fellowship student group, been chairman of the local church missions committee and enjoyed encouraging the nearly 60 missions minors at the college since 1994. Most recently he assisted 20 students in pioneering Houghton's first annual semester in Tanzania, Africa program. 

"Preparing students to love and serve God in every corner of the world is my reason for being at Houghton. This is a unique place to gear up for a lifetime of service."  

 

 

W. Christopher Stewart - Associate Professor of Philosophy 
BA, Wheaton College, 1982; MA, Western Kentucky University, 1988; MA, PhD, University of Notre Dame, 1989, 1992. 

 

John R. Tyson - Professor of Theology 
AB, Grove City College, 1974; MDiv, Asbury Theological Seminary, 1977; MPhil, PhD, The  Graduate School Drew University, 1980, 1983. 

   Dr. Tyson has taught at Houghton College since 1979.  Prior to coming to Houghton he served as Associate Pastor at First United Methodist Church, Cocoa, Florida.  An expert in Wesley Studies and the Reformation Era, he has published more than three dozen scholarly articles and three books on theological topics.  He has been elected to the Oxford Institute on Methodist Theology, and is a member of the Wesleyan Theological Society, the Wesley Studies Section of the American Academy of Religion, and the American Society of Church Historians.  He was a founding member of the Charles Wesley Society, and serves on its board of directors.  A life-long United Methodist, Tyson strives to live by Wesley's dictum that "a Methodist must be ready to preach, pray or die at a moment's notice."  

 

J. Michael Walters - Professor of Christian Ministries; Preacher in Residence; Director of Ministerial Education, Chair, Religion and Philosophy Department
BA, Circleville Bible College, 1972; MA, Asbury Theological Seminary, 1974; MA, St. Mary's University, 1980; BA, Houghton College, 1986; DMin, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1991. 
   Dr. Walters is an ordained minister in The Wesleyan Church.  He brings over twenty years of ministry experience to the classroom, having served as Senior Pastor, Staff Assistant, and Minister of Youth.   He is a member of The Alban Institute, a member of Evangelicals for Social Action, knowledgeable in pastoral self-assessment, church consulting, and preaching. 

   In addition to on-campus classes, the roles of Preacher-in- Residence and Director of Ministerial Education take him off campus several times each year for pastoral seminars and preaching assignments in a variety of settings.  He has worked with The Wesleyan Church in Australia and sees this as an ongoing commitment for the summer months.  He and two faculty colleagues pioneered a Mayterm course for Houghton students in Australia.

  "I am an advocate for Christian Ministry, whether it be working with young people preparing to fulfill their call, or with ministers in the field.  This is the most important work in the world.  My greatest joy is to see men and women spiritually prepared, effectively trained, and strategically deployed for God's service." 

"I go out to preach with two propositions in mind.  First, every person ought to give his life to Christ. Second, whether or not anyone else gives Him his life, I will give Him mine."
                                                   Jonathan Edwards  
                              

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