Douglas Sweeney became the second dean of Beeson Divinity School on July 1, 2019. In this role, he shepherds the institution by providing strategic leadership and facilitating its work to prepare God-called men and women for faithful gospel ministry. A world-renowned scholar of American theologian Jonathan Edwards, Sweeney comes to Beeson from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, where he was the Distinguished Professor and Chair of Church History and the History of Christian Thought and founding director of the Jonathan Edwards Center. Having served on Trinity’s faculty since 1997, Sweeney was the founding director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity, 2000-2012. Prior to his tenure at Trinity, Sweeney served at Yale University, where he edited The Works of Jonathan Edwards and was a lecturer in church history and historical theology. Sweeney also is an award-winning author, with his book Edwards the Exegete: Biblical Interpretation and Anglo-Protestant Culture on the Edge of the Enlightenment, having been awarded a Henry Luce III Fellowship in Theology (2014-15) and named one of the 2018 “Books of the Year” by Moore Engaging of Two Cities Ministries. He is the author and editor of more than 20 books, five of those forthcoming, from prestigious publishers, including Oxford University Press, Yale University Press, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Baker Academic and InterVarsity Press. His prolific writing ministry also includes numerous academic articles, papers and book chapters. Sweeney is an evangelical Lutheran affiliated with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. He is married to Wilma, and they have one adult son, David, and daughter-in-law, Stephanie.
