The Walls Lecture Est. 1985
Paul T. Walls lived a life of strong and active service to the Free Methodist Church, but it was hard to discern his greater passion: the Free Methodist Church or Seattle Pacific University. Paul spent 31 years on SPU's Board of Trustees, 20 of those as chair. He was known for his integrity, financial acumen and devotion to evangelical Christianity. A 40-year real estate career provided him with a great deal of business experience, which was highly prized in managing the growth of Seattle Pacific from a college to a university. He was also heavily involved at the national, conference, and local levels of the Free Methodist Church. In 1976 he was named its "Layman of the Year."
Before his death in 1983, Paul, and his wife, Vera, established an educational foundation to help students realize a seminary education. Paul's dream was to have SPU, along with the other Free Methodist colleges, provide the intellectual and spiritual leadership to stimulate and strengthen the denomination over the decades. The establishment of the Chair of Wesleyan and Biblical Studies would have particularly pleased Paul.
To listen to past Walls Lectures visit our University iTunes.
The 2009 Paul T. Walls Lecture
John's John:
The Tenor of Scripture in
a Wesleyan Key, Part Two
Robert Wall, Paul T. Walls Professor of Scripture and Wesleyan Studies
Thursday, April 30, 2009, 10:30 a.m.
Upper Gwinn Commons
Robert Wall, Th.D., is the Paul T. Walls Professor of Scripture and Wesleyan Studies at Seattle Pacific University. In keeping with the purpose for the Walls endowment, he aims his published scholarship — which includes six books and dozens of articles — in two directions: as a teacher, his scholarship finds a home in the classroom where it helps to guides students in their study of Scripture. As a Wesleyan churchman, his scholarship finds another home among God's people, where it cultivates their faith and strengthens their life with God. In his teaching and writing, Dr. Wall seeks to incline people to a faithful reading of Scripture that makes them more wakeful to God's Spirit. An elder in the Free Methodist Chruch, Dr. Wall enjoys an ecumenical ministry of preaching and teaching in congregations of various faith traditions.
In the 2009 Walls Lecture, part two of a planned trilogy of lectures, Dr. Rob Wall continues to explore John Wesley's theological appropriation of 1 John. In last year's lecture, Dr. Wall explored the cultural and pastoral reasons for Wesley's use of 1 John as his "canon within the Canon." In this year's lecture, he will study 1 John 2:28-3:10, a passage of "John's John" known both for its exegetical difficulty and for its importance in underwriting Wesley's doctrine of Christian Perfection. Dr. Wall will conclude this series of lectures in 2010 with a study of Wesley's via salutis - "way of salvation" - to expand and clarify 1 John's powerful vision of Christian discipleship.