Dr. Scot McKnight leaves the north and heads south to Houston

Dr. Scot Scot recently announced that he would be returning to his teaching career in my old hometown of “Heavenly Houston,” as I like to call it. McKnight will teach New Testament and direct the DMin program at Houston Theological Seminary, a school of Houston Christian University (HCU).

This was a pleasant surprise for me. I went to college at the University of Houston. And I lived in Houston and its suburb, Friendswood, for a total of forty years. (I now live in Arizona.) Houston Christian University is the former Houston Baptist University. I went there from time to time to study in their library.

Dr. Scot McKnight is a dear friend of mine. We met in 1992 during my first year on the PGA Tour senior circuit at the Ameritech Senior Open played at Stonebridge Country Club in Aurora, Illinois. (I co-led the tournament in the first round with my friend Dale Douglas shooting a 65, and finished tied for third with winner Douglas.) I was also interested in McKnight because he wrote books theological. (By now, Scot has probably written a hundred or more.)

At that time, McKnight was a professor of New Testament at his alma mater Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) near Chicago. Through a series of contacts, I had learned that McKnight was an avid golfer. So, I contacted him and invited him to the tournament. It became a blessed and long-term friendship. At his next school, North Park University (where I later received an honorary doctorate), Scot founded the Kermit Zarley Lectures with me as a donor. We have had several renowned biblical scholars as guest speakers. The first was Dr. James (Jimmy) DG Dunn, Scot’s thesis advisor. Scot then led me to join the Society of Biblical Literature in 1999. Since then, I have attended its annual meeting every year except one. And for a few years, they included me in the “Jimmy Dunn dinner” at SBLAM, which was a gathering of Dunn’s doctoral students. All of these experiences were truly remarkable and blessed for me, and they were all thanks to the kind, brilliant, and witty Dr. Scot McKnight.

Scot, I wish you the best in Houston! I know the students will love you and be blessed.