Douglas Wilson (theologian)


Douglas James Wilson is a conservative Reformed and evangelical theologian, pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, faculty member at New Saint Andrews College, and author and speaker. Wilson is well known for his controversial work Southern Slavery, As It Was, which he coauthored with League of the South co-founder Steve Wilkins. He is also featured in the documentary film Collision documenting his debates with anti-theist Christopher Hitchens on their promotional tour for the book Is Christianity Good for the World?. He has been described as a "Calvinist firebrand".

Early life and education

Wilson earned a BA in classical studies and a BA and an MA in philosophy from the University of Idaho. In addition to his role as pastor of Christ Church, he is a founder and Senior Fellow in Theology at New Saint Andrews College, founder and editor of Credenda/Agenda magazine, and founder of Greyfriars Hall, a three-year ministerial training program. He also serves on the governing boards of New Saint Andrews, Logos School, and the Association of Classical and Christian Schools. Wilson was instrumental in forming the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.

Career

Wilson has said that "if someone wants a quick and easy way to figure out what makes me tick" they should read three of his books: Reforming Marriage, Angels in the Architecture, and Joy at the End of the Tether. Wilson said "if someone read those three books they'd have a pretty good grasp of what I think is important".
Wilson is the publisher of and a contributor to the Reformed cultural and theological journal Credenda/Agenda, and is a former contributor to Tabletalk, the magazine published by R. C. Sproul's Ligonier Ministries. He has published a number of books on culture and theology, several children's books, and a collection of poetry.

On education

Wilson has been a prominent advocate for classical Christian education, and he laid out his vision for education in several books and pamphlets, especially in Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning and The Case for Classical Christian Education. In those writings, he argues that the American public schools are failing to educate their students, and he proposes a Christian approach to education based on the Trivium, a Greco-Roman approach to education which emphasizes grammar, rhetoric, and logic and advocates a wide exposure to the liberal arts, including classical Western languages such as Latin and Greek. The model has been adopted by a number of Christian private schools and homeschoolers.

On family

Wilson and his wife have also written a number of books on family issues based on their understanding of the Bible, including Reforming Marriage, Federal Husband, Her Hand in Marriage, Standing on the Promises: A Handbook of Biblical Childrearing, and Future Men.

On theology

Wilson has written on theological subjects in books such as Mother Kirk: Essays and Forays in Practical Ecclesiology, To a Thousand Generations on infant baptism, and "Reformed" Is Not Enough: Recovering the Objectivity of the Covenant. He has also been a noted advocate for Van Tillian presuppositional apologetics and postmillennialism. Letter from a Christian Citizen is Wilson's response to atheist Sam Harris's Letter to a Christian Nation. In May 2007, Wilson debated another noted atheist, Christopher Hitchens, in a six-part series published first in the magazine Christianity Today, and subsequently as a book entitled Is Christianity Good for the World? with a foreword by Jonah Goldberg. In October of the following year, they debated in person in three separate venues on three consecutive days.

Federal Vision

Wilson's views on covenant theology as espoused in "Reformed" Is Not Enough and in his contribution to The Federal Vision have caused some controversy as part of the Federal Vision theology, partly because of its similarity to the New Perspective on Paul, which Wilson does not fully endorse, though he has praised some tenets that are in line with his theology. The RPCUS denomination declared his views on the subject to be heretical, and although "Reformed" Is Not Enough was already in process when the RPCUS's resolution was published, Wilson sought to address some of their charges in that book.

Southern slavery

Wilson's most controversial work is probably his pamphlet Southern Slavery, As It Was, which he wrote along with League of the South co-founder and fellow Christian minister Steve Wilkins. The pamphlet stated that "slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races that we believe we can say has never existed in any nation before the War or since." Louis Markos notes that "though the pamphlet condemned racism and said the practice of Southern slavery was unbiblical, critics were troubled that it argued US slavery was more benign than is usually presented in history texts." Historians such as Peter H. Wood, Clayborne Carson, and Ira Berlin condemned the pamphlet's arguments, with Wood calling them as spurious as holocaust denial.
Wilson held a February 2004 conference for those who supported his ideas, such as pastor George Grant, at the University of Idaho. The University published a disclaimer distancing itself from the event, and numerous anti-conference protests took place. Wilson described critical attacks as "abolitionist propaganda". He also has repeatedly denied any racist leanings. Wilson has described his own views as "paleo-Confederate". He has said his "long war" is not on behalf of white supremacy; rather, Wilson claims to seek restoration of a claimed prior era, in which faith and reason seemed at one, and when family, church, and the organic "community of Christians" that T. S. Eliot describes in Christianity and Culture were more powerful than the state.
The Southern Poverty Law Center connects Wilson's views to the Neo-Confederate and Christian Reconstruction movements influenced by R. J. Rushdoony, concluding, "Wilson's theology is in most ways indistinguishable from basic tenets of Reconstruction."
Canon Press ceased publication of Southern Slavery, As It Was when it became aware of serious citation errors in several passages authored by Wilkins. Robert McKenzie, the history professor who first noticed the citation problems, described the authors as being "sloppy" rather than "malevolent." Wilson reworked and redacted the arguments in the tract, and published a new set of essays under the name Black & Tan after consulting with historian Eugene Genovese.

Personal life

Wilson is married to Nancy Wilson and has three children, N. D. Wilson Rachel Jankovic and Rebekah Merkle, as well as 16 grandchildren.

Author