Scot McKnight
Biography
Scot McKnight
Scot McKnight is a widely-recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity and the historical Jesus. He is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois). A popular and witty speaker, Dr. McKnight has given interviews on radio stations across the nation, has appeared on television and is regularly asked to speak in local churches and at educational events. Dr. McKnight obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham (1986).
Scot McKnight is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Society for New Testament Studies. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the award-winning THE JESUS CREED: Loving God, Loving Others (Paraclete, 2004), which won the Christianity Today book of the year for Christian Living. Recent books include EMBRACING GRACE: A Gospel for All of Us (Paraclete, 2005), THE STORY OF CHRIST (Baker, 2006), PRAYING WITH THE CHURCH (Paraclete, 2006) and THE REAL MARY: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus (Paraclete, 2007). A recent book, A COMMUNITY CALLED ATONEMENT (Abingdon, 2007), has been nominated for the Grawameyer Award. He broadened his Jesus Creed project in writing a daily devotional: 40 DAYS LIVING THE JESUS CREED (Paraclete, 2008).
McKnight is the author or co-author of a large body of scholarly works and he regularly contributes chapter length studies to dictionaries, encyclopedias, books and articles for magazines and online webzines. McKnight’s books have been translated into Chinese, Korean and Russian. His studies in conversion were expanded with his newest book, FINDING FAITH, LOSING FAITH (Baylor, 2008), a book he co-authored with his former student Hauna Ondrey. “I grew up in a Baptist church that focused on conversions and conversion stories,” McKnight recounts. “It’s always been a part of my path, but when I began to teach at North Park University in 1994, I began to observe on the basis of course evaluation and finally summary papers that some of my students were converting. I began simply to pay more attention to what people were doing in my classes.”
He decided one Christmas break to summarize Lewis R. Rambo’s theories of conversion to make it accessible for his students. He soon found that his students were eager to share their own conversion stories. Suddenly, he had an avalanche of stories, some from students not even in his classes. Spurred on by this enthusiasm, he recruited Hauna Ondrey to co-author FINDING FAITH, LOSING FAITH.
McKnight’s award-winning blog, Jesus Creed, has been rated by Technorati.com as the #1 site for Emerging Church. Reflecting on one of the key elements that leads people to convert, he states, “Churches become so incestuous and so boundary driven that they don’t know how to cross-pollinate and be fertilized by the good in the other rich church traditions. One of the things that emerging-type churches do well is this cross pollinating. They draw on many different rich traditions and they are finding it satisfying.”
Scot McKnight was elected into the Hall of Honor at Cornerstone University in honor of his basketball accomplishments during his college career. He and his wife, Kristen, live in Libertyville, Illinois. They have two adult children, Laura, an elementary school teacher and Lukas, a former minor league baseball player who is now a major league scout. In his spare time, McKnight enjoys playing golf, wandering around Italy with Kristen and speaking in churches --- provided they invite Kristen to come along. The McKnights are looking forward to the birth of their first grandchild in October 2008.
Scot McKnight
