Carl L. Beckwith
Professor of Divinity
Beeson Divinity School
History and Doctrine
 Divinity Hall
clbeckwi@samford.edu
205-726-2585

Carl Beckwith joined the faculty of Beeson Divinity School in 2007. He teaches courses in church history and doctrine, focusing especially on patristic, medieval, and early Reformation theology. He is most recently the author of The Holy Trinity, volume 3 of the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series (Luther Academy, 2016) and editor of Martin Luther’s Basic Exegetical Writings (Concordia Publishing House, 2017). Beckwith is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. He and his wife, Julie, have two daughters.

Read Sola Scriptura, the Fathers, and the Church

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
  • M.A., Yale University
  • M.Phil., Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
  • B.A., St. Olaf College

Books

Selected Articles and Book Chapters

  • “Augustine’s Use of Didymus the Blind on John 5.19,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 31.3 (2023), forthcoming.
  • “Trinity and Bible,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 87.1 (2023), forthcoming.
  • “Wordy Dogmaticians and Endless Distinctions: Early Modern Lutheran Christology,” Lutheran Synod Quarterly 62 (2022).
  • “Augustine’s use of ps.-Athanasius on John 5:19 and the chronology of De consensu euangelistarum,” Augustinian Studies 53 (2022).
  • “Hilary of Poitiers on the Unity and Distinction of Father and Son: A Pro-Nicene Reading and Use of John 5:19,” in The Doctrine of the Trinity: Retrieving Nicene Orthodoxy for Renewal Today, ed. Matthew Barrett (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2022), forthcoming.
  • “Augustine’s Mature Understanding of John 5:19 and the Doctrine of Inseparable Operations,” Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 73 (2022).
  • “Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges,” in ESV Historical Study Bible (Crossway), forthcoming.
  • “The Certainty of God’s Promises: Martin Luther’s Pastoral Use of the Gospel,” in Biblical and Theological Visions of Resilience: Pastoral and Clinical Insights (Routledge, 2019), 139-52.
  • “Sola Scriptura, the Fathers, and the Church: Arguments from the Lutheran Reformers,” Criswell Theological Review (2019), 49-66.
  • “Martin Luther’s Christological Sources in the Church Fathers,” The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Martin Luther (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
  • “Lutherans and the Church’s Fathers,” Lutheran Forum, (Summer 2016): 56-60.
  • “The Reformers and the Nicene Faith: An Assumed Catholicity,” Evangelicals and the Nicene Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011): 61-73.             
  • “Athanasius the Great,” in Shapers of Christian Orthodoxy: Engaging with Early and Medieval Theologians, (ed.) Brad Green (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010): 153-89.
  • “Martin Chemnitz’s Reading of the Fathers in his Oratio de Lectione Patrum,” Concordia Theological Quarterly, 73:3 (2009): 231-56.
  • “Suffering without Pain: The Scandal of Hilary of Poitiers’ Christology,” In the Shadow of the Incarnation: Essays in honor of Brian E. Daley, (ed.) Peter Martens (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008): 71-96.
  • “Photinian Opponents in Hilary of Poitiers’ Commentarium in Matthaeum,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 58:4 (2007): 611-627.
  •  “A Theological Reading of Hilary of Poitiers’ ‘autobiographical’ narrative in De Trinitate I.1-19,” Scottish Journal of Theology, 59:3 (2006): 249-262.
  •  “The Condemnation and Exile of Hilary of Poitiers at the Synod of Béziers (356),” Journal of Early Christian Studies, 13:1 (2005): 21-38.

Research Interests

  • Doctrine of the Trinity
  • Patristic Theology (Cappadocians and Augustine)
  • Lutheran Reception of Patristic and Medieval theology

Involvement

  • Evangelical Theological Society
  • North American Patristics Society