Courses

Courses Home

Glen Thompson

Biography:
Dr. Glen L. Thompson is a retired WELS pastor, missionary, and professor emeritus of Asia Lutheran Seminary. After graduation from WLS in 1977, he served as a missionary/teacher in Zambia from 1977-1983. While earning a M.A.. and Ph.D. in Greco-Roman History from Columbia University, he started the first WELS congregation in NYC (1983-1992). He then served at Michigan Lutheran Seminary (1992-1997) before moving to New Ulm to develop and oversee what is now the WLS Pastoral Studies Institute (1997-2002). This was folled by a decade as Prof. of History at Wisconsin Lutheran College (2002-2011) before moving to Hong Kong to become Academic Dean and Prof. of NT and Historical Theology until his retirement in 2020. As an academic, he specializes in Greek pedagogy, Paul’s mission journeys, and the first four centuries of church history. He is a active member and presents regularly at the Evang. Theol. Society, Society for Biblical Literature, and North American Patristics Society. He has given dozens of lectures, authored over two dozen articles and book chapters, and authored almost a dozen books. For two decades he wsa a member of the synod’s Multicultural Mission Committee, and has been a guest prof. at mission seminaries on four continents. In retirement he continues to teach, research, write, expand his Fourth-Century Christianity website (www.fourthcentury.com), one of the most prestigious resources in the field; and to co-direct a project that is exploring and re-mapping the Roman Roads used by Paul and so updating the maps of his missionary journeys. Dr. Thompson lives with his wife Beth in Milwaukee, and enjoys spending time with the families of his two children, Dorothy and Luke (MLC prof.), and their 4 grandchildren.