Dr. Kevin Hester

Kevin Hester is the Dean of the School of Theology at Welch College, where he has served since 2003. He also serves as Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness and Senior Professor of Divinity. He has taught in the areas of church history, theology, philosophy, and New Testament. He attended Welch College (B.A.), Covenant Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and Saint Louis University (Ph.D.). He is the author of Eschatology and Pain in St. Gregory the Great (Paternoster, 2007) and Free Will Baptists and the Priesthood of All Believers (Free Will Baptist Historical Commission, 2010). Hester has also served as an assistant pastor, worship minister, and interim pastor for a number of churches in Tennessee, Illinois, and Missouri. He is presently a member of Cross Timbers FWB Church where he teaches Sunday School, serves on the Christian Education Committee, and occasionally leads worship. He is married to Leslie, with whom he has four sons.

Education

• Ph.D. in Historical Theology, Saint Louis University (2002)
  Dissertation: “A Contemplative Christology: The Connection of Eschatology and Pain in Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Iob.”
• M.Div. in Historical Theology, Covenant Theological Seminary (1997)
• B.A. in Biblical Studies and Theology, Welch College (1993)

Areas of Interest

• Gregory the Great
• Scriptural Interpretation
• Early Eschatological Development

Select Publications

• “Free Will and Determinism in the Thought of Robert Picirilli” in Teacher, Leader Scholar: Essays in Honor of Robert Picirilli (Randall House Publications)
• “Trinitarian Preaching: On the Father, In the Son, Through the Holy Spirit” (Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry)
• Free Will Baptists and the Priesthood of Believers (Randall House Publications)

Select Courses

• History of Doctrine
• Creeds and Councils of the Early Church
• Historiography