Plantinga, Cornelius

Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. studied at Calvin College (A.B., 1967), Yale University, Calvin Theological Seminary (B.D., 1971), and Princeton Theological Seminary (Ph.D., magna cum laude, 1982). He has also been a visiting scholar at St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge. Formerly the pastor of the Webster (New York) Christian Reformed Church, Mr. Plantinga was Professor of Systematic Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary from 1979 to 1996. In the summer of 1996, he became the first-ever Dean of the Chapel at Calvin College. In January, 2002, he became the sixth President of Calvin Theological Seminary.

He is a former editor of the Calvin Theological Journal, and is now a member of the Board of Editors of Books & Culture. Mr. Plantinga is the author of five books and co-editor of three. His more than 140 published articles and essays have appeared in such periodicals as Theology Today, The Thomist, First Things, Christianity Today, The Christian Century, and Books & Culture. A number of his pieces have won awards from such groups as The Associated Church Press and The Evangelical Church Press, and his 1995 book on sin, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be, won the 1996 Book of the Year award of Christianity Today. His most recent book is Engaging God's World: A Christian View of Faith, Learning, and Living (Eerdmans, 2002).

In the academic year 1999-2000, under the provisions of a Christian Faith and Life grant from the Louisville Institute, Mr. Plantinga was a resident member of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, where he researched his current book project on Christian virtue. Rev. Plantinga was ordained in the Christian Reformed Church in North America in 1971. He is married to Kathleen (Talsma), a veteran of twenty-five years as an elementary school teacher. Neal and Kathleen are the parents of Nathan, 30, a Grand Rapids attorney, and of Adam, 29, a Milwaukee police officer. Nathan is married to Briar Orr, and they are the parents of Micaela, who is 1.