There is good news for RTS out of Orlando today! The Reformed Theological Seminary Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Dr. R. Michael Allen to the faculty of the Orlando campus. Dr. Allen will serve as the associate professor of systematic and historical theology beginning January 1st. Allen, a teaching elder in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, will complete the fall term at Knox Theological Seminary, where he has been teaching for the past five years as the D. James Kennedy Associate Professor of Systematic Theology.
RTSO President Don Sweeting said, “God has blessed us with a great new addition to our faculty, who will be an asset to RTS Orlando for years to come. I am thrilled to have Mike Allen joining us. Along with John Frame and Scott Swain, it gives us one of the strongest teaching and writing teams in theology in the country. Mike brings to the classroom a love for Christ, a love for the church, personal godliness, and top notch academic credentials. He is an excellent teacher. He is winsomely reformed. He is highly published and will bring strength to our students in the areas of Christian thought, systematics, ethics, and church history.”
Prior to his tenure at Knox, Allen served as an adjunct professor of theology at Wheaton College, where he received a BA, MA and PhD (Biblical and Theological Studies: Systematic Theology). Allen has written several books, articles and reviews. His most recent publication, Justification and the Gospel: Understanding the Contexts and Controversies (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic), was released in 2013. You can read more about why he wrote this particular volume here. Along with Dr. Scott Swain, associate professor of systematic theology and academic dean at RTS/Orlando, Allen serves as general editor of the T&T Clark International Theological Commentary and the New Studies in Dogmatics series for Zondervan Academic. Additionally, Allen and Swain have written a book titled Reformed Catholicity: The Promise of Retrieval for Theology and Biblical Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic) which is scheduled for release later this year.
“I am thrilled about the addition of Dr. Michael Allen to the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary,” said Chancellor Ligon Duncan. “Mike is an outstanding and prolific young scholar who knows the importance of theological education and is committed to the life and ministry of the church. Dr. Allen, who serves in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), continues our long and happy connection with that denomination. He will adorn the RTS tradition in systematic and historical theology, and he fully embraces biblical inerrancy and the reformed theology of our confession of faith. Above all, he loves the Lord Jesus Christ and longs for students to have ‘a mind for truth and a heart for God.'”
Having grown up in Miami, Michael is married to Emily; and they have two sons, Jackson and William.