Ligon Duncan

Infobox Calvinist Theologian
region = United States
era =
color = #B0C4DE

name = J. Ligon Duncan, III
birth = 1960
death =
school_tradition = Presbyterianism, Calvinism
main_interests= Calvinism, Covenant Theology, Biblical Inerrancy, Biblical Gender roles
influences = R.C. Sproul, John Calvin, Donald MacLeod
notable_ideas = Covenant theology, Complementarianism, Patristics, Westminster Confession of Faith, Confessionalism

J. Ligon Duncan III (born 1960) is a Reformed theologian, professor, author, and minister of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). He is currently the senior minister of the historic First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi—a flagship church of the PCA (the largest conservative Presbyterian denomination in the English-speaking world). [cite web|url=http://www.fpcjackson.org/staff/duncan.htm|title= First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS|accessdate=2008-08-22] His preaching is televised regionally, and he hosts a regionally broadcasted radio program, with Derek Thomas and Bill Wymond, Hymns of the Faith. [cite web|url=http://fpcj.blogspot.com/2007/09/hymns-of-faith.html|title= First Presbyterian Church Blog|accessdate=2008-08-22]

He is the President, and Chairman of the Council, of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. [cite web|url=http://www.alliancenet.org/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID307086|CHID559376|CIID1920896,00.html|title= Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals|accessdate=2008-08-22] He is the Chairman of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. [cite web|url=http://www.cbmw.org/Board-of-Directors|title= Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood website|accessdate=2008-08-22] In 2004-5, he served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the PCA, the youngest minister ever elected to that position. [cite web|url=http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/bio/duncan.html|title= Monergism.com|accessdate=2008-08-22] He is an Adjunct Professor of Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary. [cite web|url=http://www.rts.edu/faculty/StaffDetails.aspx?id=265|title= Reformed Theological Seminary|accessdate=2008-08-22] He is a also Council member of the Gospel Coalition. [cite web|url=http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/about/council-members/ligon_duncan|title= The Gospel Coalition|accessdate=2008-08-22]

Along with Mark Dever, Al Mohler and C.J. Mahaney, he participates in Together for the Gospel (along with John MacArthur, John Piper, R.C. Sproul and Thabiti Anyabwile). [cite web|url=http://t4g.org/08/media/|title=Together For the Gospel 2008 Conference |accessdate=2008-08-22]

He is married to the former Anne Harley, and they have two children, Sarah Kennedy Duncan and Jennings Ligon Duncan IV.

Early life and Education

Duncan is a native of Greenville, South Carolina. His father, J. Ligon Duncan, Jr. (1925-1992) was an eighth-generation Southern Presbyterian Ruling Elder. He had a small commercial printing company, still in existence today: A Press, Inc. His mother, Shirley Ledford Duncan, studied at Tennessee Wesleyan, Carson-Newman, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Northwestern, before teaching on the faculty of Furman University.

Duncan is a 1979 graduate of Greenville Senior High School, where he served as a class officer, was inducted into the National Honor Society, and received the D.A.R. American History Award. Duncan served as a United States Senate Page, for J. Strom Thurmond (R-SC). He graduated from Furman University in 1983 (B.A., History) and also receiving the Music Department's Dupre Rhame Award.

He did his graduate studies at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri (1986 MDiv, cum laude; 1987 MA Historical Theology, cum laude). At graduation he was presented Covenant Seminary’s J. Oliver Buswell Award for Church History and Systematic Theology. He served on the staff of The Covenant Presbyterian Church of St. Louis from 1984-1987. [cite web|url=http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/bio/duncan.html|title= Monergism.com|accessdate=2008-08-22]

Duncan was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Calvary (PCA) in South Carolina in 1985, and ordained in 1990. In June of 1995 he completed doctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh, New College (in Scotland) under the direction of †David F. Wright, Senior Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History and Dean of the Faculty of Divinity. His Ph.D. thesis was on: The Covenant Idea in Ante-Nicene Theology. [cite web|url=http://www.fpcjackson.org/staff/ligon_bibliography.htm|title= Ligon Duncan's Complete Bibliography|accessdate=2008-08-22] While in Edinburgh, Duncan also studied (as an unregistered auditor) Systematic Theology at the Free Church of Scotland College under Professor Donald Macleod. While in Scotland, Duncan regularly supplied pulpits in churches of the Presbyterian Association of England (now Evangelical Presbyterian Church of England and Wales), Church of Scotland, and Free Church of Scotland. In 1990, he joined the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS). [cite web|url=http://www.alliancenet.org/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID307086|CHID559376|CIID1920896,00.html|title= Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals|accessdate=2008-08-22]

Reformed Theological Seminary

In the Summer of 1990, Duncan joined the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS), Jackson, Mississippi, serving in the Theology Department, where he eventually became Chairman of the Theology-Church History Division, and held the John R. Richardson Chair of Systematic Theology. At the same time he served as Assistant Pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi for five years (1990-1995), and as Interim Pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Yazoo City, Mississippi (1993). [cite web|url=http://www.rts.edu/faculty/StaffDetails.aspx?id=265|title= Reformed Theological Seminary|accessdate=2008-08-22]

At RTS, from 1990-1996, Duncan taught a wide range of curriculum, including all the required Systematic Theology courses, Ethics, Apologetics, History of Philosophy and Christian Thought, Covenant Theology, Patristics, the Theology of the Westminster Standards and more. Occasionally he taught in the Christian Education and Missions departments. Duncan also assisted in teaching at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC and Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL.

While at RTS, Duncan met and married Anne (née Harley), of Columbia, South Carolina, herself an accomplished Christian Educator. She is a graduate of Furman University (BA Education), as well as Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (MRE Christian Education) and Reformed Theological Seminary (MA Marriage and Family Therapy). She is a member of the AAMFT, NBCC, AACC and is an LPC. She has served on the staffs of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA), Montgomery, Alabama and the First Presbyterian Church (ARP), Columbia, South Carolina. Mrs. Duncan has also worked in clinical practice with the Family Resource Center in Jackson, Mississippi and lectured on Christian Education and Family Studies at both Belhaven College, Jackson, Mississippi, and Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson. Currently, she is the Community Service Coordinator for the Jackson Preparatory School. The Duncans have two children Sarah Kennedy Duncan and Jennings Ligon Duncan IV. [cite web|url=http://www.fpcjackson.org/staff/duncan.htm|title= First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS|accessdate=2008-08-22]

First Presbyterian Church and the PCA

In 1996, just before he was to take his first sabbatical at RTS, Duncan was called (at the age of 35) to pastor one of the largest Presbyterian congregations in North America, the historic First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, MS.

He is also the founder of the Twin Lakes Fellowship, a "ministerial fraternal devoted to the encouragement of Gospel ministry and ministers." Dr. Duncan hosts an annual conference for the Twin Lakes Fellowship at the Twin Lakes Camp and Conference Center in Florence, MS, a ministry of First Presbyterian Church. [cite web|url=http://www.fpcjackson.org/general/Twin%20Lakes%20Fellowship/Articles/2007%20Invitation%20Letter.pdf|title= The Twin Lakes Fellowship website|accessdate=2008-08-22]

As an active churchman, Dr. Duncan has been involved in the courts of the PCA in various ways. He was appointed to the General Assembly’s Committee on Psalmody, and has served on Committees of Commissioners for Covenant Seminary, MNA, and Bills and Overtures in 2002. He has been a member and Chairman of the Credentials Committee of the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley (1996-2002). He was the Vice-Chairman of the General Assembly’s Creation Study Committee (1998-2000), a member of the Search Committee for a Coordinator of Reformed University Ministries, and currently is the Chairman of the General Assembly’s Theological Examination Committee, and is also a member of the PCA’s Strategic Planning Committee. Dr. Duncan was elected as Moderator of the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley in 2001. At the annual denominational meeting, held in June of 2004, he was elected the Moderator of the General Assembly of the PCA (2004-2005) – the youngest minister to serve as moderator in the denomination’s history. [cite web|url=http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/bio/duncan.html|title= Monergism.com|accessdate=2008-08-22]

Dr. Duncan is also active in a number of professional societies including the Scottish Evangelical Theology Society and the Rutherford House Fellowship in Britain. In the United States he is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, the North American Patristic Society, the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, the National Association of Scholars as well as the South Carolina Historical Society.

Presently, he is a member of the following boards: founder and Editorial Director of Reformed Academic Press, [cite web|url=http://www.castlechurch.org/ctc28/|title= Interview with Castle Church, A Forum for Reformed Theology |accessdate=2008-08-22] Belhaven College (Jackson, MS) [Board of Reference] , the Highland Theological College of the University of the Highlands and Islands (Dingwall, Scotland), the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals [Chairman of the Board] , the Institutional Review Board of the Mississippi Baptist Medical Center (Jackson, MS), Word Ministries (Sardinia, SC) [Chairman of the Board] , the Values Investing Forum (Jackson, MS), the Council of Reference for Christian Witness to Israel, the Board of Reference of the Reformation Translation Fellowship, [cite web|url=http://members.aol.com/Bill4RTF/rtf/index.html#reference|title= Reformation Translation Fellowship|accessdate=2008-08-22] the Ministerial Advisory Board of Reformation Societies International.

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Duncan is the president of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is a “broad coalition of evangelical Christians from various denominations, including Baptist, Congregational (Independent), Anglican (Episcopal), Presbyterian, Reformed, and Lutheran. The purpose of the Alliance’s existence is to call the Church, amidst a dying culture, to repent of its worldliness, to recover and confess the truth of God’s Word as did the reformers, and to see that truth embodied in doctrine, worship, and life.” Duncan is also a featured speaker at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, an Alliance-related forum that offers quarterly conferences on the doctrine, history, worldview, and implications of Reformed Theology. [cite web|url=http://www.alliancenet.org/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID307086|CHID559376|CIID1920896,00.html|title= Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals|accessdate=2008-08-22]

Duncan often contributes to the Alliance's online magazine and blog, Reformation21. [cite web|url=http://www.reformation21.org/|title= Reformation21|accessdate=2008-08-22]

Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

Duncan serves as chairman of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW). CBMW is “a group of pastors and scholars assembled to address their concerns over the influence of feminism not only in our culture but also in evangelical churches…. In opposition to the growing movement of feminist egalitarianism they articulated what is now known as the complementarian position which affirms that men and women are equal in the image of God, but maintain complementary differences in role and function.” Several of Duncan’s sermons, articles, and books on gender issues are offered through CBMW. [cite web|url=http://www.cbmw.org/Board-of-Directors|title= Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood website|accessdate=2008-08-22]

Together for the Gospel

Duncan is member of Together for the Gospel ("T4G"), an affiliation of several Reformed pastors, including CJ Mahaney, Mark Dever and Albert Mohler. T4G holds a bi-annual conference and publishes a blog discussing theological interests. [cite web|url=http://t4g.org/08/media/|title=Together For the Gospel 2008 Conference |accessdate=2008-08-22]

Gospel Coalition

Duncan is a council member of the Gospel Coalition, a “group of (mostly) pastors and churches in the Reformed heritage who delight in the truth and power of the gospel, and who want the gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected to lie at the center of all we cherish, preach, and teach.” They have created The Gospel Coalition Network, which is a network of “Christian pastors and other leaders who stimulate one another to faithfulness and fruitfulness in life and ministry in this rapidly-changing, increasingly urbanized, and spiritually hungry world.” [cite web|url=http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/about/council-members/ligon_duncan|title= The Gospel Coalition|accessdate=2008-08-22]

Books by Ligon Duncan

Books authored/co-authored

"Fear Not!" (foreword by Jerry Bridges). Christian Focus, 2008.

"The Westminster Assembly: A Guide to Basic Bibliography" (co-author with David W. Hall). Reformed Academic Press, 1993.

"A Short History of the Westminster Assembly". Reformed Academic Press, 1993 (co-author/editor with William Beveridge) Sponsored by NAPARC Commemorative Committee.

"The Genesis Debate: Three Views of the Days of Creation" (co-author with David W. Hall, Meredith Kline, Lee Irons, Hugh Ross, and Gleason Archer). Crux Press, 2000.

Should We Leave Our Churches? (Co-author with Mark Talbot). P&R, 2004.

"Women’s Ministry in the Local Church,"(co-author) Crossway, 2006.

Books edited

Matthew Henry’s "Method for Prayer" (editor). Christian Focus Publications/Christian Heritage, 1994.

"The Westminster Confession in the 2lst Century: Essays in Remembrance of the 350th Anniversary of the Westminster Assembly, "(general editor and contributing author) Mentor, Vol. 1, 2003; Vol. 2, 2004; Vol. 3, 2008.

"Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship", (editor and contributing author) P&R, 2003.

Books to which Ligon Duncan has contributed

David Hall’s "The Practice of Confessional Subscription" (contributing author). University Press of America, 1995.

"Reclaiming the Gospel and Reforming Churches", (contributing author) Founders Press, 2003.

"Letters to Timothy", (contributing author) Founders Press, 2004.

"Confessing Our Hope", (contributing author) GPTS Press, 2004.

"The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics", (contributing author) IVP, 2004.

"Preaching the Cross "(contributing author), Crossway, 2007.

"Fear Not: Death and the Afterlife from a Christian Perspective, "Christian Focus, 2008.

"In My Place Condemned He Stood "(contributing author), Crossway, 2008.

References

External links

* [http://www.fpcjackson.org/staff/duncan.htm Ligon Duncan's Biography]
* [http://www.fpcjackson.org/staff/ligon_bibliography.htm Ligon Duncan's Complete Bibliography]
* [http://www.fpcjackson.org First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS]
* [http://www.reformation21.org/ Alliance's reformation21 online magazine]
* [http://www.alliancenet.org/ Alliance Homepage]
* [http://www.cbmw.org Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood]
* [http://www.t4g.org/ Together for the Gospel]
* [http://www.fpcjackson.org/general/Twin%20Lakes%20Fellowship/index_twin_lakes_fellowship.htm Twin Lakes Fellowship]
* [http://www.twinlakescamp.org/ Twin Lakes Camp and Conference Center]