David VanDrunen

Robert B. Strimple Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics

Dr. VanDrunen, a minister of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, began teaching at Westminster Seminary California in 2001. He was formerly a pastor of Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Hanover Park, IL, and has served on the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s Committee on Christian Education since 2005. He was the recipient of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award (2004), a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University (2009), a Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology (2016–17), and Research Fellow at the Protestant Theological University in The Netherlands (2022).

Dr. VanDrunen is the author or editor of thirteen books, including Politics after Christendom: Political Theology in a Fractured World (Zondervan Academic, 2020), named Book of the Year (2021) in Politics and Public Life by Christianity Today. His scholarly articles have appeared in many journals, including Journal of Reformed Theology, Journal of Law and Religion, and Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics.

Dr. VanDrunen and his wife, Katherine, a WSC alumna, have one son and reside in Escondido.


Education
BA Calvin College;
MDiv Westminster Seminary California;
ThM Trinity Evangelical Divinity School;
JD Northwestern University School of Law;
PhD Loyola University Chicago


What I Want to Instill in My Students
“I want to instill in my students a holistic knowledge of Reformed theology and ethics. But much more than this, I want them to understand how our doctrine and practice emerge from the text of Scripture so that they, too, can defend these truths from the biblical pages. Furthermore, I hope that my teaching will help them to understand what the church is and is called to be, and that this in turn will enable them to be better equipped pastors and teachers.”


How Should Christians Respond to the Changing Culture?


An Interview with David VanDrunen