Richard F. Wilson is the Columbus Roberts Professor of Theology and the chair of the Department of Christianity in Mercer University's College of Liberal Arts. He joined the faculty at Mercer in 1988 and has been chair of the department at the Georgia school since 2001.
Dr. Wilson is a teaching theologian, an ordained Baptist minister, a published scholar, and an active churchman. His publications include the award-winning Mercer Dictionary of the Bible (Ass't Editor) and the Mercer Commentary on the Bible (General Editor). He published a collections of sermons delivered during a fifteen year stint as Dean of the Chapel. He has collaborated with world Baptists in a number of publications that relate to the work of the Baptist World Alliance. His most recent project is a commentary on 2 Peter for the acclaimed Smyth and Helwys Commentary on the Bible, which is in press.
This year Dr. Wilson was named the Chair of the Baptist World Alliance's Commission on Christian Ethics for 2010-2015.
Since 1993 Dr. Wilson has known and worked with Dr. Olu Menjay, the Principal at Ricks Institute. Menjay was a student of Wilson's at Mercer and there they developed a lasting friendship that has become an important partnership between Ricks and Mercer. In May 2010 Wilson will make his fifth visit to Ricks Institute in four years. He has taken student groups and church groups to Liberia as a way to deepen global awareness and the partnerships between Mercer and Ricks and between Georgia Baptists and Ricks.
For thirty-five years Dr. Wilson has been married to Lucy Parks Wilson, who also shares his deep commitments to Ricks Institute.