Dr. O. Wesley Allen, Jr. Named Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics

DALLAS (SMU) – Rev. Dr. O. Wesley Allen, Jr. has accepted an invitation from Southern Methodist University to serve as Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, effective fall 2015.

Rev. Dr. O. Wesley Allen, Jr. (photo courtesy of Dr. Allen)

Perkins School of Theology Dean William B. Lawrence expressed enthusiasm for Dr. Allen’s appointment. “Dr. Allen is widely regarded as a very compelling preacher who is also an extremely effective teacher of preaching,” Dean Lawrence said. “His teaching and research at Perkins School of Theology and the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences will strengthen the academic discipline of homiletics and enrich the ministries of our students for years to come.”

Dr. Allen is currently professor of Homiletics and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary, and has the distinction of being president-elect of the Academy of Homiletics. He earned the Ph.D. from Emory University in 1996; M.Div., summa cum laude, from Yale Divinity School in 1990; and B.A., summa cum laude, from Birmingham-Southern College in 1987.

He is the author and editor of numerous books on homiletics and interpretation of the New Testament, as well as many scholarly articles and published sermons.

An ordained elder in the Indiana Annual Conference, Dr. Allen has previously been a local church pastor and has served as a campus minister at the Georgia Tech Wesley Foundation and as Dean of the Chapel at DePauw University. Prior to his faculty appointment at Lexington Theological Seminary, he taught homiletics at Drew Theological School and Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, Drew University.

Dr. Allen becomes the fourth appointee to the Lois Craddock Perkins Professorship of Homiletics. Previous appointees include James Wharton, John C. Holbert, and Brad R. Braxton. The Lois Craddock Perkins Chair of Homiletics was established in 1985 through the generosity of The Joe and Lois Perkins Foundation, Perkins-Prothro Foundation, and Charles N. and Elizabeth Prothro. 

Perkins School of Theology, founded in 1911, is one of five official University-related schools of theology of The United Methodist Church. Degree programs include the Master of Divinity, Master of Sacred Music, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Arts in Ministry, and Doctor of Ministry, as well as the Ph.D., in cooperation with The Graduate Program in Religious Studies at SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.