Dr. Chris Kugler is as an assistant professor of Theology, and an online program coordinator for Theology at HBU. His primary teaching focuses on Jesus and Paul in their second-temple, Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts.

Dr. Chris Kugler is another impressive scholar in Houston Baptist University’s School of Christian Thought. He talks with Dr. Jerry Johnston, VP of Innovation and Strategic Marketing for HBU, about the School’s offerings and its incredible professors.

Kugler describes his journey from an undergraduate student to a graduate student at the University of St. Andrews and Duke University, and then to an assistant professor at HBU. “The School of Christian Thought is a very impressive place,” Kugler says. “I remember reading over the kind of material which was given about the University when I looked at the job posting. It was the only application that I left actually inspired.It is a unique place in which one can participate in, celebrate and talk about the historic cardinals of the Christian faith and nevertheless be very serious scholars. It’s an exciting place to be where we don’t meet a fork in the road that says serious scholarship or Christian faith. We think both are enriched by the other.”

Johnston affirms the importance of in-depth study and application of the Bible. “There’s such rich truth in the Word of God just waiting to be explained,” he says. Kugler adds, “I think there’s a fear there on the part of pastors that when you go into the rich, dynamic contours of Scripture that it will bore people to death, so you might as well give people five or 10 minutes of self-help talk. It is these rich, deep, historic, theological views of God and humans and the world that sustain people for their whole lives.”

Kugler recommends the School of Christian Thought for both residential and online students. “Already the world-class faculty which the School of Christian Thought has generates its own excitement,” he says. “A lot of those faculty teach online classes as well. We have lively debate and conversations and it’s an energetic place to be.”

Watch or listen to the complete podcast on HBU.edu.