The Blue
Tribune
The Blue Tribune is your place to learn about all things Covenant and keep up with stories from campus and beyond. By guiding you through the different aspects of Covenant, we'll help you decide if you want to pursue your very own Covenant experience.
Faculty Feature: Dr. John Wingard
Faculty Feature is a series in the Blue Tribune that recognizes the excellent professors and staff of Covenant College through a series of questions.
This week we're highlighting Dr. John Wingard, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Humanities.
What brought you to Covenant? How long have you been teaching?
What brought me to Covenant was Covenant's commitments to the preeminence of Christ and to the Reformed faith. I've been teaching full time for 29 years and I've been at Covenant for half that time.
What do you love about teaching at Covenant?
I love the privilege that is mine of teaching philosophy to bright, curious, engaged students who want to love Jesus with their minds.
What is your history with the PCA or Reformed Tradition?
I've been in the PCA most of my life. My dad was a PCA pastor who faithfully taught me Scripture and Reformed theology. (The Lord also used him to lead me to begin trusting Jesus and repenting of my sin at an early age.) I began to embrace Reformed theology when I began to question it and study it more deeply beginning in the eighth grade.
What's your favorite Covenant tradition?
My favorite tradition here is the practice of having new faculty take vows at convocation and then praying for them as they begin their work among us.
What is a current research project or area of interest you're excited about?
God's eternality, political philosophy, human sexuality.
What's one of your favorite cultural or family traditions?
My favorite tradition is holy week every spring. For years, God has blessed that season as a time of spiritual renewal for me as He has reminded me of the lengths to which He has gone to rescue sinners like me.
Anything else prospective students should know about you?
I love the Church, corporate worship, and investing my life in the Church. I love theology and music. And I love mentoring students and helping others to better know and follow Jesus.
Tell us a little about your family:
I'm blessed to be married to my incredible wife Barbara, and we have three children: Benjamin (married to Kaddy), Megan (married to Tim), and Joshua (currently in high school). By God's grace we're all in Christ and love His Bride, the Church. Oh, and we have one grandson, Micah (Megan and Tim's son) who was born in January 2020! He's a bundle of joy!
How do you/your department encourage each student to pursue academic excellence?
We pray for and with our students and ask God to enable them to succeed in their work, and we try to model academic excellence before them.