Education
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, B.S.
Westminster Theological Seminary in California, MDiv
University of Edinburgh, Ph.D.
About Dr. Kruger
Dr. Michael J. Kruger serves as the President and Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the Charlotte campus of Reformed Theological Seminary.
He earned his Ph.D. under one of the world’s leading text-critical scholars, Larry W. Hurtado, at the University of Edinburgh, where he researched a parchment fragment of an apocryphal gospel, P.Oxy. 840. He graduated summa cum laude with an M.Div. from Westminster Seminary California and received his B.S. from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Since his appointment to the presidency in 2013, RTS Charlotte has experienced record growth in student enrollment, annual fundraising, and campus development. Under Dr. Kruger’s leadership, RTS Charlotte has launched the Center for Campus Ministry, the Center for Church Planting, and a new master’s degree in biblical counseling.
In addition to his duties as president, Dr. Kruger has also served on the faculty of the Charlotte campus since 2002. He is one of the leading scholars today in the study of the origins of the New Testament, particularly the development of the New Testament canon. He is the author of eleven books, most recently Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College (Crossway, 2021), and Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church (SPCK, 2017; IVP Academic, 2018). The latter was awarded “Book of the Year” by The Gospel Coalition in the category of history and biography.
Other publications include The Gospel of the Savior (E.J. Brill, 2005), The Heresy of Orthodoxy (Crossway, 2010, with Andreas Köstenberger), Canon Revisited (Crossway, 2012), and The Question of Canon (IVP Academic, 2013). He is also the editor of and contributor to A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament (Crossway, 2016) and co-editor of The Early Text of the New Testament (Oxford, 2012) and Gospel Fragments(Oxford, 2009).
Beyond his work at the Charlotte campus, Dr. Kruger has served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society (2019), the largest society of evangelical scholars in the world, where he is also the co-chair and co-founder of the New Testament Canon, Textual Criticism, and Apocryphal Literature study section. In addition, he is on the editorial board of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and The Bulletin for Biblical Research.
He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, the American Academy of Religion, and was recently elected to the Society for New Testament Studies (Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas). During his 2009-2010 research sabbatical, he was a visiting scholar at St. Edmund’s College and Tyndale House at Cambridge University, England.
Dr. Kruger regularly speaks, lectures, and teaches throughout the United States and the world—including conferences such as The Gospel Coalition, Together for the Gospel, the Ligonier Conference, and the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. In addition to his academic publications, his popular-level articles have appeared in places like Desiring God, Reformation 21, Modern Reformation, Tabletalk Magazine, and The Gospel Coalition. He also blogs regularly on his own website, Canon Fodder (www.michaeljkruger.com).
He is married to Melissa Kruger, Director of Women’s Initiatives for The Gospel Coalition and author of numerous books, including most recently, Growing Together: Taking Mentoring Beyond Small Talk and Prayer Requests(Crossway, 2020). They have three children, Emma, John, and Kate.
Publications
BOOKS
- Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College (Crossway, 2021)
- Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church (SPCK, 2017; IVP Academic, 2018)
- A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament (Crossway, 2016)
- The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate (IVP Academic, 2013)
- Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books (Crossway, 2012)
- The Early Text of the New Testament (co-authored, Oxford University Press, 2012)
- The Heresy of Orthodoxy: How Contemporary Culture’s Fascination with Diversity has Reshaped Our Understanding of Early Christianity (co-authored, Crossway, 2010)
- Gospel Fragments (co-authored, Oxford University Press, 2009)
- The Gospel of the Savior (E.J. Brill, 2005)
SELECT ARTICLES
- “The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers,” in Ancient Literature for New Testament Studies (ALNTS), Vol 4: The Apostolic Fathers, ed. Paul Foster (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, forthcoming).
- “Inspiration and the Formation of the New Testament Canon,” in The New Testament Canon in Contemporary Research, eds. Stanley E. Porter and Benjamin Laird (Leiden: E.J. Brill, forthcoming).
- “Miniature Codices in Early Christianity,” in Paratextual Features in Early New Testament Papyri and Manuscripts, eds. Stanley E. Porter, Chris S. Stevens, and David I. Yoon (TENT 15 ; Leiden: E.J. Brill, forthcoming).
- “Covenant in the Gospels,” in Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Perspectives, eds. Guy Prentiss Waters, J. Nicholas Reid, and John R. Muether (Crossway, 2020), 211-226.
- “2 Peter 3:2, the Apostolate, and a Bi-Covenantal Canon,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 63 (2020): 5-24.
- “The Origin and Authority of the Biblical Canon” in the ESV Systematic Theology Study Bible, eds. Christopher Morgan, Robert Peterson and Stephen J. Wellum (Crossway, 2017), 1639-1642.
- “Lessons Learned from the Church of the Second Century,” Expository Times 128 (2017): 467.
- “First Timothy 5:18 and Early Canon Consciousness: Reconsidering a Problematic Text,” in The Language and Literature of the New Testament: Essays in Honor of Stanley E. Porter’s 60th Birthday, eds. Lois K. Fuller Dow, Craig Evans, and Andrew W. Pitts (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2016), 680-700.
- “The Reception of the Book of Revelation in the Early Church,” in Book of Seven Seals: The Peculiarity of Revelation, Its Manuscripts, Attestation and Transmission, ed. Thomas Kraus and Michael Sommer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), p. 159-174.
- “Inerrancy, Canonicity, Preservation and Textual Criticism,” in The Inerrant Word: Biblical, Historical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspectives, ed. John MacArthur (Crossway, 2016), 304-316.
- “Heresy: New Testament” in The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), vol. 11, 845-848.
- “New Testament Textual Criticism,” in The Reformation Study Bible, R.C. Sproul, ed. (Reformation Trust, 2015), 2369-2371.
- “Origen’s List of New Testament Books in Hom. Josh. 7.1: A Fresh Look,” in Chris Keith and Deiter T. Roth, eds., Mark, Manuscripts, and Monotheism: Essays in Honor of Larry W. Hurtado (T&T Clark, 2014), 99-117.
- “A Roundtable Discussion with Michael Licona on The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach,” Southeastern Theological Review 3 (2012): 71-98.
- “The Definition of the Term ‘Canon’: Exclusive or Multi-Dimensional?,” Tyndale Bulletin 63 (2012): 1-20.
- “Deconstructing Canon: Recent Challenges to the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Writings,” in Did God Really Say?, ed. David B. Garner (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2012), 49-70.
- “The Date and Content of P. Antinoopolis 12 (0232),” New Testament Studies 58 (2012): 254-271.
- “Early Christian Attitudes Towards the Reproduction of Texts,” in The Early Text of the New Testament, eds. Charles E. Hill and Michael J. Kruger (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 63-80.
- “Manuscripts, Scribes, and Book Production within Early Christianity,” in Christian Origins and Classical Culture: Social and Literary Contexts for the New Testament, eds. Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2012), 15-40.
- “Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 840” in The Non-Canonical Gospels, ed. Paul Foster (London: Continuum/T&T Clark, 2008), 151-162.
- “Bridging the Gap Between New Testament and Textual Criticism: The Legacy of T.C. Skeat,” The Expository Times 116 (2005): 374-376.
- “P.Oxy. 840: Amulet or Miniature Codex?” Journal of Theological Studies 53 (2002): 81- 94.
- “The Sufficiency of Scripture in Apologetics” The Master’s Seminary Journal 12 (2001): 69-87.
- “The Authenticity of Second Peter,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 42 (1999): 645-671.