William Edgar Senior Fellow

William Edgar is Professor of Apologetics, Coordinator of the Apologetics Department, and Chairman of the Faculty at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. A regular Trinity Forum Moderator, he was named a Senior Fellow in 2004.

He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1944 and grew up in Paris, France. He studied at St George’s School (secondary), Harvard University (Honors B.A. in Music), Westminster Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and the University of Geneva (D.Th.). He has taught at the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Connecticut, and at the Faculté Libre de Théologie Réformée, in Aix-en-Provence, France, where he continues as Professeur Associé. He has been at Westminster since 1989 and is currently Professor of Apologetics, Coordinator of the Apologetics Department, and Chairman of the Faculty.

Dr. Edgar belongs to a number of learned societies, including the American Musicological Society, the Evangelical Theological Society, the American Historical Association, and the Society for Ethnomusicology. He served as the President of the Huguenot Fellowship and is currently on their Board of Trustees. He is on the editorial committee of La Revue Réformée. He regularly takes part as a speaker in the Veritas Forum programs. He also serves on the Institutional Review Board and the Medical Ethics Committee of The Chestnut Hill Hospital.

Edgar is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, and has served on several denominational committees. His books include Taking Note of Music (London: SPCK, 1986), Reasons of the Heart (Baker/Hourglass, 1996; P & R, 2003), La carte protestante (Labor et Fides, 1997), The Face of Truth: Lifting the Veil (P & R, 2001),Truth in All Its Glory: Commending the Reformed Faith (P & R, 2004), History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America 1871-1920 (2019), and A Supreme Love: The Music of Jazz and the Hope of the Gospel (2022). He has written numerous articles on such subjects as cultural apologetics, the music of Brahms, the French Huguenots, and African-American aesthetics. His favorite avocations are soccer and jazz piano. He plays regularly with a professional jazz band.

Bill is married to Barbara Smyth Edgar, who is Administrator of the Huguenot Fellowship and also teaches French at the Westminster Language Institute. They have two children and three grandchildren. Their son, William Keyes Hill-Edgar, is a senior attorney with Viacom Productions in New York. He is married to the former Allison Hill, a medical doctor. They have two sons, William Morgan, and John Gordon. The Edgars’ daughter, Deborah Boatwright, is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary, and presently practices as a marriage and family therapist in Monrovia, California.

Publications and Scholarly Work 

• A Supreme Love: The Music of Jazz and the Hope of the Gospel (2022)

• History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America 1871-1920 (2019)

• Suffering and the Goodness of God  (2018)

• Created and Creating: A Biblical Theology of Culture (2016)

• Does Christianity Really Work? (2016)

• A Transforming Vision: The Lord’s Prayer as a Lens of Life (2014)

• Schaeffer on the Christian Life: Countercultural Spirituality (2013)

• Christian Apologetics Past and Present (Volume 1, To 1500): A Primary Source Reader (2009)

• ​​​Christian Apologetics Past and Present (Volume 2, From 1500): A Primary Source Reader (2009)

• Truth In All Its Glory: Commending the Reformed Faith (2004)

• Reasons of the Heart: Recovering Christian Persuasion (2003)

• The Face of Truth: Lifting the Veil (2001)