Gregory Alan Thornbury


Gregory Alan Thornbury serves as Vice President of Development at the New York Academy of Art in New York City. He is former Chancellor and President of The King's College in New York City and is no longer a member of the college's executive leadership. In November 2017, the College announced it was restructuring its leadership and appointing Tim Gibson as acting president The restructuring came in the middle of the academic year and before Thornbury had completed his fourth academic year. Before King's, he was previously Professor of Philosophy, Dean of the School of Theology & Missions, and Vice President for Spiritual Life at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.

Early life and education

Thornbury grew up in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. His father, John Forrest Thornbury, was Pastor of the Winfield Baptist Church outside of Lewisburg. Greg Thornbury attended Messiah College for his undergraduate studies. He graduated from Messiah College in 1993, with a B.A. in communications. At Messiah College, he met his future wife, Kimberly. They married shortly after their simultaneous graduations from Messiah and moved to the campus of Southern Seminary in the summer of 1993. In 1996, Thornbury received a Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary, and subsequently enrolled in the Ph.D. program at Southern with an emphasis in philosophical theology under the supervision of R. Albert Mohler, and completed additional graduate study at Green College in Oxford. He finished his dissertation in 2001 in the area of religious epistemology. During his days as a graduate student, he came to know Carl F.H. Henry through correspondences and meetings. Thornbury relates how he had come close to losing his faith, but that reading Henry helped secure his faith: "Henry showed me how to be both a scholar and a follower of Jesus."

Professional career

Thornbury was ordained in 1996 at the First Baptist Church of Clarksville, Indiana. Most of his career has been spent in higher education at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. In 1998, David Dockery of Union recruited him to teach philosophy, and he received tenure in 2006 after being promoted to associate professor. In 2000, he assumed the role of director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Christian Leadership, after acquiring permission from Henry for the name.
In 2006, Thornbury became the founding dean of the Union School of Theology and Missions at Union University, where he initiated several new graduate programs, including a doctoral program in Singapore. He also supervised Union's Spiritual Life division as vice president, and led the university's chapel, campus discipleship programs, and mission trips.
He serves as senior fellow for The Kairos Journal contributing editor for Providence Magazine, and as theological editor for Biblemesh.com . He has also been active in the arts, and has spoken at exhibitions of the work of Carl Perkins, Larry Norman, and Daniel Johnston. He has also served as a visiting professor at Ansgar Teologiske Høgskole in Norway.

The King's College

On July 11, 2013, The King's College named Thornbury as its sixth president. He began his presidency there on August 1, 2013. The announcement was seen as a return to King's founding vision as a Christian, evangelical college and a repudiation of the political direction it had taken during Dinesh D'Souza's tenure. Religious and secular media such as First Things, World Magazine, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and The American Spectator covered the appointment.
In November 2017, the board of trustees announced that Thornbury would become Chancellor. Tim Gibson, then the Executive Vice President, was appointed acting president. The press release does not state a reason for the restructuring or effective dates. Thornbury has since accepted the position of Vice President at the New York Academy of Art and resigned as Chancellor of The King's College in 2018.

Writings

Much of Thornbury's writing is concentrated on Baptist and Evangelical Christianity. He is a scholar of Carl F. H. Henry's life and work, and he authored in March 2013. He is the co-editor and co-author of Who Will Be Saved? Defending the Biblical Understanding of God, Salvation, & Evangelism and Shaping a Christian Worldview: The Foundations of Christian Higher Education. He has contributed to volumes such as A Theology for the Church, Faith and Learning: A Handbook for Christian Higher Education, The Lord's Supper: Remembering and Proclaiming Christ Until He Comes. He has also written a biography of Larry Norman, who is widely considered to be one of the "Jesus Rock" pioneers of the 1970s. The book Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?: Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock was released in March 2018. His book on Larry Norman has received widespread praise including a substantially positive mention in an article in The New Yorker magazine written by Kelefa Sanneh.

Scholarship

Books written or edited by Gregory Alan Thornbury include: