Bruce C. Birch, Ph.D., is Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Biblical Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.

A native of Kansas, Dr. Birch received a B.A. from Southwestern College, B.D. from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and a M.A., M.Phil., and  Ph.D. from Yale University.  He completed post-doctoral study at Tübingen University in Germany.  Dr. Birch taught at Yale, Iowa Wesleyan College and Erskine College prior to joining the faculty at Wesley in 1971.  He has taught as visiting professor in numerous international settings including Russia, Israel, Liberia, Mexico, Korea, Indonesia, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom.

An ordained United Methodist Elder in the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference,  Dr. Birch has been a delegate to UMC General and Jurisdictional Conferences and served on its General Board of Church and Society. 

A frequent contributor to journals and periodicals, Dr. Birch has authored eighteen books including What Does the Lord Require?; Singing the Lord’s Song; Let Justice Roll Down: The Old Testament, Ethics and Christian Life; Hosea, Joel, Amos for the Westminster Bible Companion, and To Love As We Are Loved: The Bible and Relationships.  With Larry Rasmussen he has co-authored The Predicament of the Prosperous and Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life.  He has served as one of the Old Testament editors for the New Interpreter’s Bible and contributed the commentary on 1 and 2 Samuel.  With Walter Brueggemann, Terence Fretheim, and David Petersen, he co-authored A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament, now in its second edition. He co-authored with Lewis A. Parks Ducking Spears, Dancing Madly: A Biblical Model of Church Leadership. His most recent book is Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life: A New Conversation, co-authored with Larry Rasmussen, Jacqueline Lapsley and Cynthia Moe-Lobeda.