Associate Professor of Church History
tbuchan@nashotah.edu | (262) 646-6521
PhD in Theological & Religious Studies, Drew University
MPhil in Theological & Religious Studies, Drew University
MA in Theological Studies: Church History, Wheaton College Graduate School
BA in Biblical Studies: New Testament, Wheaton College
Fr. Thomas Buchan began his undergraduate education in biblical studies. Somewhat unexpectedly, a required course in historical theology awakened interests in the history of Christianity that would not abate. To his bachelor’s degree in biblical studies was added a master’s degree in church history. Later, as a doctoral student at Drew University, Fr. Buchan read widely in church history East and West, ancient and modern. As a graduate research assistant, he also contributed to several volumes of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (IVP), edited by Dr. Thomas C. Oden.
Fr. Buchan’s dissertation, “Blessed Is He Who Has Brought Adam From Sheol”: The Doctrine of Christ’s Descent to the Dead in the Theology of Saint Ephrem the Syrian was the first book-length treatment of the subject and was published by Gorgias Press in 2004. From 1998-2006, Fr. Buchan taught as an adjunct professor in the fields of church history and New Testament, as well as historical and systematic theology. He also worked as an editor for Gorgias Press and with Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. In 2006, Fr. Buchan was appointed to the faculty of Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida.
He was ordained deacon and priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida in 2009. He began teaching in Nashotah House’s Distance Learning program in 2010 and was invited to join the residential faculty in the Spring of 2012. Fr. Buchan’s academic interests include historiography, ancient Christian martyrdom and asceticism, the history of doctrines and practices of sanctification and holiness, Trinitarian theology, Christology, and the history of exegesis.
He has published essays on biblical authority, “theosis” in the works of St. Ephrem the Syrian, and the historical-theological method of John Wesley. Fr. Buchan and his wife, Shelly, have two children. As a family, they enjoy hiking, biking, reading, and their dogs, Trixie and Wynnie.
“Thomas Oden’s Theo-Comic Perception,” in The Living Church, November 13, 2016.
“John Wesley and the Constantinian Fall of the Church: Historiographical Indications of Pietist Influence,” in The Pietist Impulse in Christianity, Princeton Theological Monograph Series 155, edited by Christian T. Collins Winn, Christopher Gehrz, G. William Carlson, Eric Holst. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2011.
“Paradise as the Landscape of Salvation in Ephrem the Syrian,” in Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions, edited by Michael J. Christensen and Jeffery A. Wittung, Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 2007/Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.
“Inerrancy as Inheritance?: Competing Genealogies of Biblical Authority,” in Evangelicals and Scripture: Tradition, Authority and Hermeneutics, edited by Vincent Bacote, Laura C. Miguelez, Dennis L. Okholm. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004.
“Convergences in the Historical-Theological Methods of Adolf von Harnack and John Henry Newman,” in Papers of the Nineteenth Century Theology Group XXXIV, edited by D. Jodock, D.C. Ratke, C.J.T. Talar. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2003.
“Blessed Is He Who Has Brought Adam From Sheol”: Christ’s Descent to the Dead in the Theology of Saint Ephrem the Syrian. Gorgias Dissertations 13, Early Christian Studies 2. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2004.
