Jennings Ligon Duncan III (born November 29, 1960) is an American Presbyterian scholar and pastor.
Early life and education
Duncan is native to Greenville, South Carolina. His father was an eighth-generation Southern Presbyterian ruling elder. Duncan graduated from Greenville Senior High School in 1979 and Furman University in 1983 (B.A., History). He continued his studies at Covenant Theological Seminary with an M.Div. in 1986 and an MA in historical theology in 1987. He completed doctoral studies in theology at the University of Edinburgh, New College in 1995.
He served on the staff of Covenant Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, (1984–1987). He was licensed to preach in 1985 by the Presbytery of Calvary (PCA) in South Carolina, and ordained in 1990.
Institutional and organizational involvement
Reformed Theological Seminary
In the Summer of 1990, Duncan joined the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS), Jackson, Mississippi, as the John R. Richardson Chair of Systematic Theology. At the same time he served as assistant pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi (1990–1995), and interim pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Yazoo City, Mississippi (1993).
Effective January 1, 2014, Duncan resigned his position as Sr. Minister at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS, and assumed the role of Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary. He continues to teach in the department of Systematic Theology while serving in this role.
First Presbyterian Church and the PCA
Duncan was named senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Mississippi (PCA) in 1996, and served in that capacity until early 2014. An active churchman, he has been involved in the courts of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in various ways: General Assembly's Committee on Psalmody; Committees of Commissioners for Covenant Theological Seminary, Mission to North America, and Bills and Overtures; member and chair of the Credentials Committee of the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley (1996–2002); vice-chair of the General Assembly's Creation Study Committee (1998–2000); member of the search committee for a Coordinator of Reformed University Ministries; chair of the General Assembly's Theological Examination Committee; member of the PCA's Strategic Planning Committee; moderator of the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley (2001); moderator of the PCA General Assembly (2004), making him the youngest elected to this position in the denomination's history.
Other Organizations
He is the former president of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, a broad coalition of evangelical Christians from various denominations. It aims to call the church to repent of what it see as its worldliness, and to take up the mantle of the Protestant reformers in recovering the centrality of worship and doctrine in the life of the church. In his capacity as president, Duncan regularly spoke at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, an Alliance-related forum that offers quarterly conferences on Reformed doctrine and history. He also contributes to the Alliance's online magazine and blog, Reformation21.
He is also a council member of the Gospel Coalition, a "group of (mostly) pastors and churches in the Reformed heritage who delight in the truth and power of the gospel, and who want the gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected to lie at the center of all we cherish, preach, and teach." They have created The Gospel Coalition Network, which is a consortium of "Christian pastors and other leaders who stimulate one another to faithfulness and fruitfulness in life and ministry in this rapidly-changing, increasingly urbanized, and spiritually hungry world."
Pastoral History
Ligon Duncan is the Chancellor/CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary and the John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology. Ligon was born in Greenville, SC, and reared in the home of an eighth generation Presbyterian ruling elder. A 1983 graduate of Furman University (B.A. History), he received the M.Div. and M.A. (Historical Theology) from Covenant Theological Seminary. He earned the Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, New College, Scotland, in 1995 (under the supervision of renowned Reformation and Patristics scholar, David F. Wright). While in Scotland he also studied Systematic Theology at the Free Church of Scotland College (now Edinburgh Theological Seminary) with Professor Donald Macleod.