Dr. Michael J. Kruger serves as the President and Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the Charlotte campus of Reformed Theological Seminary.
He earned his Ph.D. under one of the world’s leading text-critical scholars, Larry W. Hurtado, at the University of Edinburgh, where he researched a parchment fragment of an apocryphal gospel, P.Oxy. 840. He graduated summa cum laude with a M.Div. from Westminster Seminary California, and received his B.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Since his appointment to the presidency in 2013, RTS Charlotte has experienced record growth in student enrollment, annual fundraising, and campus development. Under Dr. Kruger’s leadership, RTS Charlotte has launched the Center for Campus Ministry, the Center for Church Planting, and a new masters degree in Christian counseling.
In addition to his duties as president, Dr. Kruger has also served on the faculty of the Charlotte campus since 2002. He is one of the leading scholars today in the study of the origins of the New Testament, particularly the development of the New Testament canon.
He is the author of thirteen books, most recently Bully Pulpit: Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church (Zondervan, 2022), and 5 Things to Pray for Your Spouse: Prayers That Change and Strengthen Your Marriage, co-authored with Melissa B. Kruger (Good Book Company, 2022).
His book Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College (Crossway, 2021), was awarded “Book of the Year” by the Southwestern Baptist Journal of Theology for the category of Worldview/Apologetics, and Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church (SPCK, 2017; IVP Academic, 2018) was awarded “Book of the Year” by The Gospel Coalition in the category of history and biography.
Other publications include The Gospel of the Savior (Brill, 2005), The Heresy of Orthodoxy (Crossway, 2010, with Andreas Köstenberger), Canon Revisited (Crossway, 2012), and The Question of Canon (IVP Academic, 2013). He is also the editor of and contributor to A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament (Crossway, 2016) and co-editor of The Early Text of the New Testament (Oxford, 2012) and Gospel Fragments (Oxford, 2009).
Beyond his work at the Charlotte campus, Dr. Kruger has served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society (2019), the largest society of evangelical scholars in the world, where he is also the co-chair and co-founder of the New Testament Canon, Textual Criticism, and Apocryphal Literature study section. In addition, he is on the editorial board of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Bulletin for Biblical Research.
He is also a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, the American Academy of Religion, and was recently elected to the Society for New Testament Studies (Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas). During his 2009-2010 research sabbatical, he was a visiting scholar at St. Edmund’s College and Tyndale House at Cambridge University, England.
Dr. Kruger regularly speaks, lectures, and teaches throughout the United States and the world—including conferences such as The Gospel Coalition and the Ligonier Conference. In addition to his academic publications, his popular-level articles have appeared in places like Modern Reformation, Tabletalk Magazine, and The Gospel Coalition. He also blogs regularly on his own website, Canon Fodder.
He is married to Melissa Kruger, Director of Women’s Initiatives for The Gospel Coalition and author of numerous books, including most recently, Growing Together: Taking Mentoring Beyond Small Talk and Prayer Requests (Crossway, 2020). They have three children, Emma, John, and Kate.
Publications
• For list of all books and monographs, see here.
• For list of all academic and general audience articles, see here.
• For all my book reviews, see here.
• For index to all my blog posts, see here.
Research Interests
• Development of the NT Canon; particularly fourfold gospel collection
• Gospels, General/Catholic Epistles
• Christian origins; development of early Christianity in the second century
• Apocryphal gospels and the transmission of Jesus tradition
• Palaeography, codicology, ancient manuscripts
Contact Info
Michael J. Kruger
Reformed Theological Seminary
2101 Carmel Rd.
Charlotte, NC 28226
