Beginning Feb. 9, Erskine College will host Dr. William Edgar, Professor of Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Penn., who has been chosen Staley Distinguished Christian Scholar by the Thomas F. Staley Foundation of New York.

Slated to deliver the annual Staley Lectures at Erskine College and Seminary, Edgar will speak at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 9; at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 10; and at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 11. All lectures will be given in Lesesne Auditorium.

Edgar's scheduled lecture topics are: for Feb. 9, “The Great Reversal”; for Feb. 10, “Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Story of Rock”; and for Feb. 11, “Heaven in a Nightclub: The Spiritual Background of Jazz Music.”

A native of Wilmington, N.C., Edgar holds degrees from Harvard University (B.A. in Music), Westminster Theological Seminary (M. Div.) and the University of Geneva (D. Th.). He is married to Barbara Smyth Edgar and they are the parents of two children.

Edgar is the author of a number of books, including Taking Note of Music (London: SPCK, 1986), Reasons of the Heart (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996) and La carte protestante (Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1997). He contributed to the recent volume Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Christian Thinkers, edited by Kelly Monroe (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996). He has written numerous articles on such subjects as cultural apologetics, the city of Geneva, and African-American music.

An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, Edgar is a member of the American Musicological Society, the Evangelical Theological Society, the American Historical Association, and the Society for Ethnomusicology. He regularly participates as a co-moderator at the Trinity Forum Seminars and currently serves on the Medical Ethics Committee of the Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist and plays part-time with a professional jazz band.

Founded by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Erskine has been dedicated to "Christian Commitment and Excellence in Learning" for 160 years.