Willard M. Swartley
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Willard Swartley is professor emeritus at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana. He joined the faculty at AMBS in 1978 and continued teaching until 2004. He served as academic dean at AMBS for seven years (1979-1981; 1995-2001).
Willard was the youngest in a family of eight children growing up on a farm near the Delaware River on the rolling hills of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Eastern Mennonite University, Goshen Biblical Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary where he received a PhD in 1973.
While he was in seminary, Willard became pastor and was ordained at Locust Grove Mennonite Church in Elkhart. He has served the church in many capacities over the years, leading seminars at church-wide conventions, serving on special study committees, and teaching in congregational settings.
He has authored Health, Healing and the Church's Mission (InterVarsity, 2012); Covenant of Peace (Eerdmans, 2006); Slavery, Sabbath, War, and Women (Herald Press, 1983); and Mark, he Way for All Nations (Herald Press, 1983, Wipf & Stock, 1999). He has also edited over thirty books, including, with Perry B. Yoder, The Meaning of Peace (Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2001); Love of Enemy and Nonretaliation in the New Testament (Westminster John Knox, 1992; now available from editor Swartley); and with C. J. Dyck, Annotated Bibliography of Mennonite Writings on War and Peace: 1930-1980 (Herald Press, 1987); now available from the Institute of Mennonite Studies).
Willard and his wife, Mary, are actively involved in the Belmont Mennonite Church and are the parents of Louisa Swartley Oyer and Kenton Swartley, and grandparents of John and Michael Oyer, and Kristen, Jeremy, Libby, and Michelle Swartley.
