Douglas F. Kelly

Douglas Floyd Kelly (born September 23, 1943) is a Presbyterian pastor, theologian and noted author, who was the Richard Jordan Professor of Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary for 33 years from 1982-2016, during which time he published numerous books and articles, of which he is best known for If God Already Knows, Why Pray? (1992), his translations of Calvin's Sermons on II Samuel (1989) and his three volume magnum opus of systematic theology: Volume One: The God Who Is: The Holy Trinity (Mentor, 2008); Volume Two: The Beauty of Christ: A Trinitarian Vision (Mentor, 2014); and Volume Three: The Holy Spirit and the Church (Mentor, 2021).

Biography

Education and academic career

Douglas was born in 1943 in Lumberton, NC to Martha Pate Kelly and Floyd Ferguson Kelly while his father was in the army on the Western Front in France and Germany. He remained an only child but spent the summers through university on the family farm in Carthage, NC, which formation in family history would lead to two later publications: Carolina Scots: An Historical and Genealogical Study of Over 100 Years of Immigration (1998); and The Scottish Blue Family in North America. After completing high school at Lumberton High, he entered the University of North Carolina, where he received his B. A. in Classics (1961-1965), studying not only Latin and Greek, but also Hebrew, German, French and Gaelic. His final year he became part of UNC's first academic exchange with the University of Lyon, where he obtained a Diplome de Langue et de Civilisation Francaises. He returned to the U.S. to enter seminary at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA with a summer internship after his first year at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS under Rev. John Reed Miller with the next two summers spent at Raeford Presbyterian Church in NC. After completion of his M. Div. (1968), he was awarded a one year academic scholarship from the St. Andrews Society of NY to pursue further theological studies at Edinburgh University (1968-1969). After returning to Raeford the following year to initially work under Cortez Cooper (who was eventually called to First Presbyterian Church of Nashville), he became the interim senior minister. When the Torrance brothers secured funding for further theological studies, he returned to Edinburgh (1970-1973) where he completed his PhD studies in Patristics under Thomas F. Torrance, completing the first English translation with commentary of Novatian of Rome's De Trinitate. At the conclusion of his studies in 1973 he became engaged to fellow theological student Caroline Switzer (of Cambridge, U.K.) and were married in Lumberton, NC, that same year.

He then took his first long term call as senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Dillon, SC where he remained from 1973-1981. From the Carolinas he and his then family of four children transitioned to Northern, CA where he had received funding for two years of translation work on John Calvin's Sermons on Second Samuel which he later published with Banner of Truth. From the years of 1981-1983, he worked there with a somewhat controversial figure, R.J. Rushdoony, editing the Journal of Christian Reconstruction, speaking domestically and internationally, and carrying on the translation work. During the end of his time in CA, he was called by Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS, to be their Professor of Systematic Theology. With a fifth child recently born, the family returned to the South, where Dr. Kelly taught at the Jackson campus for the next 12 years, working with David F. Wright at the University of Edinburgh as editor-in-chief of Calvin's Old Testament commentary.

As RTS opened further extension campuses first in Orlando, then later Charlotte, Dr. Kelly made weekly trips at different periods to each one as a visiting lecturer, ultimately transitioning to Charlotte in 1994, when RTS purchased the former Carmel Baptist Church as a full campus. He remained there as the Richard Jordan Professor of Theology until his retirement in 2016, and now holds the title of Professor of Theology Emeritus In addition to full-time teaching as well as writing (below), he spent nearly every Sunday when he was in Jackson and later in Charlotte preaching exegetically through various books of the Bible. These churches included First Presbyterian Church (Young Seekers' Sunday School Class), Trinity Presbyterian in Jackson (interim), Second Presbyterian in Yazoo City (interim Wednesdays and Sunday evenings), Sovereign Grace in Charlotte (of which he was a founding member) and Reedy Creek Presbyterian Church in Minturn, SC. From the time in Mississippi, we have his commentary on II Corinthians, New Life in the Wasteland: 2 Corinthians on the Cost and Glory of Christian Ministry. And from Reedy Creek we have the commentaries of Revelation and later Deuteronomy. The sermons from each of these eras are in the process of being digitized and placed on a dedicated site, DFKarchives.org.

Familly

Douglas is married to Caroline Switzer Kelly, the daughter of Jeffery Francis Quarry Switzer, a graduate of Royal Naval College Dartmouth, who was a naval officer during the early portions of WWII until he invalided out of the Navy due to pleurisy of the lungs. Sent to a TB sanitorium, he met his eventual wife, Sheila, who had contracted TB during the War while working as a volunteer in bomb shelters in underground (Tube) stations in London. When they recovered, they moved to Cambridge where Jeffrey had received a scholarship at Sidney Sussex College, and read Estate Management. He eventually took a post as a lecturer in the redesigned Department of Land Economy, and became a fellow, and later Bursar, of Sidney Sussex, remaining in Cambridge until his retirement. He had a distinguished career in the field of Town and Country Planning, receiving honors such as the Keys to London from the Haberdashers' Company.

Caroline finished secondary school in Cambridge before moving for year to Uganda to work as an aide for blind students the Braille Room in Wanyange School for Girls outside Jinja. She then went to Edinburgh University for an MA (Ord) degree, majoring in sociology and Biblical Studies, followed by an M.Div.Hons at New College, where she met Douglas, as mentioned above. When they returned to the U.S., she eventually began teaching Latin in a 100% African-American, inner city high school in Jackson, MS while Douglas was teaching at RTS. When they transitioned to Charlotte, NC, she taught middle and high school at Covenant Day School, transitioning to the Board upon her retirement. She also taught online for Mitchell Community College . Due to her distinction in teaching and Latin pedagogy, Caroline held positions as the President of the Foreign Language Association of NC (FLANC), President of the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT) and was later the SCOLT representative to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) as well as a Secretary-Treasurer of the North Carolina Classical Association and writer both for the ACTFL Latin Interpretive Reading Assessment (ALIRA) and the National Latin Exam (NLE) She received the Honorary Life Membership Award for FLANC as well as the lifetime ACL Merita Award.

They have five children, who work in the fields of business consulting, Russian literature and poetry, agricultural lobbying, Art and painting, as well as medicine.

Upon retirement, they moved to Carthage, NC, where they live in the Alexander Kelly House, built from1836-1842 by the brother of Douglas's great-great grandfather.

Bibliography

Festschrift

 Generation to Generation: Writings in Honor of Douglas F. Kelly. Edited by Matthew S. Miller and D. Blair Smith. (Mentor, 2023).

Books

 Systematic Theology, Vol 1: Grounded in Holy Scripture and Understood in the Light of the Church: The God Who Is: The Holy Trinity (Mentor, US 2009 & UK 2008)

 Systematic Theology, Vol 2: The Beauty of Christ - a Trinitarian Vision (Mentor, 2014)

 Systematic Theology, Vol 3: The Holy Spirit and the Church (Mentor, 2021)

 An English Translation of John Calvin’s Sermons on II Samuel 1-13 (Banner of Truth, 1992) [Dr. Kelly and his wife, Caroline, a noted Latin and French scholar, are together working on the translations of the chapters 14-24.]

 New Life in the Wasteland: 2 Corinthians on the Cost and Glory of Christian Ministry (Christian Focus, 2003)

 Revelation: A Mentor Expository Commentary (Mentor, 2015)

 Deuteronomy: A Mentor Expository Commentary (Mentor, 2022)

 If God Already Knows, Why Pray? (Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1989)

 Creation and Change: Genesis 1:1-2:4 in the Light of Changing Scientific Paradigms (Mentor, 2003; Second revised and updated edition, 2017)

 Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World: Five Calvinist Governments from the 16th to 18th centuries (P&R, 1992)

 Preachers with Power: Four Stalwarts of the South (Banner of Truth, 1993)

 The Westminster Confession of Faith: An Authentic Modern Version [authored jointly with Professor Phil Rollinson and Dr. Hugh McClure] (P&R, 1986)

 The Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English (P&R, 1986)

 The Lord's Day in a Secular Society [authored with Graham Dickson] (Rutherford House, 1999)

 A Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith: Commentary [authored jointly with John H. Gerstner and Phil Rollinson] (Summertown Texts, 1992)

 Carolina Scots: An Historical and Genealogical Study of Over 100 Years of Immigration (Seventeen Thirty Nine Publications, 1998)

 The Scottish Blue Family in North America (Seventeen Thirty Nine Publications, 2007)

Book Chapters

 A Theological Guide to Calvin’s Institutes – Chapter 4: The True and Triune God: Calvin’s Doctrine of the Holy Trinity (P&R, 2008)

 Worship in the Presence of God – Chapter 7: Family Worship: Biblical, Reformed, and Viable for Today (Reformation Media & Press, 2006)

Articles

 Cotton Mather on Raising Children. Banner of Truth Magazine, July 1976

 1 Peter 2:13-15 – The Duty of the Christian to the Civil Government. Banner of Truth Magazine, 3 July 2015

 A Response to the Decision of the C of S General Assembly. Banner of Truth Magazine. 23 May 2011