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Biography - Mark D Wessner

Professor Wessner is fortunate to live in the two worlds of academic study and spiritual formation. Along with being an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at APUS since 2002, he is also the Senior Associate Pastor at a local community church. Professor Wessner has been an inter-faith Prison Chaplain at a medium-maximum security institution, and was also responsible for implementing and managing a new client-focussed service delivery initiative on behalf of the provincial government in British Columbia, Canada. Professor Wessner has managed his own consulting company specializing in project management and web site development, one site of which is a Biblical studies question and answer web resource that has been online since 1995.

Professor Wessner has earned an undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies from Canadian Bible College, a graduate degree in Christian Studies from Regent College, and a doctoral degree in Old Testament Studies from the University of Pretoria. He has developed and taught numerous courses in community, business and university settings such as Acts - The First Christians, World Religions and Alternative Faiths, Old Testament Prophetic Literature, History and Literature of the Bible, Life and Teachings of Jesus, and Christian Spirituality, among others.

Within the realm of religious studies, Professor Wessner has a strong interest in religious texts and manuscripts, such as the Tanach, Bible, Qumran Scrolls, Septuagint, etc. with special attention given to the questions - How do the texts themselves present their intended message? How were they originally understood? What might they mean today to both individuals and communities of faith?

Professor Wessner's foundational approach to teaching, whether it is in a traditional classroom or through distance education, is that truth is to be carefully discerned by the learner, rather than arbitrarily dictated by the teacher. The teacher is to provide the environment, resources and expertise by which the learner is to thoughtfully explore, critique and relate to the subject matter.