James Parker III, who taught Christian philosophy and apologetics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1999 until his retirement in 2019, died Oct. 23, 2026, in Fort Worth, Texas. He was 77.
Parker joined the Southern Seminary faculty in 1999 as professor of worldview and culture and associate dean of the newly created Worldview and Culture division of the School of Theology. For years, he taught introductory courses in Christian philosophy and apologetics at the master’s and doctoral levels.
“Jim Parker loved ideas and he taught a generation of students to love ideas—understood through the immeasurable riches of the Christian tradition of scholarly reflection and a serious commitment to biblical Christianity,” said Southern Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. “He was greatly loved by students.”
A native of Abilene, Texas, Parker grew up in a Christian home and enrolled at Baylor University, where he first met classmates who openly rejected the Christian faith. If he was going to talk about his faith, he later said, he would have to defend it. A friend introduced him to the writings of Carl F. H. Henry, Francis Schaeffer, and C. S. Lewis, and those authors shaped the rest of his life. Henry, he said, “was my hero and still is my hero.”
He went on to earn an M.A. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, the M.Div. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and the D.Theol. in New Testament from the University of Basel, followed by postdoctoral study at Johns Hopkins University. Before coming to Southern, he taught at McMurry College, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dallas Baptist University, and Criswell College.
In 1991, Parker founded the Trinity Institute in Tehuacana, Texas, a residential study center that equipped believers to understand and articulate a Christian worldview. He continued to lead the institute after joining Southern’s faculty, teaching in Louisville during the academic year and hosting seminars in Texas each summer.
Parker was convinced that defending the faith was every Christian’s task. “Everyone engages in apologetics as a Christian,” he once said. “It’s not a question of whether they’re going to, it’s a question of whether they’re going to do it competently.”
For many years Parker lived on campus in Foster Hall, where students came to know him as a neighbor as well as a professor. He was cherished for his kindness and his humor. Former students remember a scholar who wore his considerable learning lightly, always eager to share a good story, and enjoyed countless meals and long conversations with them outside the classroom.
A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Central on Saturday, Nov. 7, at First Baptist Church of Tehuacana, with visitation beginning at noon. Burial will follow in Tehuacana Cemetery.