Prof. Jerram Barrs

Professor Emeritus of Christian Studies & Contemporary Culture

Senior Scholar-in-residence of the Francis Schaeffer Insitute

Francis Schaeffer Chair of Apologetics

Professor Barrs retired in 2022 after 34 years of service to the Seminary. A student of the late Francis A. Schaeffer, Jerram joined the Covenant faculty in 1989 after 18 years with L’Abri Fellowship in England, where he also served as a pastor in the International Presbyterian Church he helped plant there. Jerram is a graduate of Covenant and while a student at the Seminary he and his wife, Vicki, were involved in the planting of Grace and Peace Fellowship, a Reformed Presbyterian (now PCA) church in St. Louis city.

Professor Barrs’s teaching has always been marked by a special sensitivity toward those outside the Christian faith. He is often asked to speak both in the United States and abroad, though he is now leaving most of the travel to younger colleagues. Other interests include the arts and literature.

His publications include Being Human, Shepherds and Sheep, Who Are the Peacemakers?, The Great Rescue, The Heart of Evangelism, Through His Eyes, Learning Evangelism from Jesus, The Heart of Prayer, Echoes of Eden, Delighting in the Law of the Lord, as well as the video series Building Up Bridges, Breaking Down Walls. He is at present working on a sermon commentary on the Book of Revelation, tentatively entitled Jesus, Lord of History: The Message of Revelation. He is also working on books on The Heart of a Pastor, The Heart of Worship, C. S. Lewis: God’s Hand in His History, and Mythmaking and the Gospel in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Professor Barrs and his wife, Vicki, have three sons, three beloved daughters-in-law, and ten grandchildren, eight boys and two girls: the three eldest grandchildren are now in college.  Jerram and Vicki have been married for nearly six decades and give thanks for more than 20 cancer-free years for Vicki after being told by doctors that she would not survive her colon cancer.

Education