G. Wright Doyle

G. Wright Doyle ("Wright") spent a year in Taiwan as a boy. After school, he and his buddies hiked through jungles and climbed mountains, where they encountered water buffaloes and cobras. Ever since then, Wright has had a love for Chinese culture. His book, China: Ancient Culture, Modern Society, reflects this fascination with things Chinese.

Since childhood, his adventures have included meeting John Wayne and Vice President Richard Nixon; dining with Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang several times in their summer home; two near-disasters when flying in airplanes whose engines had died; narrowly escaping being gored by a killer bull; rescuing a woman from a drunken, knife-wielding Dutchman on a ferry from England to Holland; hitch-hiking from North Carolina to Arizona; nearly being blown up in the Victoria train station in Bombay (as it was then called); driving a jeep with failing brakes as it careened down a mountain road; and many more.

Wright loves to walk in the woods, weed their garden, listen to classical music, talk with friends, and watch romantic movies (and now National Geographic programs on China) with his wife Dori.

In 1976, he and Dori went to Taiwan to begin studying Mandarin. From 1980 to 1988, he taught New Testament and Greek at China Evangelical Seminary in Taipei. They lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, from 1989 to 2015, but have continued to return to Asia frequently. They now reside in Texas, not far from Austin. They have a married daughter and a grandson.

Wright's books and articles:

Reaching Chinese Worldwide, released in 2013, is a unique introduction to Christian ministry among Chinese. It reflects more than forty years of experience and of reading about Christian witness among the Chinese and missiology in general.

Carl Henry: Theologian for All Seasons, resulted from meeting Dr. Henry in 1980, and then reading God, Revelation, and Authority several times.

Wise Man from the East: Lit-sen Chang (Zhang Lisheng) contains a translation by Wright of this great Chinese theologian's Critique of Indigenous Theology and a translation of Critique of Humanism by Dr. Samuel Ling. Though he died in 1996, Chang continues to speak with relevance and power today. Wright gave four lectures on his thought at Holy Light Theological Seminary, Taiwan, in 2013.

Worship and Wisdom: Daily Readings from Psalm and Proverbs with Commentary, offers six months' worth of short reflections upon key passages from the Psalms and Proverbs for private or family devotions.

Builders of the Chinese Church: Pioneer Protestant Missionaries and Chinese Church Leaders contains brief biographies by different authors, edited and with an introduction by Wright.

Wright is often asked,"Is the United States a Christian country?" by Chinese intellectuals. He wrote Christianity in America: Triumph and Tragedy to answer that question, and to explore the many ways in which Christianity secular culture have influenced each other over the past four hundred years.

For many years, Wright suffered from chronic illness, including mild depression. The Lord's Healing Words contains principles from the Bible that he has tried to apply to his own life, and which have played a large part in the good health he now enjoys.

Convinced the modern men need good models of real manhood, in Jesus: The Complete Man, he has described the "complete man" - Jesus - as he related to himself, others, and God the Father, and shows how his teaches and example can inspire men today.

You can find articles and book reviews about China and Christianity by Wright at www.globalchinacenter.org and www.reachingchineseworldwide. He serves as General Editor for the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity (www.bdcconline.net), a rich collection of stories about Chinese and foreign Christians in China over the past several hundred years.

Wright's books in Chinese (composed in English for translation by Chinese) include: Hope Deferred ( studies in Christianity and American culture); Confucius & Christ (on the ideal man); The Way Home: A Faith for the 21st Century; The Lord's Healing Words; A Greek-Chinese Lexicon of the New Testament; The "Switzerland" of the New Testament (a commentary on Paul's letter to the Ephesians); New Testament Reference Works; an abridgment of Carl Henry's God, Revelation, & Authority (volumes 1-4); and an autobiography.

He has contributed chapters to Sorrow & Blood: Christian Mission in Contexts of Suffering, Persecution, and Martyrdom, edited by William D. Taylor and others; and to China's Reforming Churches, edited by Bruce P. Baugus.

Articles and reviews by Wright have appeared in a number of journals, including Books & Culture; The Westminster Theological Journal; ChinaSource Journal; International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church; Evangelical Theological Review; Church History and Religious Culture; International Journal of Sino-Western Studies ;Biblical Literature Studies (Sheng Jing Wenxue Yanzhou: and Reformed Worship.

Other activities:

Wright has lectured at universities in China, Taiwan, the U.S., and England (including Yale, Oxford, Peking University, People's University, Shanghai University, Tunghai University, and others). He has also taught in Chinese-language seminaries in Taiwan and the U.S.

He is Director of Global China Center (www.globalchinacenter.org) and of China Institute (www.chinainst.org.

Wright's travels have taken him to Europe, Africa, much of North America, Mexico, China, and India, and he has worked at a variety of different jobs.

His formal education includes a B.A. with Honors in Latin from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill; an M.Div with Honors from the Virginia Theological Seminary; and a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of North Carolina.