Longest-serving Christian Studies faculty member at Mississippi College announces his retirement

Dr. Roger Greene has retired from the Department of Christian Studies after spending parts of six decades as a faculty member at Mississippi College.

While interviewing to become an associate professor of religion at Mississippi College, Roger Greene was asked how long he expected to stay on faculty at the university.

It was a fair question. The Natchitoches, Louisiana native had just completed his fourth year as a member of the Palm Beach Atlantic College faculty and had served as chair of the Division of Humanities, the largest division at the school.

As Greene put it, faculty members in MC’s Department of Religion were not looking for a “temporary colleague.”

“My answer to them was that if I came to MC, it was because I felt called by God to come, and I would stay as long as I felt called to be here,” Greene said.

He was offered the position. Forty-six years later, Roger Greene is the longest-serving professor in the Department of Christian Studies’ rich history.

“I feel that I came by divine calling and that I have remained at MC by divine calling,” he said.

After spending parts of six decades at Mississippi College, Greene has retired from the MC faculty. He said he is fulfilled by “having the opportunity to teach a manifold number of courses in Bible and New Testament.”

Throughout his tenure at MC, Greene taught a senior-level course on the Teachings of Jesus. He also taught classes on Paul and his letters, including the book of Romans, and for many years, he was the only Greek professor at MC.

“The breadth of opportunity in teaching Greek and Biblical courses has been my joy,” he said. “It is a humbling awareness to realize that students I have taught at MC over the years now serve God in many capacities around the world. I have also had the privileged opportunity to teach the children of students that I taught earlier in my career.

“It has always been a proud moment to hear a former student say, ‘Thank you for teaching me how to think and not what to think.’ There is a difference between teaching and indoctrination. It is a proud moment to discover what a given former student has accomplished in his or her career since graduating from MC.”

One such former student is Greene’s colleague, Edward L. Mahaffey, a professor in the Department of Christian Studies and an MC faculty member for 27 years. He said Greene demands the best from himself, and expects the same from his students.

“Dr. Greene is a man of quiet strength; humble, committed faith; and scholarly brilliance,” Mahaffey said. “He is deeply committed to the rigorous study of the Bible. My professors at MC prepared me for graduate school and seminary, but none more so than Dr. Greene.

“Upon my return to MC as a faculty member, I was thrilled – and a bit intimidated – to take a place alongside valued and trusted mentors such as Dr. Greene. He has always encouraged me, affirmed me and often challenged me. I will be forever in his debt as a teacher, mentor, colleague, scholar and friend.”

A magna cum laude graduate of Louisiana Tech University, Greene obtained his M.Div. and Ph.D. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Named the Distinguished Lecturer in Arts and Sciences and the Distinguished Humanities Lecturer at MC in 2000, he delivered the address, “Jesus at 2000: Radiant Trajectories.”

Greene is the author of “A Structural Grammar of New Testament Greek,” a text he used in MC’s Greek classes. He published four books on Paul the Apostle: “The Ministry of Paul: History and Redaction” in 2019; “A Theology of Paul: Paul’s Eschatological Gospel” in 2023; “A Theology of Paul: Cross and Atonement” in 2023; and “Imagine Paul: Apostle of God,” in 2024. Artwork by his son, Jason, graces the cover of each book.

Greene developed and implemented an international travel program for MC students and community members to visit the lands of the Bible, including Israel, Jordan and Greece. He took a group from MC to the Passion Play at Oberammergau, Germany, in 2000.

The Student Government Association selected Greene as the outstanding faculty member for 2002-03, and the centennial edition of MC’s yearbook, the “Tribesman,” was dedicated to him.

“It is impossible to measure the impact on MC and the number of alumni Dr. Greene has touched,” said Jim Turcotte, vice president and special assistant to the president at MC. “He served on the Admissions Committee for many years and his reputation among his peers was best described as tough, fair and compassionate.”

Greene said sharing the eternal verities of the Bible with students will be the most lasting memory from his time at Mississippi College.

“The opportunities I have had to see the light come on for so many students as they came to see and understand Biblical truth, as they developed the ability to read the New Testament in the original Greek, and as they came to realize they could accomplish far more than they ever thought that they could, and as they have gone on to succeed in their own personal endeavors and Christian callings.”

Layton Levingston, who studied under Greene for the last two years, describes him as a dedicated teacher.

“Dr. Greene has poured his heart into his work at Mississippi College,” Levingston said. “He is not an easy teacher by any means, but he is certainly a great teacher. He loves people and he loves to impart his knowledge on his students.”

In retirement, Greene plans to continue writing poetry and songs, especially those related to the Gospel, Christmas and Easter.

“It has been a great privilege to teach at Mississippi College,” he said, “to interact with interested students; to challenge as well as to confirm them; to listen and guide, encourage and direct them; to help them discover their full potential and find the will of God for their own lives.”