Please Note!
I am now teaching at a Eternity Bible College in Simi Valley, CA as Associate Professor of Biblical Studies. You can check out the website here:
http://www.eternitybiblecollege.com/
Or email me at: preston@eternitybiblecollege.com
I will still be teaching online courses at Cedarville. But as of June 1st, 2009, I will no longer be updating this website.
Welcome!
Greetings, and welcome to my website! This site is set up primarily as a resource page for my students, but it is also a brief introduction to myself and my family. Please browse around, but keep in mind this site is only a few weeks old, so some of the links are barren.
Brief Biography
I was born in Thousand Oaks, CA, and raised in Fresno, CA. After graduating High School (Bullard High, 
1994), I lived 2 years in Chula Vista, CA, which is just south of San Diego—one of my favorite cities in America (Prague and Cambridge being among my favorites in the world). In Chula Vista, I attended Southwestern College where I was majoring in pretty much nothing except Baseball. “Life is Baseball, everything else is just details.” This was not only the imprint of a tee-shirt that I often wore, but it was the motto of my life. It was during this time that I was faced with a dilemma. I was calling myself a “Christian,” like most Americans, yet my life looked nothing like Christ. Long story short, I came back to Fresno, leaving my friends, school, baseball team, and the sunny beaches of San Diego (and that one really hurt!), to return to Fresno and to learn to follow Jesus.
After spending a year in Fresno, hanging out with some good brothers and sisters in Christ at Ri
verpark Community Church, I went back down to So-Cal (that’s Southern California for you non-Cali folks) to attend The Master’s College. I majored in Biblical Studies for two years and spent my last semester (Fall 99) in Israel studying biblical geography, history, and archaeology. Indeed, this semester in Israel was one of the highlights of my life (apart from getting married, of course!).
In Spring 2000, I attended The Master’s Seminary for the next 3 ½ years, receiving my MDiv in May 2003. Along the way, I received the greatest treasure of my life, apart from Christ—that is, Chris, my beautiful and energetic wife (for proof of the ‘beauty’, please see the pics on this site; for proof of the ‘energy’, please stop by our place in Ohio). I can’t imagine my life without her.
After graduating Seminary (May 2003), we had our first child (Kaylea, now 5 1/2 ), went to Scotland for my Ph.D. (Aberdeen University), had a couple more kids—girls, of course (Aubrey Kate, now 3 ½ and Josie, now 1 1/2)—and took at job teaching Biblical Studies (mostly OT, and some Theology) at Cedarville University in Cedarville, OH (that’s Ohio, which is a state on the eastern end of the Midwest, for you Californian folks).
And now I have a website. Please be patient with this site (“…my name is Preston Sprinkle and I am computer illiterate…”), it’s under construction and I’ll be adding to it from time to time. In the meantime, send me an email if you want to say ‘hi’ (prestonsprinkle
@cedarville.edu). If you want to learn more about me, like my favorite books, what makes me tick as a Christian, scholar, teacher, husband and father, see some of the links below.
Some More Info About Me
My Favorite Books
Even though I didn’t read a book from cover to cover until I was 17 years old, I now love to read! Although I would really like to get into more fiction, most the books I’ve read have pretty much been related to the Bible, Theology, or Christian living. Here are a few books that have really impacted me. They either shaped my thinking on key issues or caused me to reconsider my presuppositions about what the Bible is “supposed to say.”
N. T. Wright, What Paul Really Said
This book was really the first book I read in Seminary that challenged some paradigms that I thought couldn’t be challenged! Wright makes some very good biblical arguments concerning how we understand the gospel, the person of Jesus, justification, and first-century Judaism. And, as always, the book is written with such an engaging style that it’s almost impossible to put down.
N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God
I learned more about the gospels and Jesus from this book than any other scholarly book that I’ve read. Even 
though it’s like 500+ pages and engages issues on a scholarly level, it is just as engaging as the one above (which is written on a more popular level). If you think that you know all you need to know about Jesus, or are threatened by anything that sounds different or new, then don’t read this book. But if you are wanting to come back to the Scriptures again and again, trying to understand afresh the person and mission of Jesus, then this book may be for you.
Shane Claiborne, Irresistible Revolution
Awesome yet painful. A very different sort of book. It’s really mixture of autobiography, testimony, and biblical reflection on how Christians should live out the gospel. Controversial, of course (as was Calvin, Luther,…Jesus and Paul!), which is why every Christian should read it. Shane has caused me to rethink how I understand community and how I use my money. And he has caused me to rethink how I understand the very gospel that Jesus preached.
Nancy Pearcy, Total Truth
An absolute gem! If you think that your life consists of “secular” things and then “sacred” things (i.e. if your day consists of spiritual activities that really matter, and then other mundane non-spiritual activities that don’t mean much in light of eternity), then you need to read this book. Outstandingly written and highly readable for people of every theological makeup.
Michael Wittmer, Heaven Is a Place on Earth
This book is well written, easy to understand, theological acute, and the message is so important to grasp if you haven’t grasped it already: Creation is good and we were designed to live here (Gen 1-2). I love the first line, “I don’t want to go to heaven…” Gotta read it if you have the common misconception that the apex of our salvation consists in some eternal disembodied bliss up in heaven somewhere.
Richard Bauckham, God Crucified
For serious students of biblical studies only. Not for the fainthearted. But if you ever wondered, I mean really wondered, how in the world our doctrine of the Trinity can be reconciled with monotheism, you might want to read it. It’s pretty short and very well-written.
Ron Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger
Not the most engaging book in terms of writing style, etc. But the message is essential for every Christian. We are rich. Most people are poor. Really poor. To go on living our lives of affluence without any thought of the millions of poor and suffering people around us is sin and may lead to eternal damnation (Matt 25; Luke 16).
Faith McDonnell and Grace Akallo, Girl Soldier
A must read if you’re interested in some of the global atrocities going on right now. There is some crazy stuff going on in Uganda right now and it’s amazing that hardly anyone knows about it. This book tells the story of a holocaust-like situation that is going on right now in northern Uganda through the eyes of a girl who was abducted by the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). It’s a painful story to read; not for the fainthearted—nor for those who think that living comfortably is not a sin.
Francis Watson, Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith
Ok, now this is a real scholarly work and I wouldn’t recommend it for perhaps the majority of people that I know. But since it had a tremendous impact on the way I think about doing Biblical Studies, my views on Paul and the Law and Early Judaism, etc., I thought I’d better mention it. Watson gives sort of a quasi-Barthian reading of Paul, where the gospel of Christ is shaped by radical divine agency.
Many Faithful Jewish Authors, The Apocrypha
This should perhaps not be listed here, since my list so far is made up of non-sacred literature, and, of course, the Apocrypha is considered sacred by many Catholic Christians. But I’m Protestant, so it’s not sacred in the same sense that my other 66 books are. The Apocrypha is one of the most enjoyable, stimulating, encouraging, and throught provoking bodies of literature I have ever read—aside from the books in my Protestant canon! And just a reminder, the Apocrypha is Jewish, not Catholic (even if Catholics and Orthodox Christians have it in their canon), and its authors were, to my mind, genuine believers in Yahweh.