Union Presbyterian Seminary bids farewell to two professors who shaped decades of students

When a seminary professor retires, it’s usually a quiet affair — a reception, a few kind words, maybe a plaque. But when two of your most influential faculty members step down in the same year, each with decades of service and shelves full of published scholarship, you do more than that.

Union Presbyterian Seminary is sending off Frances Taylor Gench and John T. Carroll with a spring packed full of celebrations: final courses, a joint appearance at the Sprunt Lecture Series, and a commemorative faculty publication honoring their work alongside other recently retired colleagues.

Gench and Carroll shared their retirement plans with the campus community last fall, and as the academic year wraps up, the seminary is making sure students, alumni, and friends have a chance to mark the occasion.

Four decades in theological education

Frances Taylor Gench isn’t just a longtime professor at Union Presbyterian Seminary — she’s an alumna, too. She earned both her M.Div. (’82) and Ph.D. (’88) there before joining the faculty in 1999, following more than a decade teaching at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. Her retirement caps 40 years in theological education.

As the Herbert Worth & Annie H. Jackson Professor of Biblical Interpretation, Gench built a reputation for helping readers — in classrooms, congregations, and study groups — wrestle honestly with difficult Scripture. Her books include Encountering God in Tyrannical Texts, Back to the Well, Faithful Disagreement, and Hebrews and James. Her research has focused on the Gospels (particularly John), women in the biblical world, feminist biblical criticism, and questions of biblical authority.

Beyond the classroom, Gench spent 24 years as Book Review Editor for Interpretation, led travel seminars to Ghana and the Middle East, and served on two presidential search committees. She’s also finishing a commentary on the Gospel of John for the new Interpretation Bible Commentary series, forthcoming from Westminster John Knox Press.

Her family’s connection to Union runs remarkably deep — four generations have studied there, including both her parents and her husband, Roger J. Gench.

A scholar with pastoral imagination

John T. Carroll has been a fixture at Union Presbyterian Seminary since 1992. He’s held roles as Associate Professor, Professor of New Testament, and the Harriet Robertson Fitts Memorial Professor of New Testament, and he’ll continue teaching part-time through 2026.

Carroll’s influence extends well beyond his courses. He served as Dean of Theology Faculty from 1998 to 2004, Academic Dean from 2006 to 2010, and spent years directing the Program for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. A Princeton-trained scholar, his teaching and research center on the Gospels — Luke, especially — and on how Scripture connects to ethical, public discipleship.

His published work includes Luke: A Commentary, Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction, The Holy Spirit in the New Testament, and Six Themes in Luke that Everyone Should Know. He’s also contributed editorial leadership to Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology and the New Testament Library editorial advisory board.

One more season of teaching

Both professors have final courses on the calendar. Carroll is teaching a spring term class on Romans, while Gench’s last course — “Cross Examination,” an interdisciplinary elective she’ll co-teach with Roger J. Gench — runs during May Term 2026. The two will also team up for a Scripture Happy Hour at the 116th Sprunt Lecture Series, leading scripture study and conversation around selected lectionary texts for the weeks of May.

The seminary is also preparing a commemorative publication honoring Gench and Carroll alongside faculty who have retired since 2020, including Samuel E. Balentine, Brian K. Blount, Richard N. Boyce, Carson T. Brisson, Dawn DeVries, Paul Galbreath, Cindy Kissel-Ito, Kenneth J. McFayden, and Stanley H. Skreslet. The publication will feature profiles, reflections, selected writings, and remembrances.

Alumni and friends who’d like to share memories or photos of Gench and Carroll can reach the seminary at [email protected].