Hi. That’s me up there at the top of the page. I’m Peter Enns, and there’s more to me than just being a college professor. Let me tell you a bit about myself. My wife Sue and I are now empty-nesters, navigating life with our three adult children. Our family also includes four-legged members – we share our home with two dogs and a cat. You could say we are pet people. In fact, the Enns family once held the record of having three dogs, three cats, and even two ferrets, not to mention an unexpected population boom of eleven rabbits – a funny story for another time involving a misinformed pet store employee and the concept of “male” rabbits.
Beyond my family and pets, I have my downtime pleasures like anyone else. When it comes to television, I appreciate smart comedies like The Simpsons and The Office, and I’m also drawn into compelling dramas for a good binge-watching session. On the food front, you won’t find me reaching for kale or mushrooms anytime soon. However, put a box of Entenmann’s or Oreos in front of me, and it might disappear rather quickly. I try to resist the temptation, but sometimes those treats just win.
I also enjoy sports, especially baseball, and particularly cheering on the Yankees. Oddly satisfying to me is cutting the grass. It’s one of the few things in my life where I can visibly see progress being made from start to finish. Perhaps that’s part of the appeal.
But what truly defines me professionally is my dream job. I’m a college professor, and I genuinely love it. The academic schedule is certainly a perk – four months off in the summer, four weeks at Christmas, and even my “hard day” of teaching on Tuesdays is only five hours long. More importantly, I find immense joy in teaching young men and women. My path to this career involved spending a significant part of my twenties and thirties in graduate school, first in seminary and then pursuing my PhD. For over two decades now, I’ve been engaged in teaching, writing, and speaking about the Bible.
What drives my approach to the Bible and teaching is a deep curiosity. I’m someone who likes to ask questions, often the uncomfortable ones, and I have little patience for quick, simplistic answers that try to dismiss genuine difficulties. I consider myself an explorer, constantly driven by the “Yeah, but. . . .” mentality. This inclination hasn’t always kept me out of trouble, but it’s core to who I am. Ultimately, I love telling Bible stories.
Now, when I say Bible stories, I don’t mean just the simplified versions you might tell children. I’m interested in all the stories in the Bible, in their complexity and richness, and also the larger story of the Bible itself and its impact. It’s a journey of exploration and discovery that I am passionate about sharing.
