(Last updated 11/25/2023)
I am an analytic philosopher and interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of epistemology and New Testament studies. I’m also a wife, homemaker, mother, and “emeritus” home schooler. My husband is Timothy McGrew, full professor in the Department of Philosophy at Western Michigan University and a well-known scholar and apologist. I have a pretty hefty philosophy publication record in such areas as testimony, independence, probability theory, etc. More recently my work has extended to New Testament studies. Here is my curriculum vitae.
My undergraduate degree was from a Bible college, so when I wanted a higher degree in literature, I prepared myself to apply for graduate studies by self-teaching. That work paid off, and I received a Department of Education fellowship to take a graduate degree. I received my PhD in English Literature from Vanderbilt University in 1995.
Subsequently I began publishing in epistemology (the theory of knowledge). At first I published co-written works (articles and a book) with my husband. Starting in the twenty-teens I continued building my publication record with peer-reviewed articles (written alone) in both classical and formal epistemology. This was the second scholarly field that I “broke into” without taking formal courses, but my publication record, continued up to the present, speaks for itself.
Around 2013 to 2014 Tim introduced me to the argument from undesigned coincidences, which he was reviving as part of his work on the history of ideas—specifically the history of the deist controversy and responses to David Hume’s argument against miracles in the 18th century. We agreed that whichever of us first had time to write a book reviving the argument should do so. As it happened, I was the one to do so. In 2017 I published a book on the argument from undesigned coincidences, which supports the reliability of the Gospels and Acts. Hidden in Plain View: Undesigned Coincidences in the Gospels and Acts was released in the spring of 2017 by DeWard Publishing. This was the beginning of my move into a third field of scholarly work. In December, 2019, I published The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices. In March, 2021, I published my third book in New Testament studies—this one on the Gospel of John: The Eye of the Beholder: The Gospel of John as Historical Reportage. See the main page of this website for samples of this third book and for its endorsements by well-known scholars in the field of New Testament. I hope that these three books will be used by laymen and scholars alike.
In 2023 my fourth book in New Testament studies came out, with (again) strong endorsements. This is Testimonies to the Truth: Why You Can Trust the Gospels. Again, the main page contains links to endorsements, table of contents, and where to buy.
During this time I have also continued publishing in formal epistemology, as my CV demonstrates.
I’m very interested in the intersection of issues in biblical studies and epistemology (theory of knowledge), and there are many ways in which knowledge about independence, testimony, and evidence can be helpful in biblical studies. This sort of crossover work is desperately needed in a field that has become, unfortunately, rather inward looking. I’m doing a lot more of this at my Youtube channel, which I began in the summer of 2020.
I am (as readers of my various blog posts and my Facebook posts know) politically and socially very conservative. The murder of the innocent, born and unborn, seems to me a crux of our time. Other crucial issues are the sanctity of marriage, the nature of male and female human beings, and the nature of human sexuality, and on those issues, too, the skies are very dark in the West. I was also extremely concerned during 2020 and 2021 about the loss of civil liberties and religious liberties resulting from government responses to Covid. I think it’s very important for Christians and conservatives to be willing to speak up for what we believe and stand for.
I’m an entirely traditional and theologically conservative Christian, believing in the deity of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and other core doctrines. Raised Baptist, I spent several decades very active in a local “continuing” Anglican church in Comstock, Michigan, near my home. That church (sadly) had to close its doors in early 2023. I now attend local conservative Reformed churches (regularly at a URCNA church and sometimes at an OPC church), though I am not officially a member at either. (I am not an inerrantist, and I am more Arminian in doctrine, disqualifying me from membership in the local church at which I regularly attend. But these churches represent the closest approximation to the traditional hymns and service pattern that Tim and I are familiar with and find valuable for worship and fellowship. They are also dependably theologically and morally conservative, which is important.) My official membership continues to be Anglican, though due to health problems and distance I’m able to attend Sts. Andrew and Matthias Anglican church in Hastings, MI, only occasionally.
Hymnody is also one of my interests. I’ve had the enormous privilege of learning most of the hymns found in any old-fashioned Baptist hymnal and, since I’ve been in the continuing Anglican church, adding to that many wonderful Anglican hymns that I’d never known before. As mentioned below, I hold a hymn sing at my house every other month and am glad to have been able to keep this up despite health problems.
In the spring of 2021 I was seriously injured by an immune reaction to the Covid vaccine, leaving me with severe neuropathy, chronic pain, and other chronic problems. These affect various of my public-facing activities, including my posture when I do a longer presentation (for something long-form I have to be mostly reclining and be able to change position frequently), an inability to travel more than a short distance from home, etc. I am deeply grateful to God for my continued ability to walk, for Tim’s love and care, and for the prayers of other Christians.
Check out my Facebook author page, Youtube channel, audio content on Spotify (this is the same content as on the Youtube videos, but in audio form), and Facebook non-author page (which contains some public posts in addition to those shared from my author page). Buttons are below, in that order. Remember that you don’t need to be my Facebook “friend” to follow me.
You can also e-mail me at lydiamcgrew[at]gmail[dot]com. Be sure to introduce yourself if you write, and if you have a question, please try to keep it focused, as opposed to asking for comments on an entire article or video.
Random fun facts:
I love horses, though I have never owned one and though I’m not a very good rider. My idea of a great outing is going somewhere where I can pat large draft horses and their foals.
I was a music major for a while in college before chickening out and becoming a missions major. I love to sing and still play the piano, though not nearly as well as I did when young.
I was adopted as a baby and have since then learned the story of my birth by getting in e-mail contact with my biological mother.
I like to make bad puns and persecute my friends and family with them from time to time, interspersing them with lame jokes that I think are funny. The only ones that are really funny are generally the puns I make by accident.
I hold a hymn sing at my house for Christian friends every other month.