Dr. Fred B. Craddock is Bandy Distinguished Professor of Preaching and New Testament, Emeritus, in the Candler School of Theology. He went to Emory from the Graduate Seminary of Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma where he held the chair of Darbeth Distinguished Professor of Preaching and New Testament. Dr. Craddock joined the Phillips University department of religion faculty in 1961, moving to the seminary in 1965 where he taught until 1979.

Dr. Craddock received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Johnson Bible College, Knoxville, Tennessee in 1950, the Bachelor of Divinity from Phillips in 1953 and the Ph.D. in New Testament from Vanderbilt in 1964. He has done post-doctoral study at Tübingen, Germany, and at Yale.

An ordained minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Dr. Craddock served pastorates in Tennessee and Oklahoma. In addition, Dr. Craddock served on the General Board and Administrative Committee of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), on the Commission of Theology of the Council on Christian Unity, and chaired the Commission on Ministry for the Christian Church in Georgia. He served on the Task Force of Ministry for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Dr. Craddock was a member of the Association of Disciples for Theological Discussion, the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the Society for New Testament Studies. He served on the Editorial Board of Quarterly Review and on the Advisory Board of Interpretation. Dr. Craddock was the founding pastor of Cherry Log Christian Church and the director of the Craddock Center, a program for serving needs of people in Southern Appalachia.

In addition to preaching and teaching widely at church assemblies and ministers’ conferences, Dr. Craddock served as guest professor at other seminaries. He delivered the Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale, the Scott Lectures at Claremont School of Theology, the Adams Lectures at Southeastern Baptist Seminary, the Schaff lectures at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, the Cole Lectures at Vanderbilt, the Westervelt Lectures at Austin Presbyterian Seminary, the Mullins Lectures at Southern Baptist Seminary. He was selected by Newsweek as one of the most 12 effective preachers in the English speaking world.

Dr. Craddock has written an number of books, including The Pre-Existence of Christ (1968), As One Without Authority (1971, rev. 1974 and 1979), Overhearing the Gospel (1978), The Gospels (1981), commentaries on John (1982), Philippians (1984), and First and Second Peter and Jude, Preaching (1985) The Craddock Stories, Listening to the Word: Studies in Honor of Fred Craddock. In addition, he prepared with Lee Keck the Pentecost 3, Series B volume of the Proclamation series; with Ernest Saunders the Epiphany volume; with Carl Holladay, John Hayes, and Gene Tucker, the three volume series, Preaching Through the Christian Year, Year A, Year B, Year C, and he provided the “Commentary on the Gospel of Luke” in Harper’s One-Volume Commentary (1988). Dr. Craddock also contributed a number of articles to various journals.

A native of Humboldt, Tennessee, Dr. Craddock was married to the former Nettie Lee Dungan. They have a son and daughter and multiple grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Dr. Fred B. Craddock passed away on March 6, 2015.