By Claire Taylor, Staff Writer
Over 100 people gathered on the fifth floor of Billy Graham Hall on Friday, Sept. 11, to dedicate a new seminar room in honor of the late Wheaton Professor of Theology Daniel Treier. Treier died Dec. 22, 2025, after a brief battle with metastatic lung cancer. He had taught at Wheaton for 24 years.
Dean of Litfin Divinity School and Professor of Theology Marc Cortez opened the ceremony by explaining how the Treier Seminar Room came to fruition. He thanked Assistant Dean of Biblical and Theological Studies Andrew Abernethy for being one of the first to suggest dedicating the room to Treier. He also thanked Kirk Farney, vice president for advancement, vocation and alumni engagement, for recognizing the room as something Wheaton should do.
Wheaton Professor of Systematic Theology Kevin J. Vanhoozer spoke next. Treier and Vanhoozer were friends for decades, and Vanhoozer even spoke at Treier’s wedding to Wheaton Professor of Political Science Amy Black.
In September 2025, Treier went to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), where Vanhoozer worked at the time, to speak at their chapel. Vanhoozer was asked at the last minute to introduce Treier and happily agreed to do so.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but that was my last opportunity to tell him to his face what he had meant to TEDS and to me,” Vanhoozer said.
Stephen Pardue, one of Treier’s first doctoral students, shared quotes from Treier’s past doctoral students. He found the quotes on the acknowledgment pages of students’ dissertations on the shelves in the seminar room. “Many noted that Dan went above and beyond any reasonable expectations of a supervisor,” Pardue said.
Pardue connected Treier’s care for his students to his childhood on a farm in Bloomdale, Ohio.
“I think at his core, Dan was a farmer,” Pardue said. “He offered students the intellectual nutrition and practical guidance and safety that they needed to grow so that they could produce good fruit in due time.”
Farney shared how every interaction he had with Treier was enjoyable. Whether they saw each other at a conference or accidentally ran into each other, Farney thought of time with Treier as a blessing.
“I loved his wit and his sense of humor. I admired his scholarship and his theological judgments,” Farney said.
Black, Treier’s wife of 20 years, emphasized Treier’s care for his doctoral students, sharing a story of Treier reading and editing dissertations by his students the night after the couple’s house had burned down.
Treier is also remembered for his dedication to prayer. He would make a strong effort to ask his students how they were doing and how he could pray for them.
“This was not a formality,” Black said. “He wanted to know their needs because he faithfully prayed for them and genuinely cared for them as people.”
Although Treier loved writing and scholarly work, his legacy lies in the students he taught and mentored, according to Black.
“This was not a disappointment to him,” Black said. “He had come to see the investments in students’ lives pay rich dividends, and he lived long enough to see former students serving the kingdom.”
The ceremony ended with Wheaton College President Philip Ryken speaking and praying over the Treier Seminar Room. Ryken and Treier shared a birthday, Sept. 29, and Ryken expressed his sorrow that he would not receive a message of encouragement from Treier this year.
“I could pretty much count on the first email on September 29 to come from Dan Treier. I’ll really miss that sense of personal connection, which was very meaningful and became more meaningful over the years,” Ryken said.
The Treier Seminar Room has “ample whiteboard space,” which, Ryken said, Treier would greatly appreciate. There are also shelves containing Treier’s doctoral students’ dissertations, as well as copies of Treier’s own books.
“We now dedicate this seminar room, the Daniel Treier Seminar Room, as a place for loving friendship, for scholarly pursuit, for biblical study and for theological reflection,” Ryken prayed, a hope echoed by many others.
“My prayer is that the Treier Seminar Room be a place where those who enter can honor Dan by doing what he taught us to do: read scripture faithfully, think theologically, pursue wisdom humbly,” Vanhoozer said during his address. “In other words, to become a little more like Dan.”
