Philip Ryken

Philip Graham Ryken (born 1966) is an American theologian, Presbyterian minister, and academic administrator. He is the eighth president of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.

Early life and education Ryken was born on September 29, 1966. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and philosophy from Wheaton College in 1988. He completed a Master of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1992 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in historical theology from the University of Oxford in 1995.

Professional life Ryken is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He joined the pastoral staff of historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in 1995 and was elevated to the position of senior minister upon the death of James Boice in 2000. In February 2010, the board of trustees at Wheaton College announced his selection as the college's eighth president, succeeding the retiring Duane Litfin. Ryken took office on July 1, 2010, and was formally inaugurated on September 17, 2010, at Edman Chapel.

He is a member of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, serving as a member of the alliance council, which features his expository preaching on its weekly national radio and internet broadcast, Every Last Word.

Scholarship He has written over thirty books on a wide variety of Christian subjects, including: Art for God's Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts Written in Stone: The Ten Commandments and Today's Moral Crisis The Doctrines of Grace: Rediscovering the Evangelical Gospel with James Montgomery Boice and R. C. Sproul Discovering God in Stories from the Bible

Ryken has also coauthored a series of commentaries on individual books of the Bible with R. Kent Hughes. Ryken and his father, literary scholar Leland Ryken, have collaborated to produce a study Bible, and the father-son team worked with James Wilhoit to write Ryken's Bible Handbook, which focuses on the literary genres and styles in each book of the Bible.

Criticism In July 2026, The Roys Report published an investigation reporting that Ryken had been formally censured by the Philadelphia Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in 2017 for his handling of abuse allegations against Paul Jones, the longtime music director at Tenth Presbyterian Church, where Ryken served as senior minister from 2001 to 2010. According to the report, the PCA concluded that Ryken and other church leaders had failed to conduct an adequate investigation, withheld information from the congregation, and prioritized the church's institutional reputation over the welfare of abuse victims. The article also cited a later GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) investigation, which concluded that the church's response allowed Jones to continue abusive behavior. The report further alleged that Ryken demonstrated a similar pattern while serving as president of Wheaton College by declining to publicly disclose allegations against a former administrator accused of sexual abuse. According to Wheaton College, Ryken informed the board of trustees of the PCA censure, accepted the denomination's admonition, and publicly apologized for failing to provide sufficient pastoral oversight, although one abuse survivor disputed the college's characterization of Ryken's response.

Personal life Ryken is the son of the Christian literary scholar and Wheaton professor emeritus Leland Ryken. Ryken met his wife, Lisa, while the two were students at Wheaton. They were married after their junior year. The couple have five children, and reside in Wheaton. He is known to enjoy basketball, soccer, golf, and poetry.

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