Author Biography: Michael E. Wittmer

Mike grew up in a Christian family of four boys in northeast Ohio. After graduating from Cedarville University and attending one year at Dallas Theological Seminary, he took two years off to travel the world and teach English to university students in China. When Mike returned to the States, he wanted to complete his seminary studies closer to home. So in 1992 he came to Grand Rapids, and he has never left since.

Mike met his wife, Julie, at his local church in Grand Rapids, and they were married the summer after finishing seminary and before starting his Ph.D. program (God has blessed their marriage with three children: Avery, Landon, and Alayna). Early in his Ph.D. studies at Calvin Theological Seminary, Mike was given the opportunity to teach at his alma mater, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. The first class, on medieval theology, went well enough that he was offered a second, and within a few years he was teaching full-time. His favorite class has been "Christian Worldview," where several generations of inquisitive students have probed and pushed his ideas into the shape now present in Heaven is a Place on Earth.