Robert P. Sellers, Ph.D.

  1. Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement
  2. CEIE Leadership
  3. Robert P. Sellers

ROBERT P. SELLERS, PH.D.

Headshot of Rob Sellers

  • Professor of Theology and Missions Emeritus at Logsdon Seminary, Hardin-Simmons University
  • Former Chair of Trustees for the Parliament of the World’s Religions
  • The Interfaith Observer Monthly Contributor, "TIO’s Public Square"

Robert P. Sellers grew up in Florida in a Christian home. After college, he spent a summer working in the Philippines with cross-cultural missionaries, then with his wife spent 25 years as a teacher in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world. In that multifaith and intercultural island nation he fell in love with the beauty and diversity of religious and cultural traditions, and especially with the gentle, curious and friendly people. During an extended home leave, he earned a Ph.D. in theological ethics, NT theology and world religions, then went back to Java to teach in the Indonesian Baptist Theological Seminary and the Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary. Since returning to the United States in 1996, Rob has been a seminary professor in Texas, first for two years at Baylor University and then for 18 years at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary. In 2014, he was inducted into the “Martin Luther King, Jr., International College of Ministers and Laity” of Morehouse College.

Rob has been an active participant in the interfaith movement locally as president of the Abilene Interfaith Council, nationally as a participant in the Interfaith Commission of the National Council of Churches USA, and internationally as a member of the Interfaith Relations Commission of the Baptist World Alliance. For seven years, he was a trustee, vice chair, and chair of the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, and under his leadership the 6th convening of the Parliament in Toronto in 2018 was planned and conducted.

His passion in life is teaching others about the importance of working cooperatively with persons of multiple faith traditions who are doing important, productive work to create a better world. He was invited to be a non-Muslim observer-participant in Morocco when the Marrakesh Declaration was ratified in 2016, and then he attended the Alliance of Virtues Conference in Washington, D.C. in 2018 – a gathering of international leaders of the three Abrahamic religions. Twice, he was an invited delegate and speaker at meetings of the Society for the Promotion of Peace in Muslim Societies in the United Arab Emirates and was in Abu Dhabi in 2019 when the Charter for a New Alliance of Virtues was discussed and approved. He has visited, studied and taught in more than 40 countries and traveled thousands of miles representing the interfaith movement. Since retiring, he is a regular contributing writer of theological and political opinion pieces for Baptist News Global and Good Faith Media. Rob and Janie have been married for more than 50 years and have two children and five grandchildren.