Professor, department chair, NASA researcher, study-skills expert, intelligent design theorist, leader in appropriate technologies for the developing world. Walter Bradley is all that, but also much more. Through his long list of achievements, he has remained a man of integrity, dedicated to truth and love, making the crucial difference in countless lives.

At the end of his life, the Apostle Paul wrote to his protégé Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7) The same is true of the life of professor, humanitarian, and Christ-follower Walter Bradley.

It’s true from his days as a graduate assistant determined to share his love for Jesus with his first-ever class to becoming one of the most respected engineering professors in academia. It’s true whether he was leading a small Bible study for students in his home or defending intelligent design before large crowds of his academic peers. It’s true whether he was performing ground-breaking research for NASA or serving as an expert witness in the courtroom or empowering people in Africa with appropriate technologies.

Bradley has resolutely refused the idols of our age. It’s easy for a young academic to be swayed by campus politics, compromise one’s principles, and lose one’s witness for Christ. From his earliest days as a graduate student, Bradley made a deal with God: he would unashamedly share his faith with students and faculty, and he would not let academic ambition keep him from spending the time that his faith and family deserved. The day he could no longer keep that deal, he would leave the academy. He never had to.

Bradley’s academic and professional achievements are impressive. With a doctorate in materials science, this celebrated scientist and professor has spent more than 50 years in the classroom, at the laboratory, as a keynote speaker, and behind a keyboard co-authoring a bestselling book on intelligent design (The Mystery of Life’s Origin). 

But despite his academic and professional success, Walter and his wife, Ann, regard as their most important achievements the countless times they’ve been able to invest in the lives of students, colleagues, friends, neighbors, and people in the developing world, making a real difference for good.

In For a Greater Purpose: The Life and Legacy of Walter Bradley, authors Robert Marks and William Dembski detail the story of this remarkable man whose passion for God, science, and higher education provides as good an example as exists of someone who integrates faith and learning.

ABOUT WALTER BRADLEY

“Luminaries like Walter Bradley paved the way for me to dedicate my career to advancing design thinking in biology.”

—Douglas Axe, PhD, Biola University

“There are few men who have had more impact on Christian ministry than Dr. Walter Bradley.”

—Phil Bishop, PhD, University of Alabama

“Walter is the most humble, smart, godly, initiative-taking, bold leader I know.”

—John Burke, pastor of Gateway Church, author of Imagine Heaven

“Walter Bradley is one of the most extraordinary men I have ever known. I am in awe of him.”

—William Lane Craig, PhD, DTh, ReasonableFaith.org

“[The] influence [of Walter and Ann Bradley] on my life cannot be measured.”

—David Jack, PhD, Baylor University

“Walter Bradley helped guide me on my current course in life.”

—George D. Montañez, PhD, Harvey Mudd

“Walter Bradley woke me from my dogmatic slumber. . . . That change of mind permanently altered my career trajectory.”

—Jay W. Richards, PhD, Catholic University

“One of the great blessings God has granted me in my life is the opportunity to have co-ministered with [Walter Bradley] among faculty and students on university campuses across the US and beyond.”

—Hugh Ross, PhD, Reasons to Believe

“Walter Bradley is one of the most remarkable Christian scholars I’ve ever known.”

—Robert B. Sloan, DTh, president of Houston Baptist University

“I learned from Walter that you can live out loud as a Christian academic.”

—Dr. Lawrence Murphy Smith, CPA

“Walter Bradley and his wife, Ann, helped my husband, Blake, and me through the most beautiful and most painful journey in our lives.”

—Elisa Teipel, PhD, Essenitum, Inc.

“Walter was instrumental in helping me understand that my gifts and talents as an engineer could be used to serve the poor and marginalized.”

—Professor Brian Thomas, executive director of Baylor University Justice and Mercy Energy Services

“Professor Walter Bradley fearlessly led the charge for faculty to unabashedly stand up for their faith on campuses.”

—James M. Tour, PhD, Rice University

“Knowing and being mentored by Walter Bradley has been one of God’s greatest blessings.”

—John F. Walkup, PhD, Horn Professor, Texas Tech University (retired)

Robert J. Marks II is the director and senior fellow of The Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence and host of the Mind Matters podcast. He is a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Baylor University and a fellow of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Optical Society of America. He is coauthor of the books Neural Smithing and Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics and lives in Waco, TX.

William A. Dembski is a mathematician and philosopher who serves on the board of directors for Discovery Institute and is a distinguished fellow of The Walter Bradley Center. Bill is the author/editor of more than twenty books as well as the writer of many peer-reviewed articles spanning mathematics, engineering, philosophy, and theology. Bill is an entrepreneur who builds educational software and websites. He lives in Denton, TX.