Carol M. Bechtel
The Rev. Dr. Carol M. Bechtel is an ordained minister of the Reformed Church in America and served as president of the General Synod for that denomination in 1998-1999. She grew up on a farm near Fulton, Illinois. After graduating from Hope College and Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, she went on to receive her Ph.D. from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Carol is currently Professor of Old Testament at Western Theological Seminary where she teaches courses in Old Testament, Biblical Hebrew and Worship. She is the author of Glimpses of Glory: Daily Meditations on the Bible and the commentary on Esther for the Interpretation Series (Westminster John Knox Press).
Besides cooking and gardening, Carol confesses to two hobbies which she says are better labeled as passions: English literature and music. She indulges the first by spending her spare moments in the company of George Eliot, Jane Austen, and William Shakespeare. The second finds an outlet in the church choir and in the Celtic harp.
Carol lives in Holland, Michigan with her husband, Tom, and her two children, Andrew and Ellen.