Remembering Dr. Stan Fowler

Keep on thinking.

Almost five years ago, I sent an email to one of my favourite seminary professors, Dr. Stan Fowler. He was an elder at Grandview Church and I was hoping to do an internship there. Within a few hours, he shared my email with the lead pastor. I started at Grandview in early 2021.

In the summer of that year, Stan Fowler experienced a stroke. This affected his ability to speak and write. He was no longer able to teach.

This past week, on August 26, 2025, Stan breathed his last breath and entered into glory. His obituary information is here.

I miss Dr. Fowler. I admired his clear thinking and his pastoral heart. I am inspired by his legacy.

Encouraged

I primarily knew Stan Fowler as a theologian and seminary professor. He was always Dr. Fowler to me. After preaching my first sermon at Grandview in 2022, he gave me a thumbs-up when I saw him in the hallway. I remember trying to share something about the sermon preparation with him. He nodded with a smile. His wife, Donna, encouraged me.

When I preached again, a year or so later, I was a bit nervous thinking about how he’d respond to my message. I briefly spoke about natural theology and its limitations, drawing upon the text in Proverbs about the sluggard and the ant. Again, after the sermon, I met Dr. Fowler in the church lobby, and again, he gave me a smile and a thumbs-up.

While he did not use words, I was so encouraged by Dr. Fowler in these small interactions. He waved. He smiled. He nodded. I knew from being in his systematic theology class that he believed God is sovereign over all, including pain and suffering. In these recent years, I felt that belief. He used his final years not to sorrow in solitude, but to come to church (even to members’ meetings), to smile, and to give a thumbs-up to an intern.

This was all possible because of his good God and his faithful wife. Donna Fowler has provided a great example of how to care for others. I am thankful for her. And I am thankful for Stan. He was a faithful man, whether in teaching at Heritage Seminary or chatting in the church lobby.

Equipped

Most people know Stan Fowler through his teaching. In class, he would often raise a difficult question and then analyze the biblical texts in support of and against it. Some people say systematic theologians skim the Bible rather than dive deep. Not so with Stan. He carefully brought forward each text in context.

Dr. Fowler was a great professor. He would give us textbooks that he didn’t agree with (like one on open theism) to ensure we learned how to engage with our opponents’ arguments. He was careful with language. He once drew a line through “make” in one of my papers and wrote next to it, “declare.” He was correcting me on the doctrine of justification, which relates to how we are declared righteous before God, not made righteous.

A few years ago, I transferred all my lecture notes from classes I took with him to a new location. I never want to lose them. I once told a new friend at the church, Jon Cleland, that it would be cool if someone were to make his lecture notes public in some way, because they were so good. Jon informed me that he had already begun a project to bring all of Stan’s writings into a two-volume series. These books are now available (here). Jon was able to complete them and hand them to Dr. Fowler earlier this year.

Jon Cleland presented Stan Fowler with his books earlier this year.

Challenged

Fowler was not afraid to speak up on controversial topics. During the pandemic, he spoke publicly both of the obligation to submit to government authority and against the overreach of government authority. Many appreciated his balanced clarity as too many others were either holding their tongue or burning it. When I joined Grandview, I saw how stabilizing his voice was to the ministry team and the congregation. We trusted him not because he was “in the middle” but because he carefully read and applied the Scriptures.

After his stroke in 2021, we could no longer hear that voice except through recordings. He and Pastor Bob McGregor had started a podcast in early 2020, entitled "Thinking About It." It often covered difficult social issues. Bob and Stan would meet together, often with only a few minutes of discussion ahead of time, and then dive into a difficult question for fifteen minutes. Bob is a master at Socratic questioning. Stan brought calm to complex topics. They made an excellent pair.

They recorded many episodes at a time, often far in advance. And so even after Dr. Fowler’s stroke, new recordings were still being published. On September 6, 2021, for example, they published an episode on “When to Compromise.” It dealt with the Christian position on abortion and the complexities of dealing with it politically. For example, is it okay for a Christian politician to vote for a restriction on abortion even if that restriction does not go as far as they would like? True to his usual form, Stan articulated a defense of both sides of the argument, and then, ultimately, why he leans a certain way rather than the other.

Dr. Fowler was the first person who opened my eyes to the history of abortion in Canada, to the various positions on government authority, to principles to apply to IVF, to the biblical value of social action, and to a whole assortment of other issues. Like I said, he did not shy away from difficult topics.

I once shared with Jon Cleland how cool it is that Heritage Seminary, as a Baptist institution, has a required course on Moral Theology. Jon replied, “that’s all Stan.” Dr. Fowler believed that future pastors must not only parse the text of Scripture but also apply it to the ethical issues of our day. That’s difficult. But it’s important.

Jon recently spoke with Christian Clement, another young theologian in Canada. They both shared how they struggle to speak on controversial ethical issues like Fowler did. On that same struggle, historian Michael Haykin recently said, “for me personally, I know of no one who will be able to fill Stan’s shoes in this regard in Ontario in our deeply divided and contentious day.”

I do not know of anyone either.

However, I do not lament. If I learned anything from Stan, it is this: God is sovereign over all. God will build his church. And he will gift new theologians.

Stan Fowler’s funeral is this Saturday. His obituary states:

As expressions of sympathy donations to the Stan Fowler Scholarship Fund would be appreciated (cards available at the funeral home).

I encourage you to make a donation.

On almost every episode of Thinking About It, Bob would wrap things up and say goodbye, and then Stan would add, “keep on thinking.”

I will, Stan. I will.