Dr. Garrett League

Biography

Garrett League obtained his doctorate in biology from Vanderbilt in 2017. After that, he conducted postdoctoral research at Cornell, where he helped teach and/or design a number of courses. His research focuses on disease carrying insects (primarily mosquitoes) and how understanding their biology and behavior can be used to prevent the spread of illness. He has been a member of numerous professional scientific societies, including Sigma Xi, the American Society of Parasitologists, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the Entomological Society of America.

Garrett also earned degrees in biology from Baylor, where he studied visual development in an insect model system (the fruit fly), and TCU, where he minored in art and art history.

In addition to science and art, Garrett has a lifelong love for the Bible and an admiration for Renaissance men, like Johannes Kepler, whose deep faith and broad expertise seamlessly bridged the sciences and humanities.

He recently helped start a small home church as well as an online ministry called League of Believers, where he addresses the most important issues impacting the American Church and its public witness.

Born and raised in Southern California, he and his wife now homeschool their three young children near Fort Worth, Texas.

Teaching Philosophy

My approach to teaching can be summed up in two words: ethos and humilitas.

In his classic work On Rhetoric, Aristotle considered ethos, or character, to be the most important element of persuasion among the three modes of rhetoric. Teachers with moral and ethical gravitas produce compelling, substantive students who cannot be ignored (Acts 4:13). More so than our pathos (emotion), or even our logos (reason), our impact as teachers reflects our ethos. In teaching young hearts and minds, we should above all strive to be like the Teacher (Matthew 23:10), and thus worthy ourselves of emulation (1 Corinthians 11:1).

In academics, humilitas, or humility, manifests itself in a glad willingness to admit the limits of our creaturely knowledge and professional expertise. Once acquired, such vital self-awareness can be leveraged toward life-long learning under the auspices of God’s infinite wisdom. In his book Humilitas, the historian John Dickson states “What we don’t know and can’t do far exceeds what we do know and can do. A little humility, then, is hardly rocket science. It is common sense.” If we who have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) follow his humble example (Philippians 2:1–11) in our instruction and scholarship, who knows what heights of learning we will together ascend to (1 Peter 5:6)?

Statement of Faith

I believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible, and inerrant word of God—as a biologist, I bow the knee to the truth of scripture and happily conduct all of my science education safely within its liberating confines (Psalm 18:30; Proverbs 30:5, 6; Galatians 5:1).

I believe God created the entire cosmos and all its inhabitants out of nothing in the span of a single work week consisting of six solar days roughly six millennia ago (Genesis 1, 5, etc.; Exodus 20:11; Psalm 33:6–9; Hebrews 11:3).

I believe that through man’s sin, the “very good” creation was subjected to futility, decay, and above all, death (Genesis 1–3; Romans 5:12, 8:20–22).

I believe the gospel, or “good news,” of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1–8) is the only hope of salvation for the fallen creation (Acts 4:12; Revelation 21:1–5).

My church tradition is broadly evangelical, with an appreciation for, though by no means a slavish adherence to, the Reformed Protestant tradition. Just as Kepler’s approach to Classical Christian Education “strives to glean the best of Western liberal Education in every epoch,” so too my approach to the historic Christian faith seeks to honor the best insights of God’s people from every age and orthodox tradition of Church history. Thus my great appreciation for the Early Church Fathers and Medieval theologians does not prevent me from incorporating the best insights of, say, Baptist and Methodist teaching into my thinking and practice.

I have had the privilege of co-leading, since 2022, a small home church that meets outside of Fort Worth, Texas. From this gathering was launched in 2023 the League of Believers, an online ministry dedicated to repentance and renewal in the American Church. For more on this ministry, for which I serve as writer, editor, and moderator, please visit our website (https://garrettpleague.substack.com/about).