Brent Walters was born in 1955 at Everett, Washington. His family moved nearly every year until high school, and this helped to develop his independent and rather tenacious mind.

At the age of sixteen, he purchased his first book from a secondhand shop in Los Gatos. The collection grew to one thousand within two years due to an insatiable desire for answers to matters regarding ancient Judaism and the early church. During the same period, he learned Koine Greek (that he continued at the university for eight years) and busied himself with searching for older rare editions.

Brent graduated from San Jose State University in 1980 earning a B.A. in Philosophy with an emphasis in pre-Socratic thought. For the next three years he traveled widely to make copies of out-of-print periodicals regarding early Christian and Jewish literature and history. From these, he developed a vast cross-reference index of published sources on thousands of volumes and created topical indices on hundreds of subjects. By the middle of the decade he had established the Ante-Nicene Archive for scholarly use and published his first book.

Walters packed the library and moved to Boston University in Massachusetts. New England provided ample opportunities to expand his already large collection. The Archive grew an additional two thousand books by 1987, when he completed his M.A. in Early Church Studies. Brent took advantage of the rich collegiate environment of the region and attended classes at six universities and seminaries as part of his academic program. In 1992 he began teaching at San Jose State University, where he remains in Comparative Religious Studies (although not exclusively).

Over the next decade he founded the Centre for Early Christian Studies and hosted a popular television program for three years called “Origins.” Brent and his library have gained national media attention by being featured in dozens of articles around the country. Prior to “God Talk,” he was frequently heard on radio and was cited in the press as an expert on history, literature, religion, and language. He was also an occasional writer for the San Jose Mercury News for five years.

Last year Brent founded “The Gathering,” where KGO listeners meet monthly in order to continue the conversation in person.

Click HERE to go to Brent's personal web page for show summeries and more!

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To hear the Godtalk with Brent Walter's podcast, click here.