Who is Phillip R. Johnson?

irst off, Phillip R. Johnson is not the Phillip Johnson who wrote Darwin on Trial. That's Phillip E. Johnson.* (It's a fine book nonetheless.)

Our Phil Johnson is the original Phillip Johnson—at least as far as the World Wide Web is concerned. Phil has had a significant presence on the Web since 1995 and has posted thousands of resources on theology and church history. (That is why if you Google "Phil Johnson" he's the first Phil you will encounter.)
Phil's blog, PyroManiac, set several fires around the blogosphere for about six months in 2005 before Phil himself burnt out and started a gangblog, PyroManiacs, which as of this writing is still going strong.

hil was born June 11, 1953 in Oklahoma City, OK. He spent his formative years in Wichita, KS, and then Tulsa, OK. He graduated from Nathan Hale High School in Tulsa in 1971. That same year he was led by the grace of God to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. (If you want to read Phil's own account of his conversion, click here.)
Today Phil is the executive Director of Grace to You, a Christian tape and radio ministry featuring the preaching ministry of John MacArthur. Phil has been closely associated with John MacArthur since 1981 and edits most of MacArthur's major books. Phil pastors an adult fellowship group called GraceLife at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA. He is a board member of The Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recordings Trust in England, and a member of the Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals (FIRE).
Phil studied at Southeastern Oklahoma State University for one year, then transferred to Moody Bible Institute, where he earned a bachelor's degree in theology (class of 1975) . He also spent one year at a fundamentalist Baptist school in Tennessee, and took some courses in publishing and editing at the University of Chicago. He was an assistant pastor in St. Petersburg, Florida and an editor for Moody Press before moving to Southern California to take his current position in 1983.
Theologically, Phil is a committed Calvinist—with a decidedly Baptistic bent. (That explains his love for Charles Spurgeon). Phil is also an inveterate reader and bibliophile. He once ran a marathon—but that was 1977. You wouldn't think it to look at him now.
Phil's travels take him almost annually to England, India, and New Zealand. Over the years he has traveled to more than thirty different countries and takes special pride in eating strange international dishes that gross out most Americans. He has acquired a taste for that dark, gooey, bitter yeast extract known as Marmite (Vegemite is a passable substitute if you happen to be in Australia). Twice he has eaten that Filipino delicacy known as balut, an embryonic duck, hard-boiled in the shell. (Phil recorded his first experience with balut on video, after which he dissected one of the baluts for the camera. But don't ask—you really don't want to see it.) Phil will regale you for hours with tales of raw bull brains, eggs blackened by being buried for months in the mud, blood soup, worms, garden snails, haggis, various dishes made of pig intestines, and other odd delicacies he has tasted in his travels—such as durian, the fruit that smells like compost.
Despite these idiosyncrasies, Phil has a beautiful wife (Darlene), three grown sons, two fantastic daughters-in-law, a beagle, and a mortgage. His signature is virtually illegible:

A PS from Phil: The Darwin on Trial Phillip Johnson—the more distinguished Phillip Johnson—teaches at Berkeley. I used to put his e-mail address here for those who were looking for him, but people kept sending him mail meant for me, which only compounded the name-confusion problem. So if you want his e-mail address, you may get it from his home page at The Access Research Network.