Born in Orlando, Florida, Woodrow Whidden has served the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a pastor in the South, East and Mid-west of the United States from 1969 until 1990. From 1990 until 2006 he has taught applied, historical and systematic theology in the Religion Department of the College of Arts and Sciences of Andrews University. Since August of 2006, Dr. Whidden has been serving at AIIAS as Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology in the Seminary.

Trained for pastoral ministry at Southern Adventist University (BA in 1967) and Andrews University (MDiv in 1969), he felt a burden to do advanced studies in historical theology at Drew University (MPhil in 1987 and PhD in 1989). His areas of concentration were the soteriological developments in 18th and 19th Century English and American Wesleyanism.

He has served on various Seventh-day Adventist General Conference level Committees which have dealt with controverted doctrinal issues, especially those that concern questions of personal salvation (justification, sanctification, perfection, and the human nature of Christ) and ecclesiology. Professor Whidden has also served on a dialogue team which represented the Seventh-day Adventist Church in its bilateral discussions with the Salvation Army in two meetings in 2004 and 2005. He is a frequent contributor to Ministry Magazine and has been published in the Wesleyan Theological Journal, The Asbury Theological Journal, Spectrum and Andrews University Seminary Studies.

His book publications include Ellen White on Salvation (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1995), Ellen White on the Humanity of Christ (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1997), and The Trinity: Its Implications for Life and Thought (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2002; co-authored with Jerry Moon and John Reeve). He has just completed writing a biography of Seventh-day Adventist editor, writer, and revivalist Ellet Joseph Waggoner. This manuscript will be published in the Spring of 2008 

Professor Whidden is married to Margaret (Peggy) Gibbs Whidden and they have three grown children and three grandchildren. Peggy Whidden serves as the classroom music teacher at the AIIAS Junior Academy and Instructor of English as a Second Language for the graduate school of AIIAS (Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies).