Paul Nisly

Paul W. Nisly taught at Messiah College (now Messiah University) for 36 years full-time and 12 years part-time. His Ph.D. is from the University of Kansas, where he wrote his dissertation on Flannery O’Connor. He is an Americanist with particular focus on the Modern Period, specifically Southern literature, but he has taught many other courses as well. Among the courses which he taught are Modern American Literature, Modern British Literature, American Literature before 1900, The God-Haunted South, The English Novel, Literature Seminar (the senior capstone course), Literature and the Life of Faith (a General Education course), as well as two interdisciplinary Humanities courses, Skills and Perceptions and Modern Issues and Christian Values.

Nisly served for 24 years as chair of a diverse department, for many years named Language, Literature, and Fine Arts. He also served on a number of college-wide committees, including the Faculty Senate. In addition to his life in academe, he served as an ordained minister and leader in the Mennonite Church, a service which has continued since his retirement from Messiah. He says he is blessed to have had a wonderfully satisfying calling from God to serve in the academy and the church.

Recently, he presented two papers to a Literature Camp, one on “Reading Flannery O’Connor” and the second titled “Why Write Memoirs?” He has just completed his own memoir: God’s Guidance: A Kansas Amish Farm Boy Reflects on Being Led to Places He Had Not Planned to Go. For all the years he has been granted he writes, Soli Deo Gloria.