The American New Testament scholar, poet, minister, and literary critic Amos Wilder (1895-1993) was a seminal interpreter of biblical language. His work showed the need to understand how much imaginative vision underlies the language of early Christianity, as well as the theology and literature of the 20th century.

Amos Niven Wilder was born on September 18, 1895, in Madison, Wisconsin. His father, a journalist with a doctorate from Yale, worked at the U.S. consulate in China. His mother was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. Pulitzer-Prize-winning writer Thornton Wilder was his brother. After two years at Oberlin College (1913-1915), Wilder interrupted his education to volunteer in the American Ambulance Field Service in 1916. In World War I he served in the U.S. Field Artillery and was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

Resuming his education, he graduated from Yale in 1920. He also studied at the Faculte de Theologie, Montauban, France...