Gushee is an internationally recognized Holocaust scholar and ethicist. He was appointed in 2008 by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to serve as a member of the Church Relations and the Holocaust Committee. He is the author of approximately 70 articles, chapters and reviews and has written or edited nine books. Gushee was ordained at Walnut Hills Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1987.

His book Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context was Christianity Today's Theology/Ethics Book of the Year for 2004. He has also received the Evangelical Press Association's Christian Journalism Award for 1991, 1992 and 1997.

Gushee was granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) degree in May 2009 by the John Leland Center for Theological Studies.

Gushee received his Ph.D. in Christian ethics from Union Theological Seminary in 1993, having earned his M.Phil. from Union Theological Seminary in 1990. Gushee earned his M.Div. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1987. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. from the College of William and Mary in 1984.