The university was founded in 1942 by Rex Turner, Leonard Johnson and Joe Greer as Montgomery Bible School.

The year 1975 marked the beginning of the school's satellite campuses in Mobile, Huntsville and Birmingham.

[7] In the 2017-2018 award year, Faulkner University had 1,700 students receiving Federal Pell Grants, totaling $7,229,388.

The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC; formerly known as Georgia–Alabama–Carolina Conference (GACC) until after the 2003–04 school year) for most of their sports since the 1999–2000 academic year; while its football team competes in the Sun Division of the Mid-South Conference (MSC), starting since the 2016 fall season.

[19] Faulkner University teaches from the canon of literature known as the Great Books of the Western World.