FACULTY PROFILE

Rev. Dr. James Waddell

“Reading the New Testament documents in their natural context of Second Temple Judaism(s) and Graeco-Roman culture is essential for understanding the extraordinarily complex dynamics of the social, political, and religious forces that shaped the emergence of the early church as Christianity.”

The Rev. Dr. James Waddell is Professor of Biblical Studies and Director of the Masters Programs. With almost thirty years of experience as a Lutheran pastor, he also serves in urban parish ministry.

Dr. Waddell earned the Ph.D. in Second Temple Judaism from the University of Michigan. He has taught Biblical Studies, Classics, Religious Studies, World Religions, and Liturgical Theology at several institutions, including the University of Michigan and Ecumenical Seminary. His teaching highlights early Jewish and early church views of exploitation of the economically marginalized, and postmodern/postcolonial appropriation of justice regarding wealth, poverty, racism, violence, endurance, and liberation.

His research focuses on early developments of messianism/christology, as well as social and ideological intersections of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He has published a number of peer-reviewed books and articles, has delivered numerous papers at professional conferences, and is an active member of the Society of Biblical Literature. He is the author of The Messiah: A Comparative Study of the Enochic Son of Man and the Pauline Kyrios (T.&T. Clark, 2011) and The Struggle to Reclaim the Liturgy in the Lutheran Church: Adiaphora in Historical, Theological and Practical Perspective (Mellen, 2005), which was referred to by Bryan Spinks (Yale Institute of Sacred Music) as “a major contribution to the wider debate on liturgical theology,” and was included by Frank Senn (North American Academy of Liturgy) in a select bibliography for the article on Lutheran Worship in The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity (2010).

His blog Studia Rerum Iudaicarum reflects on early Jewish intellectual traditions as this literature informs his contemporary socio-political commentary and criticism, in particular addressing issues of tsedaqah (justice) as we learn from our past and as we live today to love God and each other.

Dr. Waddell’s curriculum vitae may be viewed here.

If you are considering studying Hebrew and/or Greek at ETS but you aren’t quite sure, please read this.

Publications

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Wisdom Poured Out Like Water: Studies on Jewish and Christian Antiquity in Honor of Gabriele Boccaccini. J. Harold Ellens, Jason von Ehrenkrook, Isaac Oliver, James Waddell, and Jason Zurawski editors. Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies 38. Edited by Friedrich V. Reiterer, Beate Ego, Tobias Nicklas, and Kristin de Troyer. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018.

“‘I Have Been Born Among You’: Jesus, Jews, and Christians in the Second Century.” Wisdom Poured Out Like Water: Studies on Jewish and Christian Antiquity in Honor of Gabriele Boccaccini. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018. 526-538.

“The Shadow and the Substance: Early Reception of Paul the Jew in the Letter to the Colossians.” The Early Reception of Paul the Second Temple Jew: Text, Narrative and Reception History. Isaac Oliver and Gabriele Boccaccini editors. The Library of Second Temple Studies 92. Lester Grabbe editor. London: Bloomsbury T.&T. Clark, 2018. 75-87.

The Messiah: A Comparative Study of the Enochic Son of Man and the Pauline Kyrios. London: T.&T. Clark, 2011.

The Struggle to Reclaim the Liturgy in the Lutheran Church: Adiaphora in Historical, Theological and Practical Perspective. Mellen, 2005.

SELECTED COURSES

Koine Greek I, Koine Greek II, Biblical Greek Exegesis

Postcolonial Bible

Faith, Politics, & Justice in the World of Jesus

Empire, Wealth, & Poverty in the New Testament

Protest & Resistance in the Gospels: Faith’s Response to the Forces of Empire

Interests & Projects

CURRENT PROJECTS

History and Faith: Reading the Texts of Our Religious Past with Hermeneutical Self-Awareness … in progress

The Birth of Lord Jesus Messiah: Infancy Christologies from the First to the Second Centuries CE. … in progress