Baker Academic

Friday, April 24, 2015

James Crossley joins the Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St Mary’s University—Chris Keith

Photo Robert Myles
I'm very excited to announce that on Sept. 1 of this year James Crossley, co-blogger here at the Jesus Blog, will join the Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St Mary's University as Professor of Bible and Society.  He will add great strength to our centre and his addition signals the continued growth of Biblical Studies and New Testament at St Mary's, which in the past three years has seen also the addition of Prof Steve Walton and grown from one New Testament PhD student to ten.  Prof Crossley will be taking on new PhD students and any who are interested in studying with him are encouraged to contact him or me (chris.keith@stmarys.ac.uk).  Although Prof Crossley will spend most of his time on research and PhD supervision, he will also teach undergraduate courses and courses on the MA in Biblical Studies (due to take its first class in 2016).

Readers of the Jesus Blog will be familiar with Prof Crossley's contributions here on the blog but also his previous publications on the historical Jesus and early Christianity, including his most recent work, Jesus and the Chaos of History (Oxford University Press, 2015), which will receive a panel review at this year's British New Testament Conference.  At St Mary's, Prof Crossley will also continue his important work on the Bible in contemporary culture and politics (see his Harnessing Chaos: The Bible in English Political Discourse since 1968 [Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014]) and organize conferences and research projects on this theme.  As his is the most important voice in this discussion, he will add a key contemporary dimension to the social-scientific research already being conducted in CSSSB.

Congratulations to Prof Crossley and welcome to CSSSB at St Mary's!  We'll have to plan a special celebration for the Jesus Blog family at SBL in November. . . .

6 comments:

  1. Lucky St Mary's. Quite a team you are building up there and one that will, I am sure, go from strength to strength. Great appointment.

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    1. Thanks, Justin. We look forward to getting you over for a paper or conference at some point.

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    2. Gratitude for Crowley. Did I notice some actual, secular scholarly training in his resume? For that we are eternally grateful.

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  2. congrats to jim and to st. mary's. now maybe crossley will shave off that facial vow atrocity.

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  3. Wow! What a powerful team you're assembling out there! Fantastic! Congratulations to you!

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  4. This is big news and I'm thrilled for you guys. What is it about Chris Keith that attracts all of these superstars? First it was Anthony LeDonne in Illinois. Then it was Steve Walton, and now James Crossley. Chris, you must be a jedi of some kind. Congratulations all around.

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