Christopher Seitz | |
---|---|
Born | Blowing Rock, North Carolina, United States | 22 May 1954
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of North Carolina |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Theologian |
Sub-discipline | |
Institutions | |
Ecclesiastical career | |
Religion | Christianity |
Church | Episcopalian |
Ordained | 1980 (deacon) 1981 (priest) |
Christopher R. Seitz (born 1954) is an American Old Testament scholar and theologian known for his work in biblical interpretation and theological hermeneutics. He is the senior research professor of biblical interpretation at Toronto School of Theology, Wycliffe College. [1] He is also an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church, and served as canon theologian in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas (2008-2015).
Seitz received an AB from the University of North Carolina, in 1976, an MTS from Virginia Theological Seminary, in 1979. He studied at the University of Munich, 1979–80, and received several degrees from Yale University: STM 1981; MA 1982; MPhil 1983; PhD 1986.
Seitz was ordained by William H. Folwell for the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida as a deacon on June 22, 1980 and as a priest on January 11, 1981. [2]
He began his teaching career as Assistant Professor of Old Testament at The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia (1984–87), before becoming Associate Professor of Old Testament at Yale in 1987. [1] He was Professor of Old Testament at Yale from 1993-97 [1] and then took a chair at the University of St Andrews (Scotland) in 1998 where he was Professor of Old Testament and Theological Studies at St Mary’s College until 2007. [3] He is presently Senior Research Professor of Biblical interpretation at Wycliffe College in the University of Toronto. He is a co-founder of the Wycliffe Center for Scripture and Theology. [3]
Seitz is the author and editor of more than twenty books; he is best known for his volume on Isaiah 1—39 in Interpretation Commentary Series, held in 727 libraries according to WorldCat, [4] and translated into Korean, Japanese and Italian. Other major works include Word Without End, Figured Out, Isaiah 40—66 (New Interpreter’s Bible), Prophecy and Hermeneutics, The Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets, and The Character of Christian Scripture. [5] Recently, he has written a commentary on Colossians for the Brazos Theological Commentary series (2014), in which the place of the book in a wider Letter Collection is evaluated. A commentary on Joel for the new International Theological Commentary series appeared in 2016. Additionally, he has contributed more than sixty articles to journals and publications, including Journal of Biblical Literature, Vetus Testamentum, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Scottish Journal of Theology, Interpretation, Theology Today, Biblische Zeitschrift, Anglican Theological Review, Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, The Christian Century, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, First Things, and Pro Ecclesia. He is the Editor of Studies in Theological Interpretation, and has served on the editorial boards of Interpretation, Hermeneia, Journal of Theological Interpretation, Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, and Pro Ecclesia. [1]
He is a two-time Alexander von Humboldt research scholar (1991-2 at the University of Munich and 2013 at the University of Göttingen), a Henry Luce III Foundation grant recipient, and a Fellow of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey.
Seitz is an ordained Episcopal priest and has served parishes in Texas, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Germany, France and Scotland. [1] He currently serves as the president of The Anglican Communion Institute [6] and was canon theologian in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas until 2015. At present he lives with his wife Elizabeth in Courances, France. He was Visiting Professor at Centre Sevres in Paris 2019-2021.
Seitz has been influenced by his former teacher and then Yale colleague Brevard Childs, a key figure advocating for the significance of canon in biblical interpretation, and for the appropriate use of the Old Testament in Christian theology. [7] [8] [9] His recent book discusses the historical legacy of canonical reading, kindred developments at Vatican II, and important convergences in the work of the late French scholar, Paul Beauchamp. [10] In 2021 he was presented with a Festschrift honoring his life and work. [11]
Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible "is without error or fault in all its teaching"; or, at least, that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact". Some equate inerrancy with biblical infallibility; others do not.
Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible. It is part of the broader field of hermeneutics, which involves the study of principles of interpretation, both theory and methodology, for all forms of communication, nonverbal and verbal.
Biblical literalism or biblicism is a term used differently by different authors concerning biblical interpretation. It can equate to the dictionary definition of literalism: "adherence to the exact letter or the literal sense", where literal means "in accordance with, involving, or being the primary or strict meaning of the word or words; not figurative or metaphorical".
Craig L. Blomberg is an American New Testament scholar. He is currently the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the New Testament at Denver Seminary in Colorado where he has been since 1986. His area of academic expertise is the New Testament,including subjects relating to parables, miracles, the historical Jesus, Luke-Acts, John, 1 Corinthians, James, the historical trustworthiness of Scripture, financial stewardship, gender roles, the Latter Day Saint movement, hermeneutics, New Testament theology, and exegetical methods. Blomberg has written and edited multiple books.
The historical-grammatical method is a modern Christian hermeneutical method that strives to discover the biblical authors' original intended meaning in the text. According to the historical-grammatical method, if based on an analysis of the grammatical style of a passage, it appears that the author intended to convey an account of events that actually happened, then the text should be taken as representing history; passages should only be interpreted symbolically, poetically, or allegorically if to the best of our understanding, that is what the writer intended to convey to the original audience. It is the primary method of interpretation for many conservative Protestant exegetes who reject the historical-critical method to various degrees, in contrast to the overwhelming reliance on historical-critical interpretation in biblical studies at the academic level.
Kevin Jon Vanhoozer is an American theologian and current research professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) in Deerfield, Illinois. Much of Vanhoozer's work focuses on systematic theology, hermeneutics, and postmodernism.
Andrew Keith Malcolm Adam, known as A. K. M. Adam, is a biblical scholar, theologian, author, priest, technologist and blogger. He is Tutor in New Testament and Greek at St. Stephen's House at Oxford University. He is a writer, speaker, voice-over artist, and activist on topics including postmodern philosophy, hermeneutics, education, and the social constitution of meaning.
Peter Eric Enns is an American Biblical scholar and theologian. He has written widely on hermeneutics, Christianity and science, historicity of the Bible, and Old Testament interpretation. Outside of his academic work Enns is a contributor to HuffPost and Patheos. He has also worked with Francis Collins' The BioLogos Foundation. His book Inspiration and Incarnation challenged conservative/mainstream Evangelical methods of biblical interpretation. His book The Evolution of Adam questions the belief that Adam was a historical figure. He also wrote The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It and The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our 'Correct' Beliefs.
Grant R. Osborne was an American theologian and New Testament scholar. He was Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Canonical criticism, sometimes called canon criticism or the canonical approach, is a way of interpreting the Bible that focuses on the text of the biblical canon itself as a finished product.
Joel B. Green is an American New Testament scholar, theologian, author, Associate Dean of the Center for Advanced Theological Study, and Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Green is a prolific author who has written on a diverse range of topics related to both New Testament scholarship and theology. He is an ordained elder of the United Methodist Church.
Brevard Springs Childs was an American Old Testament scholar and Professor of Old Testament at Yale University from 1958 until 1999, who is considered one of the most influential biblical scholars of the 20th century.
John Edgar Goldingay is a British Old Testament scholar and translator and Anglican cleric. He is the David Allan Hubbard Professor Emeritus of Old Testament in the School of Theology of Fuller Theological Seminary in California.
Peter Stuhlmacher is a Protestant theologian, professor emeritus of New Testament studies at the University of Tübingen.
Mark E. Biddle is the Russell T. Cherry Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. He is editor of the Review & Expositor journal.
James Luther Mays was an American Old Testament scholar. He was Cyrus McCormick Professor of Hebrew and the Old Testament Emeritus at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Virginia. He served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature in 1986.
Jack Pearl Lewis was an American Bible scholar affiliated with the Churches of Christ. He earned a Ph.D. in New Testament from Harvard University in 1953 and a Ph.D. in Old Testament from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1962. For 50 years, Lewis taught Bible and biblical languages first at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, and then at Harding School of Theology in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was named professor emeritus upon his retirement. He authored over 223 articles in scholarly and church publications and published more than twenty-five books. He died in Memphis, Tennessee, on July 24, 2018, at the age of 99.
James Washington Watts is an American professor of religion at Syracuse University. His research focuses on the rhetoric of Leviticus. His publications also compare the Bible with other religious scriptures, especially in their ritual performances, social functions, and material symbolism.
Karen H. Jobes is an American biblical scholar who is Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor Emerita of New Testament Greek and Exegesis at Wheaton College. She has written a number of books and biblical commentaries. In 2015, she received the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's Christian Book of the Year Award for "Bible Reference" books. Jobes currently serves as the president of the Evangelical Theological Society.
Jeannine K. Brown is an American New Testament scholar who focuses on the Gospels, Hermeneutics and New Testament literary analysis. She is a professor at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.