The University of Sheffield
Department of Biblical Studies

Professor James Crossley

James Crossley

Professor of Bible, Culture and Politics

BA, MA, PhD

Email address: james.crossley@sheffield.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 (0)114 222 0502

Department address: Department of Biblical Studies, 45 Victoria Street, Sheffield S3 7QB

Biography

I have been at Sheffield since January 2005 in a department which has historically been the most creative centre of contemporary biblical studies.

I have long been particularly interested in the role of ‘religion’ as a human phenomenon and its relationship to social, economic and ideological contexts, especially, but not exclusively, how all this relates to the critical study of the origins, use and influence of New Testament texts.

Research interests

Current research projects / collaborations

I am currently working on two main projects.

  1. a life of Jesus for OUP without the conventional emphasis on Jesus as a ‘great man’ who effectively caused a new movement and with the emphasis on how Jesus, and the movement that followed in his name, were products of a range of social and economic factors and how these led from the Jesus movement to early Christianity. I am particularly keen on how understanding these factors can help explain certain features of ‘religion’ more generally and the relationship of this aspect of ‘religion’ to historical change and social justice and injustice, both ancient and modern.
  2. a collaboration (with Prof. Jackie Harrison, Journalism Studies) on the construction of ‘religion’ in the contemporary British factual media (printed press, television news, blogging etc.) in relation to dominant liberal discourses.

I am also continuing to write articles on Jewish law, reception history and the social history of contemporary scholarship (esp. the emergence of the ‘New Perspective on Paul’)

Research supervision

Teaching

I currently teach on the following modules:

From September 2011 I will be teaching the new Religion in an Age of Terror module (MA).

Selected publications

Conferences

I have given papers and keynote lectures at numerous recent conferences e.g. European Association of Biblical Studies, Religion and Political Thought (Copenhagen), Jesus and Cultural Complexity (Oslo), Society of Biblical Literature, British New Testament Conference, Reception History of the Bible, and the Bible and Justice

Other professional activities

I am a member of: the British New Testament Society (and co-chair of the Jesus seminar); European Association of Biblical Studies (and co-chair of the Social History of Modern Biblical Scholarship seminar); Society of Biblical Literature; British Association of Jewish Studies; and Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.

I am on the editorial boards of the following journals: Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus; Acta Patristica et Byzantina; and The Bible and Critical Theory.

I co-edit the following series: Biblical Refigurations (Oxford University Press), BibleWorld (Equinox); and the Social World of Biblical Antiquity monograph series for Sheffield Phoenix Press (Sheffield Phoenix Press)

I have appeared on various television and radio programmes (e.g. Secrets of the Twelve Disciples, The Bible: A History, Premier Christian Radio)

I am a member of the Centre for the Freedom of the Media (www.cfom.org.uk) where I will be developing research on religion and the media.

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