Episodes 1 and 2

Robyn Whitaker

Robyn Whitaker is Coordinator of Studies – New Testament at Pilgrim Theological College and Senior Lecturer within the University of Divinity. She specialises in the Book of Revelation with particular attention to the visual culture in which the text emerged and the visual rhetoric of biblical literature. She has published on Revelation, Luke, and Mark’s gospel.

Robyn is also co-host of By The Well, a podcast discussing the Uniting Church’s lectionary readings.

She completed her PhD at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Her thesis on ekphrasis and the persuasive visual rhetorical of Revelation was one of the first studies on the use of ekphrasis in the New Testament and was subsequently published as Ekphrasis, Vision, and Persuasion in the Book of Revelation in 2015. She continues to work within Revelation exploring the theology, symbolism, and rhetoric of that text for both an ancient and modern audience as well as the relationship between the Bible and visual culture.

Robyn frequently writes on issues relating to gender, sexuality, politics, and the Bible in popular and mainstream media outlets. More on Robyn’s work can be found here.

Episode 3

John Christopher Thomas

John Christopher Thomas is the Clarence J. Abbott Professor of Biblical Studies at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary, Tennessee, and the Director of the Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies at Bangor University in Wales. He received his B.A. degree from Lee College in 1976, his M.A. from the Church of God School of Theology in 1977, his M.Div. from Ashland Theological Seminary in 1978, a Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1979, and a Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield in 1990. He has been a member of the full-time faculty of the Pentecostal Theological Seminary since 1982.

Chris has been honored for his work in New Testament scholarship by election into membership of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas and his appointment as the Clarence J. Abbott Professor of Biblical Studies at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary.  He also serves as the Director of the Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies at Bangor University in Bangor, Wales. He previously served as the President of the Society for Pentecostal Studies (1997-98).

Along with his colleague Lee Roy Martin, he is a founding publisher and editor of CPT Press. Strongly committed to parish ministry, he has served as Associate Pastor of the Woodward Church of God in Athens, Tennessee since 1981. A full list of Chris’s publications can be found here.

Episode 4

Keith Dyer

Keith was a Primary Teacher in rural and suburban Victoria, a Youth Leader at Blackburn Baptist Church, and then taught for 5 years in the Solomon Islands for the South Sea Evangelical Church at Su’u Secondary School, before returning to Australia and theological studies at Whitley College. He went on to Doctoral studies in New Testament with Rev Dr Athol Gill, and then taught for three years at the Baptist Theological Seminary, Rüschlikon, in Switzerland, before coming back to Whitley in 1994. He published his thesis as The Prophecy on the Mount (Mark 13) (1998).

Through his speaking engagements and involvement in local churches, Keith is passionate about encouraging open, analytical and interactive group Bible study. He is married to Lynne, has four sons, and is a member of Box Hill Baptist Church. Keith was a member of the BTheol Board/Coursework Committee (1987-91; 1995-2009), the Chair of the Academic Board of the Melbourne College of Divinity (2006–09), and is now a member of the Research Committee of the University of Divinity. A full list of Keith’s publications can be found here.

Episode 5

Michael J. Gorman

Michael J. Gorman is the Raymond E. Brown Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He joined St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute faculty in 1991, becoming Associate Dean of the Ecumenical Institute and a member of the Seminary faculty in 1993. He was appointed Dean of St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute in 1995 and served in that capacity through June of 2012. Prior to taking the Raymond E. Brown Chair, he was Professor of Sacred Scripture and, before that, Professor of New Testament and Early Church History.

Dr. Gorman is a New Testament scholar who specializes especially in the letters, theology, and spirituality of the apostle Paul. He is associated with the “participationist perspective” on Paul’s theology. His additional specialties are the book of Revelation, theological and missional interpretation of Scripture, the gospel of John, and early Christian ethics. In addition, he has a strong interest in the relationship between church and culture.

Dr. Gorman is the author of nearly twenty books and more than sixty articles on Biblical interpretation and on ethics. The main book referenced in this podcast was Reading Revelation Responsibly. Michael’s full biography can be found here.