A very warm welcome to Professor James Crossley, who is coming from the University of Sheffield to join our Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible team at St Mary’s University, Twickenham on 1 September. James will bring a strong interest in the Gospels and the historical Jesus, and particularly the way the Bible is ‘received’ in today’s world, not least in the spheres of politics and culture. His latest book is Jesus and the Chaos of History (OUP, Feb 2015). He’s well published, and a fine and stimulating scholar—we‘re greatly looking forward to having him with us!

James is open to new PhD students (as am I and Chris Keith)—please email us if you’re interested, or know someone who might be. James’s interests are wide: he writes, ‘potential PhD topics might involve anything from Christian origins through to contemporary political and cultural receptions of biblical texts.’

Here are links to the announcements by my colleague Chris Keith and by James himself.

[Thanks to James for the photo, which reflects his present facial non-hirsuitness better than the photo on the Jesus blog announcement, he tells me.]