James McGrath

James F. McGrath is Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature. His PhD from the University of Durham became the basis for his first book, John's Apologetic Christology, published by Cambridge University Press in the SNTS Monograph Series. He has also written a "prequel" about the broader context of monotheism and Christology in ancient Judaism and Christianity, The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context, published by University of Illinois Press. More recently he has published What Jesus Learned from Women  which explores the topic of the historical figure of Jesus and the influence the women mentioned in the Gospels had on him. His book The A to Z of the New Testament is a fun and readable exploration of the things that New Testament scholars and those who've taken courses on the New Testament know, yet others typically do not, even if they have a profound interest in or even reverence for those texts. Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist is a biography of this fascinating yet underappreciated figure. This was followed soon after by a large monograph about John the Baptist titled John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptizer. While Christmaker is a biography written for a general audience, John of History, Baptist of Faith offers detailed studies of key questions of method and detail.

In addition to his work on the New Testament and early Christianity, Dr. McGrath also researches the Mandaeans (the last surviving Gnostic group from the ancient world) and their literature. The critical edition, translation, and commentary on the Mandaean Book of John published by DeGruyter, which he produced together with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University, represents the first such academic edition of the complete work in English based on all known manuscripts. Another area of specialty is the intersection of religion and science fiction. On that subject, he is the author of Theology and Science Fiction and The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos (Black Archive #52), editor of Religion and Science Fiction and co-editor of Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who. He has co-authored Progressive Rock, Religion, and Theology with Frank Felice.

Dr. McGrath blogs at ReligionProf and can be found elsewhere on social media under the same handle.