Professor James Harrison

Research Director at the Office of the Dean, Sydney College of Divinity

BA, DipEd, MA, PhD (Macquarie)

Biographical Information

Professor James R. Harrison, a Macquarie University graduate, joined the SCD in 2013 after 15 years of teaching New Testament at Wesley Institute (now Excelsia College). He was Head of Theology there for 11 years and before that Director of the School of Christian Studies at Robert Menzies College. He is a member of the Society of New Testament Studies. He has convened the Polis and Ecclesia Session at the SBL Annual Meeting for 6 years with L. L. Welborn (Fordham) from 2011-2016, and, with Professor (Dr) Peter Arzt-Grabner (Salzburg), will convene the SNTS Seminar Papyrology, Epigraphy and the New Testament for the next five years. Professor Harrison is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Research Interests

Professor Harrison’s research interests include the historical Jesus, the apostle Paul, Second Temple Judaism, the Graeco-Roman world, epigraphy, papyrology, numismatics, iconography, and the intersection of ancient Mediterranean cities and villages with the New Testament documents.

Major Publications

Professor Harrison is a widely published New Testament scholar, authoring 2 monographs on Paul with Mohr Siebeck Press: the 2005 BAS prize-winning Paul’s Language of Grace in Its Graeco-Roman Context [Mohr Siebeck 2003; reprint, Cascade books, 2016]) and Paul and the Imperial Authorities at Thessalonica and Rome (Mohr Siebeck 2011).

Two new monographs on Paul are in press: Paul and the Ancient Celebrity Circuit (Mohr Siebeck) and Reading Romans with Roman Eyes (Fortress Press).

He has edited 9 further books (Mohr Siebeck, 2008; Eerdmans, 2012; Morning Star, 2014 [reprint, Wipf and Stock, 2015]; SBL Press, 2015, 2016; 2018 [two volumes]; Cambridge Scholars, 2015, 2016).

He has also published many articles and chapters in international journals and books. He is the editor of New Documents Illustrating the History of Early Christianity Volumes 1-5 (Eerdmans) and, with L. L. Welborn, the editor of The First Urban Churches Volumes 1-9 (SBL), and is a SCD Press editorial board member.