John Dominic Crossan

John Dominic Crossan

Lecturer and professor emeritus, DePaul University

Irish-born John Dominic Crossan is a professor emeritus in the religious studies department at DePaul University in Chicago. Between 1950 and 1969, he was a member of a 13th-century Roman Catholic religious order, the Servites, and remained an ordained priest from 1957 to 1969. He has delivered lectures to secular and lay audiences from Scandinavia to Australia to Japan to South Africa. The On Faith panelist has authored 23 books and his writings have been translated into 11 languages. His work focuses on the historical Jesus, earliest Christianity and the historical Paul. Core titles include “The Historical Jesus,” “The Birth of Christianity” and “In Search of Paul,” co-written with archaeologist Jonathan L. Reed. Dr. Crossan’s next book, “God & Empire: Jesus Against Rome Then and Now,” is scheduled for publication in February. The professor earned a doctor of divinity degree at St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland and a humanities doctorate at Stetson University in Florida. The American Academy of Religion and DePaul and Stetson universities have recognized him with awards for scholarly excellence. His Web site is www.johndominiccrossan.com. Close.

John Dominic Crossan

Lecturer and professor emeritus, DePaul University

Irish-born John Dominic Crossan is a professor emeritus in the religious studies department at DePaul University in Chicago. Between 1950 and 1969, he was a member of a 13th-century Roman Catholic religious order, the Servites, and remained an ordained priest from 1957 to 1969. He has delivered lectures to secular and lay audiences from Scandinavia to Australia to Japan to South Africa. The On Faith panelist has authored 23 books and his writings have been translated into 11 languages. more »

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Theology Archives



January 19, 2007 9:13 AM

Testosterone Trumps Theology (Always?)

It's not--ultimately--about atheism vs theism, polytheism vs monotheism, goddesses vs gods, or even God-as-She vs God-as-He. It's about testosterone.

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February 1, 2007 8:29 AM

Prayer Is A Life Lived in Union With God

Prayer is a relationship not just an action and it comes in both primary and secondary modes.

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April 7, 2007 9:36 AM

Wounds Not Bones

The definitive discovery of Jesus remains would not change my faith in Christianity because the bodily resurrection of Jesus is a metaphorical parable about the meaning of Jesus’ life and death and not an historical account about the status of Jesus’ corpse and tomb.

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June 11, 2007 8:57 AM

Both/And not Either/Or

The answer from within my Christian tradition is both/and rather than either/or. And, for me, no one ever expressed better than the apostle Paul that creative dialectic of “being saved” and “doing good."

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June 15, 2007 9:52 AM

Questioning and Conscience

On the one hand, questioning is the voice of conscience and the absence of one is the death of the other. So Socrates, for example, questioned relentlessly the contemporary faith of his fellow-Athenians and died a martyr for his too-successful examinations.

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August 17, 2007 10:17 AM

Only One Verse is Necessary

One verse in one psalm is the lens through which I see all else in—since I am a Christian—the Christian Bible. It is Psalm 82:5b which says, within its context, that, “injustice shakes the foundations of the earth.”

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