Derek Dodson

Contact Information:
Department of Religion
Baylor University
One Bear Place #97284
Waco, TX 76798-7284

Office: Tidwell 501C

Phone: (254) 710-7282
FAX: (254) 710-3740

Email:
Derek_Dodson@baylor.edu

Lecturer

Education:

Baylor University, Ph.D. (2006)
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, M.Div. (1993)
Mobile College, B.A. (1989)

Biography:

Derek Dodson began teaching at Baylor University in 2007 after receiving his Ph.D. from Baylor in 2006. He is a native of Demopolis, Alabama, and has served on church staffs, including as pastor, in Alabama, Kentucky, and Texas. Dr. Dodson feels that academics and ministry provide a kind of "warp and woof" to his life: teaching Religion at a Christian university, interacting with students about issues of faith, researching in the area of New Testament studies and early Christian literature, teaching College Sunday School at Seventh & James Baptist Church, and guest preaching when the opportunity arises. He and his wife Sherrie have two daughters, Kelsey and Emily.

Academic Interests and Research:

The Gospels and Acts, as well as other early Christian narratives; the hermeneutical task of appropriating the Christian scriptures for theological and ethical reflection; translation of Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on Matthew.

Professional Awards and Activities:

Member of the Society of Biblical Literature

Program chair for the Theta Alpha Kappa session of the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies.

Selected Research Articles:

"Dream Magic: The Dream of Pilate's Wife and the Accusation of Magic in the Acts of Pilate." Paper presented for the Christian Apocrypha Section, Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego, California, November, 2007.

"Scripting Dreams: The Gospel of Matthew's Use of a Literary Convention." Paper presented for the Matthew Section, Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego, California, November, 2007.

"The Romance of Abraham and Sarah: Novelistic Features in the Apocryphon of Genesis." Paper presented for the Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative Group, Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Antonio, Texas, November, 2004.

"Philo's De somniis in the Context of Ancient Dream Theories and Classifications." Perspectives in Religious Studies 30 (2003): 299-312.

"Dreams, the Ancient Novels, and the Gospel of Matthew: An Intertextual Study." Perspectives in Religious Studies 29 (2002): 39-52.

Books:

Reading Dreams: An Audience-Critical Approach to the Dreams in the Gospel of Matthew. Library of New Testament Studies 397. London: T&T Clark, 2009.

Courses Taught at Baylor:

REL 1310 Christian Scriptures
REL 1350 Christian Heritage
REL 3319 Interpreting the New Testament