Dr. Mike Whitenton
Email: Mike_Whitenton@baylor.edu
Office: Morrison Hall 101.8
Department: Baylor Interdisciplinary Core
BIC Courses: World of Rhetoric I & II, Examined Life I, II, & III
Mike Whitenton’s teaching and research focus on rhetoric, the Bible and its role in discussions of contemporary ethics, and self-care through movement and mindfulness. No matter the topic, his teaching aims at providing students with process-oriented transformative learning experiences that express the interrelatedness of the humanities and the social sciences and prepare students for lives of empathetic, service-oriented leadership wherever their individual callings might take them.
Dr. Whitenton’s research focuses on the study of ancient & cognitive rhetorics, emotions, and early Christianity through the integration of more traditional research methods with work from linguistics, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and narratology. He also has pedagogical research interests related to the cultivation of empathy and mindfulness to enhance transformative learning.
Dr. Whitenton is currently pursuing a series of projects exploring issues in characterization in early Christianity, especially as they relate to performances of belief & disbelief, self-regulation, and gender. He earned his Ph.D. in Religion from Baylor University (with a focus on ancient rhetoric) and completed his B.S. in Community Health from Texas A&M University. In his spare time, you will find him either playing with his family, working out in his garage, or running on Waco’s incredible trails. He and his wife, Rachel, are the proud parents of two wonderful children.
Recent Books:
Hearing Kyriotic Sonship: A Cognitive and Rhetorical Approach to the Characterization of Mark’s Jesus. Biblical Interpretation Series 148. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
Configuring Nicodemus: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Complex Characterization. Library of New Testament Studies. London: T&T Clark, 2019.
Recent Articles and Other Contributions:
Annotations for Philippians in The Baylor Annotated Study Bible. Edited by W.H. Bellinger and Todd D. Still. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press (2019).
“Tasting the Kingdom: Wine-drinking and Audience Inference in Mark 15:36,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 40 (2018): 403-23.
“The Dissembler of John 3: A Cognitive and Rhetorical Approach to the Characterization of Nicodemus,” Journal of Biblical Literature 135 (2016): 141–58.
“Feeling the Silence: A Moment-by-Moment Account of Emotions at the End of Mark (16:1-8),” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 79 (2016): 272–89.
“The Moral Development of the Boy Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 38 (2015): 219–40.
See CV for more specific research interests and agenda at https://baylor.academia.edu/MichaelWhitenton/CurriculumVitae