Biography

Early Life

I was born and raised in Orlando, Florida. From an early age, I excelled in and loved learning, cultivating eclectic interests. I was deeply involved in my church and took my schooling very seriously. But, I played football and then transitioned into running cross country and track. I studied music, but also international relations, languages, and math. I read voraciously and enjoyed playing video games. I share this because it serves as a microcosm for my varied interests and thus for the topics you may encounter on this blog. I also share it because it undergirds how I have come to understand myself as a scholar and professor: my work is all about communities of people and their stories. 

Higher Education

As an undergraduate, I fell in love with the university, as place and as idea. I pursued and achieved three different bachelor's degrees (two in music and one in math). I became deeply involved in the working of the university and its life, culminating in my service as the Student Body President of the University of Florida (UF). In this role, I not only represented the 50,000 students of my own university but was also elected to be the Vice-Chair of the Florida Students Association, which represented all public university students across the state of Florida. Finally, I served as a trustee of the university and on each of the university's highest governing boards, such as the athletic association board, the performing arts board, and the university's foundation board. Rather than launching me into a career in politics or law, as has happened for many other UF student body presidents, I fell so deeply in love with the university that I couldn't imagine leaving it. Universities are amazing places, where one can pursue truth and spread that truth to others, serving the purposes of God who is the source of all truth. 

Early in life, I discerned a call to ministry, so I headed to Yale to study for my Master of Divinity. Yet, while I was at Yale I quickly realized that three years of education was hardly enough for me and I began to wonder if rather than church ministry, I might serve at a university as a faculty member and thus also with a university ministry. So, when I completed my M.Div., I left Yale and enrolled in the PhD program at Emory University.

My education and experiences throughout those years of higher education were all about language and community. From Music to math, Greek, German, and Spanish, transitioning from athletes to artists to politics to churchgoers. Each of these is a community with its own ways of relating to one another, its own language, and its own culture. My experience with varied communities has sparked my questions and shaped the way I utilize various methodologies in investigating those questions.

How I Came to ACU

When I left Emory, I took a job as an assistant professor in Abilene Christian University's Department of Bible, Missions, and Ministry. At ACU, I have taught widely and expanded my research interests from the ancient Mediterranean social context and traditional historical and exegetical methods of investigating questions in that realm to contemporary life, religion, and education as it is investigated through quantitative and qualitative methods. I have found, as my article "The Maintenance of Spiritual and Religious Life: Exploring the Persistence of Christian Faith Scale through Ancient Christianity" demonstrates, that contemporary life and ancient life often illuminate one another. 

What to Expect Here at the Blog

In reflection of all I have shared above, you may expect wide-ranging essays on this blog, some tilting more towards the academic, and some much more towards the popular culture, but always asking questions of humanity, theology, history, and/or community. If you would like to explore more of my academic writing, my CV will point the way.