James F. McGrath
Born	James Frank McGrath (1972-12-25)December 25, 1972 (age 52)[2]
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Cambridge University of London Durham University
Doctoral advisor	James Dunn[1]
Academic work
Institutions	Butler University
Main interests	Early Christianity Mandaeism criticism of theChrist myth theory science fiction

James Frank McGrath is the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair inNew Testament Language and Literature^[3] atButler University.^[4] He is known for his work onEarly Christianity,Mandaeism, criticism of theChrist myth theory, and the analysis of religion inscience fiction.^[5] McGrath received his Ph.D. fromDurham University in 1998.^[6]

James McGrath earned his diploma inreligious studies (with distinction) from theUniversity of Cambridge in 1993. He went on to receive his Bachelor of Divinity from theUniversity of London, in which he was awardedSecond Class, First Degree honors in 1995. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy at theUniversity of Durham in 1998, under the supervision ofJames D. G. Dunn.^[7][8]

He has served as assistant professor of New Testament atEmmanuel University and theUniversity of Oradea (1998-2001), an adjunct professor atBiblical Theological Seminary andAlliance Theological Seminary (2001-2002), and professor of Religion atButler University (2002–present).^[9] In 2010, he was appointed the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair of New Testament Language and Literature.^[3]

McGrath is also the creator ofCanon: The Card Game.^[10]

Books authored

• John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptizer (Eerdmans, 2024)
• Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist (Eerdmans, 2024)
• The A to Z of the New Testament (Eerdmans, 2023)
• What Jesus Learned from Women (Cascade, 2021)
• The Black Archive #52:The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos (Obverse Books, 2021)
• TheMandaean Book of John: critical edition, translation, and commentary. (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020; withCharles G. Häberl)
• Theology and Science Fiction (Cascade Companions; Eugene: Cascade, 2016)
• The Burial of Jesus: What Does History Have To Do With Faith? (Patheos Press, 2012)
• The Only True God: Monotheism in Early Judaism and Christianity (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009)
• John’s Apologetic Christology: Legitimation and Development in Johannine Christology (SNTS Monograph Series, Cambridge University Press, 2001)

Books edited

• Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who (co-edited with Andrew Crome; Darton, Longman, and Todd, 2013)
• Religion and Science Fiction (Pickwick Press, 2011; Lutterworth Press, 2012)

Articles and book chapters

• "A God Needs Compassion, but Not a Starship: Star Trek's Humanist Theology," inThe Ultimate Star Trek and Philosophy: The Search for Socrates, ed. Kevin S. Decker and Jason T. Eberl. Malden: John Wiley & Sons, 2016, pp. 315–325.
• "Foreword" toThe Son of God: Three Views of the Identity of Jesus, by Charles Lee Irons, Danny Andre Dixon, and Dustin R. Smith. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2015.
• "Explicit and Implicit Religion in Doctor Who and Star Trek,"Implicit Religion 18:4 (2015) 471-484.
• "Polemic, Redaction, and History in the Mandaean Book of John: The Case of theLightworld Visitors to Jerusalem,"ARAM Periodical 25 (2013) 375-382.
• "Monotheism," inVocabulary for the Study of Religion ed. Robert A. Segal andKocku von Stuckrad (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2015).
• "Mythicism and the Making of Mark" inThe Bible and Interpretation August 2015
• "Religion’s Futures and the Future’s Religions through the Lens of Science Fiction" inThe Changing World Religions Map, ed. Stan Brunn (New York: Springer, 2015) 2893-2905.
• "Monotheism," inThe Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Ethics, ed. Robert L. Brawley (Oxford University Press, 2014) 57-64.
• "Did Jesus Die in Outer Space? Evaluating a Key Claim in Richard Carrier’s On the Historicity of Jesus" inThe Bible & Interpretation October 2014
• "John 2:13-16," "The Three Johns," and "The Woman at the Well" - contributions to the Society of Biblical Literature Bible Odyssey website.
• "Mythicism and the Mainstream: The Rhetoric and Realities of Academic Freedom" inThe Bible and Interpretation March 2014.
• "Epilogue" inTime and Relative Dimensions in Faith (see above).
• "Revisiting the Mandaeans and the New Testament" inThe Bible & Interpretation August 2013
• "Reading the Story of Miriai on Two Levels: Evidence from Mandaean Anti-Jewish Polemic about the Origins and Setting of Early Mandaeism,"ARAM Periodical (2010): 583–592.

• "Biblical Literalism in the New Jerusalem," inTouching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion edited by Paul Levinson and Michael Waltemathe, Fordham University Press, 2016, pp. 161–164.

• Selected Works at Butler University
• Religion Prof: The Blog of James McGrath
• Author Page on Facebook
• Twitter Profile, @ReligionProf

• Living people
• 21st-century American non-fiction writers
• American speculative fiction writers
• Butler University faculty
• American biblical scholars
• Religious studies scholars
• Science fiction academics
• Alumni of the University of Cambridge
• Alumni of the University of London
• American game designers
• New Testament scholars
• Scholars of Mandaeism
• Translators from Mandaic
• Alumni of Durham University Graduate Society
• 1972 births
• Historians of Christianity
• 21st-century Christian biblical scholars
• Biblical scholars

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• Articles with hCards