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CURRICULUM VITAE
GERALD R. MCDERMOTT
Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion
Roanoke College
Salem, VA 24153
o: 540—375—2375; h: 540—387—3857
e-mail:
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. University of Iowa, 1989
M.R.E Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary, 1982
B.S. in History and Education, North Dakota State University, 1982
B.A. in New Testament and Early Christian Literature, University of Chicago, 1974.
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND HONORS:
Appointed as Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion, July 2008
Non-Resident Fellow, Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, appointed 2006. Co-Directors: Rodney Stark and Byron Johnson. $10,000, summer 2007.
Copenhaver Visiting Scholar Grant, to bring Hungarian literary critic Tibor Fabiny to Roanoke College for the fall of 2006, $15, 500.
Institutional Renewal Grant, for 4-part lecture series on “The Lutheran Tradition” at Roanoke College, Rhodes Consultation, 2004-05, $4000.
Resident Fellow, Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Studies, Collegeville Minnesota, 2002-03.
Louisville Institute, 2002-03, for sabbatical at Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Studies. $5400.
Member, Rhodes Consultation on the Future of Church-Related Colleges, 2000-03, $3500.
Member, Lutheran Academy of Scholars in Higher Education, Harvard University, June 1999, $2000.
Roanoke College, “Professional Achievement Award,” 1999, $1000.
Member, Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey, Aug. 1995—July 1996, $32,800.
Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges, Mednick Fellowship, 1995, $800, for research trip to Yale’s Beinecke Library.
Presbyterian Historical Society, 1993 Woodrow Wilson Award for outstanding scholarly article: “Jonathan Edwards, the City on a Hill, and the Redeemer Nation: A Reappraisal,” $100.
Selected by Roanoke College student body to give the “Last Lecture” December 1993 (first professor selected)
Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Fellowship for Young Scholars in American Religion, 1992—93, $1000 plus expenses for four trips to Indianapolis to work with Catherine Albanese and William Hutchison.
Roanoke College, Faculty Enrichment Grant, $600
Roanoke College, Faculty Professional Advancement, $600
Roanoke College, Summer Research Award, 2007, $2325
Roanoke College, Summer Research Award, 2006, $2000.
Roanoke College, Summer Research Award, 1999, $2000.
Roanoke College, Summer Research Award, 1998, $2000.
Roanoke College, Summer Research Award, 1997, $2000.
Roanoke College, Summer Research Award, 1994, $2000.
Roanoke College, Research Grant, 1994, $750.
Roanoke College, Summer Research Award, 1993, $2000.
Roanoke College, Summer Research Award, 1992, $2000.
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 1990, $3500
Roanoke College, Roanoke Faculty Scholar, 1991-1994; 1994-1997; 1997-2000, 2001-2004. Three-year awards that reduce teaching load and grant $500 per year for research expenses.
Roanoke College, Faculty Research Starter Grant, 1991, $1419.
Roanoke College, Faculty Research Starter Grant, 1990, $1762.
University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts, Ada Louise Ballard Dissertation—Year Fellowship, 1988—89, $7000.
University of Iowa School of Religion, Teaching Research Fellowship, 1985—88, four years of funding worth $40,000.
University of Iowa, Research Grant, 1987, $450.
Honors Assistant, University of Iowa, 1984—85.
Graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago, 1974.
PUBLICATIONS:
Books
The Great Theologians for Beginners (InterVarsity Press, 2010). Introduces non-specialists to twelve of the most influential thinkers in the history of Christian thought.
The Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology (Oxford University Press, 2010). I am editing this collection of 32 essays by the world’s top evangelical thinkers.
The Baker Pocket Guide to World Religion: What Every Christian Needs to Know. (Baker, 2008). A concise overview of how most of the people in the world think about what is most important to them.
Understanding Jonathan Edwards: Introducing America’s Theologian (Oxford University Press, 2008). A collection of essays by some of the world's best Edwards scholars, and responses to each by European scholars from a variety of disciplines, pitched at a level that is accessible to the general reader.
(with Robert Millet) Claiming Christ: A Mormon-Evangelical Debate (Brazos, September 2007). Frank but friendly dialogue about what separates evangelicals and Mormons on Jesus, with one of the most prominent LDS theologians.
God’s Rivals: Why God Allows Different Religions—Insights from the Bible and the Early Church (InterVarsity Academic, January 2007). Explorations of the Bible and early Greek theologians on the meaning of religious pluralism.
Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods: Christian Theology, Enlightenment Religion, and Non-Christian Faiths (Oxford University Press, 2000). Study of Edwards’s battles with deism over reason, revelation and the religions. One of the “Top 100 Books from 2000 – 2007,” in cover story, World magazine, June 30/July 7, 2007.
Can Evangelicals Learn from Non-Christian Religions? Jesus, Revelation and the Religions. (InterVarsity Press, 2000). First book-length evangelical reflection on the possibility of revelation in non-Christian religions.
**Winner of Christianity Today’s 2001 Book Award for Missions & Global Affairs.
One Holy and Happy Society: The Public Theology of Jonathan Edwards (Penn State Press, 1992). The first comprehensive study of Edwards’s socio-political theory.
Seeing God: Jonathan Edwards and Spiritual Discernment (Regent College Publishing, 2000; first edn. InterVarsity Press, 1995). A rewriting of Edwards’s Religious Affections, drawing on the masters of Christian spirituality and lessons from church history.
(with William A. Fintel, M.D.) Cancer: A Medical and Theological Guide for Patients and Their Families (Baker Books, June 2004). Contains updated medical chapters and new chapters on alternative medicine and the mind-body connection.
(with William Fintel, M.D.) Dear God, It’s Cancer (Word Books, 1997). 2d ed. of Living With Cancer. Contains updated medical chapters and new chapters on skin and ovarian cancer, hospice, and physician-assisted suicide.
(with William Fintel, M.D.) A Medical and Spiritual Guide to Living with Cancer (Word Books, 1993). In-depth answers to both the medical and theological questions surrounding cancer.
Articles and Chapters
“The Global Pursuit of God,” in Map: A Travel Lifestyle Magazine (July 2008, online): http://www.maplifestyle.com/node/130
“Is Mormonism Christian?” First Things 18 (October 2008), 38-41.
“’Wir lieben ihn alle!’: Auch unter Anglikanern und Baptisten gibt es viele, die dem Besucher aus Rom freundlich und aufmerksam zuhören werden,” RheinischerMerkur (10 April 2008), 9.
(with Carol Swain), “The Abortion Industry: Planned Parenthood and the machine of death,” Washington Times (26 March 2008), Op-Ed page.
“Did Romney’s Speech Reach Evangelicals?” Roanoke Times (December 16, 2007), Horizon 3.
“The Great Divider: Jonathan Edwards and American Culture,” Books and Culture (forthcoming).
“Is Sola Scriptura Really Sola? Edwards, Newman, Bultmann and Wright on the Bible as Religious Authority,” in Robert Millet, ed., By What Authority? The Vital Place of Religious Authority in American Christianity (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2009).
“Jonathan Edwards and Justification—More Protestant or Catholic?” Pro Ecclesia 17:1 (Winter (Winter 2007), 92-111.
“Who Are These Evangelicals?” Roanoke Times (October 25, 2007), Virginia 9.
“A Coming Abortion Earthquake?” Roanoke Times (June 26, 2007), Virginia 9.
“Mitt Romney and Evangelicals,” Christianity Today Online (May 23, 2007).
“Three Myths About Israel,” Roanoke Times (May 20, 2007), Horizon 3.
“Persuasion and Indoctrination in Lutheran Colleges,” in Michael Shahan, ed., A Report from the Front Lines: Conversations on Public Theology—A Festshrift in honor of Robert Benne (Eerdmans, 2009), 120-40.
“Suffering, Courage and Theological Conflict: Learning from the Cappadocians,” Theology Matters (November 2006), 6-7.
“Evangelicals and Israel,” in Alan Mittelman, Byron Johnson, and Nancy Isserman, eds., Uneasy Allies? Evangelical and Jewish Relations (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), 127-54.
“Testing Stark’s Thesis: Is Mormonism the First New World Religion Since Islam?” in John W. Welch, ed., The Worlds of Joseph Smith (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 2006), 271-92.
“Reviving Disputation: Right and Wrong Ways to Think About Other Religions,” Pro Ecclesia XIV:4 (Fall 2005), 487-93
“Will Mormonism Become the Next Great World Religion?” Books and Culture 12:1 (Jan-Feb 2006), 9-11, 42-46.
“The Eighteenth-Century Culture War: Thomas Jefferson and Jonathan Edwards on Religion and the Religions,” Litteraria Pragensia 15:29 (2005), 48-63.
“Kein primitiver Glaube: Evangelikale widerlegen ein Vor-urteil und warden einflussreicher,” Confessio Augustana I (2005), 48-51.
“Jesus and the Religions: My Response to Leicester Longden,” in Reformation and Revival 15:2 (2006), 147-51.
“Homosexuality: A Theological Analysis,” in Reformation and Revival 15:2 (2006), 67-80.
“Does Doctrine Matter?” The Anglican Digest 47:1 (Lent 2005), 47-48.
“Missions, and Native Americans,” in Sang Hyun Lee, ed.,The Princeton Companion to Jonathan Edwards (Princeton: Princeton University Press, January 2005), 258-73.
“Jonathan Edwards on Justification: Closer to Luther or Aquinas?” Reformation and Revival Journal 14:1 (2005), 119-38.
“Franklin, Jefferson and Edwards on Religion and the Religions,” in Kenneth Minkema and Harry Stout, eds., Jonathan Edwards at 300: Essays on the Tercentenary of His Birth (Lanham, Md., University Press of America, 2005), 65-85.
“The Tension Between Land and Peace: Evangelical Christians, Israel, and the Jews,” in Center Conversations 25 (Washington, DC: Ethics and Public Policy Center, November 2003), 1-13.
“Jonathan Edwards Responds to Deism,” Theology Matters 9:6 (Nov/Dec 2003), 9-12.
“Jonathan Edwards, Theologian for the Church,” Reformation and Revival 12:3 (Summer 2003), 11-23.
“Which Palestine? Whose Land? A Response to Doug Howard,” Fides et Historia XXXV:2 (Summer/Fall 2003), 79-84.
“Jesus and the Religions: A New Paradigm for Christian Engagement?” Books and Culture (Jan./Feb. 2004), 9-11.
“Jonathan Edwards, The American Mind,” The Weekly Standard (Oct. 20, 2003), 37-41.
“Holy Pagans,” Christian History XXII:1 (February 2003), 38-39.
“Poverty, Patriotism, and National Covenant: Jonathan Edwards and Public Life,” Journal of Religious Ethics 31:2 (Summer 2003), 229-51, 316-18.
“Jonathan Edwards and the National Covenant: Was He Right?” in D.G. Hart et al, eds., The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical Tradition (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, June 2003), 147-57.
“Jonathan Edwards, John Henry Newman, and Non-Christian Religions,” in Oliver Crisp and Paul Helm, eds., Jonathan Edwards, Philosophical Theologian (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003)
“Christ vs. Many Gods,” in Uwe Siemon-Netto, ed., One Incarnate Truth: Christianity’s Answer to Spiritual Chaos (St. Louis: Concordia, 2002), 57-62.
“The Land: Evangelicals and Israel,” Books and Culture 9:3 (March/April 2003), 8-9,40-42.
“What Is Fear of God?” The Anglican Digest 44:4 (Transfiguration 2002), 8-10.
“Response to Gilbert: ‘The Nations Will Worship: Jonathan Edwards and the Salvation of the Heathen,’” Trinity Journal 23NS (2002), 77-80.
“What If Paul Had Been From China? Reflections on the Possibility of Revelation in Non-Christian Religions,” in John G. Stackhouse, ed., No Other Gods Before Me? Evangelicals and the Challenge of World Religions (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2001), 17-35.
**This book won Christianity Today’s 2002 Book Award for Missions and Global Affairs.
“Jesus Christ, Postmodern Pluralism and World Religions,” part of United Press International’s on-line “Christ and Postmodernity” series, January 2001, http://www.vny.com/cf/news/upisearch.cfm
“Deism” (5000 words) in Hans J. Hillerbrand, ed., The Encyclopedia of Protestantism (New York: Routledge, 2004), 568-74.
“What if Paul Had Gone to China? Reflections on the Possibility of Revelation in the Religions” in John G. Stackhouse, Jr., No Other Gods Before Me? Evangelicals and the Challenge of World Religions (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2001).
“A Possibility of Reconciliation: Jonathan Edwards and the Salvation of Non-Christians,” in Sang Lee and Alan Guelzo, eds. Edwards in our Time: Jonathan Edwards and Contemporary Theological Issues (Eerdmans, 1999), 173-202.
“Jonathan Edwards and American Indians: ‘The Devil Sucks Their Blood,’” in The New England Quarterly 72:4 (Dec. 1999), 539-57.
“The Tongue is a Witch: Speech and Power,” in Books and Culture 7:4 (July/August 2001), 37-8.
“Jonathan Edwards and the Salvation of Non-Christians,” in Pro Ecclesia IX:2 (Spring 2000), 208-27.
“Jonathan Edwards, Deism, and the Mystery of Revelation,” Journal of Presbyterian History 77:4(Winter 1999), 211-24.
“Jonathan Edwards,” “Charles Chauncy, “John Clarke,” and “John Cotton” in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (4th ed.), forthcoming.
“Jonathan Edwards on Revival, Spiritual Discernment, and God’s Beauty,” in Reformation and Revival 6:1 (Winter 1997), 103-14.
Syllabus and rationale for “Religion in America” published in Course Outlines: Young Scholars in American Religion. Indianapolis: Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, February 1993.
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“Edwards and Islam: The Deist Connection,” in Jonathan Edwards’s Writings: Text, Context, Interpretation, ed. Stephen J. Stein (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996), 39-51.
“Jonathan Edwards and the Culture Wars: A New Resource for Public Theology and Philosophy, in “Pro Ecclesia IV: 3 (Summer 1995), 268—80.
“A Deeply Concealed Kinship: Heidegger and Zen,” in Journal of Religious Studies 18, nos. 1&2 (1992), 114—24.
“Jonathan Edwards, the City on a Hill, and the Redeemer Nation: A Reappraisal,” in American Presbyterians/Journal of Presbyterian History 69: 1 (Spring 1991), 33—47.
“Karma and Rebirth as Christian Pedagogy: Geddes MacGregor’s Attempt to Synthesize Reincarnation and Christianity,” in Journal of Religious Studies 16: 1—2 (1990), 157-73.
“Civil Religion in the American Revolution: An Historiographic Analysis,” in Christian Scholar’s Review XVIII: 4(June 1989), 346—62.
“What Jonathan Edwards Can Teach Us About Politics,” Christianity Today 38: 8 (July 18, 1994), 32—35.
(with William Fintel, MD.) “Cancer: This threatening word can teach us a great deal about life,” Today’s Better Life 3:1 (Fall 1993), 88—91.
“Esther Burr,” “William Robinson,” and “John Smalley” in Donald Lewis, ed., A Dictionary of Evangelical Biography (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995).
“The Eighteenth-Century Awakening: A Reminder to Evangelicals in the 1990s,” National and International Religion Report 6: 26 Special Supplement (Dec. 14, 1992), 1—4.
Selected Reviews
Philip Johnson and Gus diZerega, Pagans and Christians in Dialogue, in Sacred Tribes Journal 3.2 (2008):188-193.
Philip F. Gura, Jonathan Edwards: America’s Evangelical, in History: Reviews of New Books 34:2 (Winter 2006), 45-46.
Massimo Serretti, ed., The Uniqueness and Universality of Jesus Christ, in Dialogue and Alliance 18:2 (Fall/Winter 2005), 125-27.
George R. Sumner, The First and the Last: The Claim of Jesus Christ and the Claims of Other Religious Traditions in The Cresset LXVIII: 4 (Easter 2005), 51-54.
E. Brooks Holifield, Theology in America: Christian Thought from the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War in Pro Ecclesia XIII (Summer 2004), 359-61.
Jacques Dupuis, Christianity and the Religions: From Confrontation to Dialogue, in Monastic Interreligious Studies Bulletin 70 (March 2003), 13-15.
Minou Reeves, Muhammad in Europe: A Thousand Years of Myth-Making, in The Sixteenth-Century Journal 35:4 (Winter 2004), 1197-99.
Timothy Tennent, Christianity at the Religious Roundtable: Evangelicalism in Conversation with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, in Studies in World Christianity (2002), 8:2, 320-22.