What's the primary argument of your book?
Both the New Testament letter of Jude and its author (whom I hold to be Jesus' relative Judas/Jude) have been marginalized unjustly for centuries, yet they both have highly relevant lessons to teach us today. It's time to stop ignoring them and pay attention to their message.
What led you to study this subject? Why did you want to share your findings with a wider audience?
The letter of Jude has intrigued me for years because of its use of Second Temple Jewish literature like 1 Enoch, its relationship to 2 Peter, its warnings against apostasy, and its ties to Jesus' family. As I began to study it in earnest, I found that the letter of Jude has been neglected and dismissed as a pseudonymous, postapostolic writing since the 16th century, but from the late 20th century onward there's been a reassessment of its worth, authorship, and date of composition pioneered by Richard Bauckham. I wanted to make the fruits of that reassessment available to a wider audience and revive interest in the letter and its author at the popular level.
What made you want to write a Bible study specifically?
From time to time I'm asked to lead Bible studies at Christian camps. In 2018 I had the privilege of leading a week of Bible studies at Multnomah Holiness Camp in Portland, Oregon. I decided to focus on the life and letter of Jude. That same year, I presented material from my research on Jude at the Wesleyan Theological Society. I looked at how, surprisingly enough, Jude could contribute to a theology of technology. This book is the outgrowth of those camp studies and WTS presentations.
How does your new book contribute to the field? How does it contribute to public scholarship?
Popular-level studies of Jude's letter tend to be 1) cursory and superficial (yes, Jude's focus is on false teachers, but he has a rich Christology and a beautiful positive vision for the Christian life, too, if we listen carefully to him); 2) uninformed by the fresh research by Bauckham and others into the 1st-century Palestinian Jewish Christian world lying behind this letter; and 3) from the broadly Reformed tradition. My book combines the Jude renaissance with a Wesleyan-inflected theological interpretation of Scripture to demonstrate how Jude's life and letter speak to a range of current issues, from the identity of Jesus to the nature of healthy spirituality and from Jewish-Christian relations to a theology of technology. I also supply a fresh translation of Jude's letter in idiomatic English.
What does it mean to you to be a scholar in the Wesleyan tradition?
It means that when I read Scripture theologically, I do so in light of both the catholic orthodoxy that the Wesley brothers affirmed (e.g. the Trinity, human created goodness and fallen sinfulness, Christ as divine-human Savior) and their distinctive vision of "responsible grace," to use Randy Maddox's fine phrase. It means that I must take both Scripture's promises and also its commands and warnings as applicable to myself and to everyone I meet. The promise that whoever believes will be saved is for everyone. The command to be holy is for everyone. The warning against forfeiting grace is for everyone. And behind all these words of Scripture stands the faithful, holy, merciful and righteous Savior.
How do you see your scholarly work as part of your ministry? How does publishing this book fit into that ministry?
By divine calling and denominational appointment, I am a teacher. My scholarly work both feeds my classroom teaching and is an extension of it beyond the classroom.
What made NTC and Manchester ideal places to undertake your doctoral studies?
NTC was ideal for me for several reasons. I was looking for a doctoral program that didn't force me to quit my job and relocate my family, and NTC's generosity and flexibility with part-time enrollment and residency requirements made that possible. I wanted to do research on Reformed theologian T. F. Torrance's Christology, and Torrance's former student T. A. Noble at NTC became my doctoral supervisor. The libraries and scholarly symposiums at NTC, the University of Manchester, and Nazarene Theological Seminary in the USA provided invaluable academic support. Finally, since childhood I've been an Anglophile, so summer visits to England were a cultural treat.
How did you begin the process of turning your own research into the book of Jude into a book with potentially wider reach?
I undertook my research primarily for the purpose of teaching at the popular level, so then it was simply a matter of converting those teaching materials into book format. I should say, though, that there are a number of endnotes at the back of the book to point interested readers to academic resources and, occasionally, to weigh in on scholarly debates. For instance, while I rely heavily on Bauckham's proposals, I don't do so uncritically.
What are some of the differences between writing a scholarly monograph and a popular-level book?
A stereotypical scholarly monograph has a formal, dispassionate tone; exhaustive discussions of methodology, the state of research, and opposing viewpoints; copious scholarly references; and little by way of illustration or direct application until the conclusion. A popular-level book has a more informal, conversational tone with plenty of illustrations and applications leavening the entire discussion and less emphasis on methodology, the state of research, and other scholarship. Opposing viewpoints are presented illustratively rather than exhaustively. I found writing The Judas We Never Knew to be great fun. It was a delightful challenge to keep from falling into academic modes of expression and to ransack popular culture for illustrations and applications.
What are some other projects in progress or ones you're looking forward to post-publication?
This September Lexington/Fortress Academic releases Theology and Tolkien: Practical Theology, edited by Douglas Estes. I've contributed a chapter that places Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy in dialogue with Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics. Whereas The Judas We Never Knew "translates" Jude scholarship into popular cultural categories, my chapter in Theology and Tolkien reverses the process by "translating" an artifact of popular culture into the categories of theological scholarship and cinematic and literary criticism.
I'm also editing for publication a collection of essays on the Wesleyan order of salvation and extending my interest in Jesus' family by doing research into the potential of a Wesleyan Mariology (I hope to publish on this in the near future).
What advice do you have for others who want to publish a theological book or a Bible Study for a wider audience?
Start by finding role models to emulate. N. T. Wright and, in a previous generation, C. S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers are shining examples of communicators who translate scholarship into a popular idiom. Secondly, investigate what's already being published and identify a gap that needs filling. This also will make you aware of which publishers are putting out the sort of books you'd like to write. Thirdly, field testing what you want to say is important to make sure you're actually communicating at the level for which you're aiming. Students, family members, and parishioners can help you here.