In this faculty spotlight interview, we hear from Dr James Buchanan Wallace, known to friends and family as “Bru.” On Saturday, Aug. 5 at 2:05 p.m. EDT, Dr Wallace will be co-hosting the session on Biblical Criticism and Orthodox Faith for Education Day Online 2023, alongside Dr Michael Legaspi, Associate Professor of Old Testament at St Vladimir’s Seminary.
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Dr Wallace is Professor of Religion and currently serves as chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Christian Brothers University in Memphis. He studied English and Russian at Sewanee, the University of the South (B.A. 1998), and received his M.Div. and Ph.D. from Emory University (2002, 2008). In 2008, Dr. Wallace joined the faculty at Christian Brothers University. His research interests include patristic interpretations of Scripture and the Greco-Roman and Jewish religious contexts of early Christianity. At Christian Brothers University, Dr Wallace teaches both Old Testament and New Testament, in addition to a variety of upper-level courses in Scripture, including courses in the Prophets, the Gospels, and the letters of Paul, as well as a course entitled, “The Apocalyptic Imagination”.
Aside from his teaching and research, Dr Wallace is the author of Snatched into Paradise (2 Cor 12:1-10): Paul’s Heavenly Journey in the Context of Early Christian Experience (de Gruyter, 2011). He has also served as co-editor of two books: The Holy Spirit and the Church according to the New Testament (Mohr Siebeck, 2016) and Greek and Byzantine Philosophical Exegesis (Brill Schöningh, 2022).
One of his latest projects is editing a volume to be published with SVS Press, Seeking Christ in the Scriptures: Intersections of Faith and Biblical Scholarship.
Dr Wallace lives with his wife, Thea, and their three children in the town where he grew up—Olive Branch, Mississippi.
Where did you start in your Christian journey, and how did you and your family come to the Orthodox Faith?
Although I was raised nominally Christian, I did not attend church until fourth grade. After some experiences at local Vacation Bible Schools, a venerable summer institution where I grew up (in Olive Branch, Mississippi), I asked my parents whether they would start taking me to a local Baptist church. My father said no, but he would take me to the local Methodist church! So from fourth grade on, I was a United Methodist, and by eighth grade, I thought God was calling me to ministry. When I was in high school, I even went on a Methodist mission trip to Russia, which began a fascination with things Russian.
I attended an Episcopalian college, Sewanee (the University of the South). There, I slowly fell in love with liturgical worship and grew to perceive the importance of the Eucharist. I also added a major in Russian to my major in English. A good friend of mine, who was Roman Catholic, set out to convert me to Catholicism. He began to challenge my understanding of the nature of the Church. He thought my fascination with Russia was promising and concluded that if he could coax me to become Orthodox, then all he would have to do, would be to convince me of the Pope – and I’d be a Catholic! We ended up meeting in the middle: we both became Eastern Orthodox, and he has now served as an Orthodox priest for many years! I joined the Orthodox Church on Holy Saturday of 1999—during my first year at a Methodist seminary (Candler School of Theology at Emory University). By then, however, my sense of calling had shifted to teaching rather than pastoral ministry. After consulting with some trusted faculty members and being open about my path, I decided to remain at Candler to complete my M.Div.
How did you come to be a biblical scholar? When and how did you decide to dedicate your life to studying the Bible?
Just as my path to Orthodoxy was a triangulation of various factors, so was my route to biblical studies. As my undergraduate majors might suggest, my first real intellectual love was literature. Then, like so many young Orthodox enthusiasts, I decided I wanted to study patristics. This was around my final year of undergraduate work, before I had actually joined the Church. Already, I was studying Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic and gaining some appreciation for how reading the Bible in its original languages could unlock meaning. Then, at Candler, several things converged: I realized what wonderful teachers the doctorate program at Emory University trained when I took Greek readings with a graduate student. I had the opportunity to work as a research assistant for the New Testament scholar, Dr. Carl Holladay. I also began studying with Dr Luke Timothy Johnson (who had been one of the main attractions of Candler in the first place). I realized that I could apply my love for the close study of texts to the New Testament. This narrow focus was better suited to my abilities and inclinations than a broader field like patristics. Luke Johnson’s focus, especially in his introductory New Testament class, was discerning the distinctive voice of each New Testament composition and reading each text on its own terms, in light of its historical contexts. Far from being a problem for my faith, this approach made complete sense to me as a student of English literature. If you want to understand Romans (or Hebrews, or Mark, or Luke), read it as a coherent whole, from beginning to end. Suddenly, terms that I had heard thrown around most of my life (like “justification by faith”) came to gain real meaning.
As an Orthodox Christian, do you feel the modern field of biblical studies is compatible with our faith? Why or why not?
As what I said above may suggest, I can hardly imagine reading the Bible without the approaches of biblical studies. Biblical studies opened the meaning of Scripture to me in a way I had not imagined. Of course, as you dive deeper into some of the questions and problems that biblical studies raises, there can be tensions and even challenges. But these questions are, by and large, legitimate questions necessitated by an intelligent study of the texts. We avoid those challenges at our peril, and we stand to gain immensely through a deeper encounter with the texts.
What are some ways in which you contribute to the field from an Orthodox perspective?
I have tried to contribute in numerous ways. Though my perspectives and approaches continue to evolve, several of my own modest contributions to biblical scholarship (such as my book, Snatched into Paradise) have sought to put patristic interpretation into conversation with contemporary scholarship, in hopes of enriching the theological interpretation of Scripture. I have also written some surveys of modern Orthodox biblical scholarship.
I have been involved in several initiatives to bring Orthodox biblical scholarship into the spotlight and into conversation with Western scholars. I participated in several symposia in Europe that brought together Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant biblical scholars to discuss major themes in New Testament interpretation, and I co-edited the volume based on one of these symposia (The Holy Spirit and the Church According to the New Testament). With my friend and colleague Dr Athanasios Despotis, I helped co-found (and for six years co-chaired) the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) program unit, “Biblical Exegesis from Eastern Orthodox Perspectives,” which is still going strong. Most recently, Athanasios and I co-founded a new academic series of the same name, which will be published with Brill (Leiden). I should acknowledge, however, that the impetus for both of these projects, as well as most of the credit generally, belongs to Athanasios.
What are some of the real-world implications of the claims made in the field of biblical studies?
I think that the conversation Dr Legaspi and I will have on Education Day will address this to some degree, but I will offer a few hints. It is tempting to impose a rigid theological unity on the biblical texts, but the Bible is an anthology of very different texts that speak with different voices (you can see the influence of Luke Johnson here). When we recognize this diversity and perceive the host of different reactions expressed in biblical texts to real-life experiences such as doubt, fear, joy, and especially suffering, we have a whole host of pastoral tools to help address the complexities of our lives today. In many ways, the ancient Greco-Roman world was every bit as complex and confusing as ours is today, with so many different cultural trends blending together and different poles of one’s existence leading to confusions of loyalty and identity. So I think that reading New Testament texts in those first-century contexts is more relevant than ever.
Also, we have to face the fact that the Bible is full of “internal criticism” of religiosity. The Prophets, Jesus, and Paul all express deep suspicions of the ways that acts of piety can serve to bolster social prestige and can, ironically, lead to a callousness to those on the margins of society. Especially as Orthodox, we need to heed these warnings.
Can you give us a sneak peek of the discussion you plan to have with Dr Michael Legaspi on Education Day?
I have given a few hints already! I hope we will help clarify what actually goes on in biblical studies and why we love this field, warts and all. While we may mention a few strands we do not find helpful, we will focus on approaches we think should challenge and enrich our lives as Orthodox Christians. We are going to talk more about what reading a single text on its own terms might mean for us.
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Join the conversation, Biblical Criticism and Orthodox Faith, on Saturday, Aug. 5, at 2:05 p,m. EDT, with Dr James Buchanan Wallace and Dr Michael Legaspi. Register now to save your seat in their virtual classroom and submit your questions ahead of time.
