11/5/2021

Associate Professor of Religion Eric Vanden Eykel has announced that he and two colleagues from other institutions will collaborate on a new book project called Judeophobia in the New Testament: Texts, Contexts, and Pedagogy. 

“We chose ‘Judeophobia’ because this broader heading incorporates both anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism, as well as other various discriminatory practices against Jews at various points in history,” explained Vanden Eykel.

Vanden Eykel will co-edit the book with R.A. Webb Associate Professor of Religious Studies Sarah Rollens of Rhodes College, and Senior Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies Merdith Warren of University of Sheffield. The trio worked together in 2020 when they wrote a journal article on Judeophobia, and earlier this fall when they co-authored a piece that appeared in The Independent.

Vanden Eykel, Rollens, and Warren have enlisted over thirty biblical scholars from around the world to contribute chapters to the book, which will be published sometime in 2023 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The book will include essays to aid educators in teaching about Judeophobia and the New Testament and other early Christian literature. “The project aims to highlight, for non-specialist readers, how these texts have engendered and promoted Judeophobia in the past and in the present,” said Vanden Eykel. “Our goal is for this book to be at home in any undergraduate biblical studies classroom, as well as seminaries and church Bible studies.”

Learn more about Ferrum College’s religious studies program here. 

7/2/2021

Dr. Vanden Eykel visited Rome for research in 2019.

Associate Professor of Religion Eric Vanden Eykel has been appointed the Forrest S. Williams Teaching Chair in Humanities at Ferrum College. This endowed teaching chair designation is given to a tenured faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in teaching and scholarly work, and who is committed to scholarly research within the Humanities.

“I was thrilled to receive news of this appointment, and it’s a real honor to be recognized in this way for my scholarship and teaching,” said Vanden Eykel. His appointment letter describes him as generous and supportive of Ferrum College students and his colleagues.

The Williams Teaching Chair is a two-year appointment with the possibility of extension for another one- or two-year term. While serving, Vanden Eykel will conduct research to support two book projects, one which he is authoring himself about the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew, and another that he is co-editing with a colleague from Wingate University, Dr. Christy Cobb, which encompasses a collection of essays on sexual violence in early Christian literature. His research will also include travel during his upcoming 2022 spring sabbatical, but those details are not final yet.

“I’m hoping to take a few trips and explore opportunities for integrating travel components into some of my courses at Ferrum,” he explained.

“Dr. Vanden Eykel is one of our dynamic and engaging faculty members, and his nomination for the Williams Teaching Chair highlights his accomplishments and brings honor to Ferrum College,” said Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Chemistry & Physics Jason Powell, who nominated Vanden Eykel for the position. “He was recently named a general editor for the Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (JIBS), and I am particularly excited about the book he is writing about the Magi described in the book of Matthew. Look for him to lead an upcoming trip to Rome for members of the Ferrum College community, as well!”

Learn more about Vanden Eykel’s editing position for JIBS.

Learn more about Ferrum College’s Religious Studies program.

5/10/2021

Associate Professor of Religion Eric Vanden Eykel has been named a general editor to the Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (JIBS).

According to the JIBS’ website, the journal “is a peer-reviewed, open access journal [meaning that it can be read at no cost] dedicated to publishing cutting edge articles that embody interdisciplinary, social justice-oriented, feminist, queer, and innovative biblical scholarship.” JIBS “welcome[s] submissions that challenge canonical and/or disciplinary norms and boundaries or that query the field of biblical studies’ relationship to the broader investigation of human religion, culture, and literature.”

Vanden Eykel’s editorship means he will receive article submissions for the journal and search out other scholars in the field who will read the articles and make suggestions to the authors about how to improve their argument. Although his primary interest falls with articles on early Christian literature, Vanden Eykel will be reviewing all submission genres. 

“My job as an editor is to help guide and oversee this process, and then to get approved articles ready for publication by helping with copy editing and formatting,” explained Vanden Eykel. In short, he and the other JIBS editors will have a part in just about every step of the publication process.

“I’m really excited to work with this particular journal,” said Vanden Eykel. “The ‘traditional’ questions that many of the journals in our field focus on are certainly valuable, but they often leave a really important question unanswered: ‘Why should any of this matter?’ One of the aims of JIBS, at least from my perspective, is to help readers explore various ways of answering that question.”

JIBS is based in the United Kingdom’s Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield. It publishes two issues every year. Learn more about JIBS here.

Click here to learn more about Ferrum College’s major or minor in religious studies.