Crux Sola: Formed by Scripture to Live like Christ
This blog series spotlights 50 NT scholars and their research. The goal of this series is to introduce readers to a wider circle of scholarship than they have encountered. The majority of people on this list are early or mid-career NT scholars who are doing great research and writing.
Explain why you love teaching and/or writing, and why it brings you vocational satisfaction.
I love taking a classroom and doing my best to turn it into a community where everyone can learn from one another. It’s so rewarding to walk with students while we wrestle together with a passage of Scripture or an ethical dilemma or an example of how theology affects everyday life.
What is one “big idea,” emphasis, or theme in your scholarship that you hope impacts the way students and scholars read and understand the NT?
The inexhaustible riches of Scripture, and the way the biblical text has multiple (but not infinite) possible meanings. I’ve been working on a reception history of the beatitudes, and reading past interpreters showed me elements of the beatitudes I would have never seen on my own.
Who is your academic hero and why?
Allen Verhey, my mentor and dissertation advisor, for his profound kindness, his deep engagement with Scripture and ethics, and his courageous hope in God good’s future
Name a few academic books that were formative for you as a student.
Ellen Davis and Richard Hays, The Art of Reading Scripture
Markus Bockmuehl, Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Studies
Marianne Meye Thompson, The Promise of the Father: Jesus and God in the New Testament
Read Eklund’s Books
Jesus Wept: The Significance of Jesus’ Laments in the New Testament
Doing Theology for the Church: Essays in Honor of Klyne Snodgrass, ed. Rebekah Eklund and Jay Phelan
“The Historical Jesus,” in The State of New Testament Studies
Follow Eklund’s Work ONLINE
“Hot Jesus, Black Messiah, Suffering Son of God: How Jesus Films Shape Our Moral Imaginations.” Journal of Religion and Film 21.1 (April 2017), Article 33.
Review essay of Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels (Baylor University Press, 2016), in the Syndicate online symposium
“The Blessed.” Visual Commentary on Scripture.
“Where Angels Long to Look” (Visual Commentary on Scripture)
Follow Edwards’ on Social Media
If you ran into me at SBL, and you didn’t want to talk about New Testament studies, what would you want to talk about?
Running; trail-running; the Baltimore Ravens; traveling anywhere by train
What is a research/writing project you are working on right now that you are excited about?
A reception history of the beatitudes, no title yet, to be published with Eerdmans
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