Michael G. Azar, PhD
Associate Professor of Theology/Religious Studies
Michael G. Azar holds a PhD in New Testament from Fordham University (2013) and an MA in theology from St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (2005). His current book project (tentatively titled, The Table and the Empty Seat: Orthodox Christianity and Jewish-Christian Relations) focuses on ancient and modern Christian-Jewish interaction, particularly in light of Orthodox Christian hermeneutics and historic presence in the Holy Land. His other scholarly pursuits focus on New Testament studies, especially apocalyptic thought and the "parting of the ways," as well as the effects that contemporary sociopolitical policies have on scholarly understandings of the ancient world. His research is supported by a CCD Grant from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Biblical Association, and he was a 2021 Faculty Fellow at the Gail and Francis Slattery Center for the Ignatian Humanities (University of Scranton), a 2021–22 NEH Faculty Fellow at the Orthodox Christian Studies Center (Fordham University), and a 2021–22 affiliated scholar of the Center for the Study of Christianity at the Hebrew University-Jerusalem. He is currently a special advisor to the Orthodox Chair of the Orthodox Christian-Jewish dialogue as well as a member of its planning committee.
Courses Taught
Research
Select Publications:
- Exegeting the Jews: The Early Reception of the Johannine “Jews” (Bible in Ancient Christianity 10; Leiden: Brill), 2016.
- “Theosis as Limitation: The Case of the Apocalypse and Martyrs,” Journal of Theological Studies (2022).
- “The Bible in Orthodox Christian-Jewish Dialogue,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity (ed. Eugen Pentiuc; Oxford: Oxford University Press 2022).
- “Israel: The People of God on Palm Sunday in the Orthodox Church,” in The Byzantine Liturgy and the Jews (ed. Alexandru Ionita; forthcoming 2022).
- "''Supersessionism': The Political Origin of a Theological Neologism," Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 16.1 (2021), 1–25.
- “Mission to the Jews (Greek and Latin Patristics and the Orthodox Churches),” Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (2020).
- “The Eastern Orthodox Tradition, Jews, and the Gospel of John,” in The Gospel of John and Jewish-Christian Relations (ed. Adele Reinhartz; Lanham, Md.: Lexington/Fortress, 2018), 21–46.
- “The Law and the New Life in Romans 7:1–6: Eastern-Western Dialogue and Romans,” in Participation, Justification and Conversion: Eastern Orthodox Interpretation of Paul and the Debate between Old and New Perspectives on Paul (WUNT 442; ed. Athanasios Despotis; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), 247–76.
- “Origen, Scripture, and the Imprecision of ‘Supersessionism,’” Journal of Theological Interpretation 10.2 (2016), 157–72.
- “John Chrysostom and the Johannine ‘Jews,’” in The School of Antioch: Biblical Theology and the Church in Syria (ed. Vahan S. Hovhanessian; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2015), 41–48.
- “Prophetic Matrix and Theological Paradox: Jews and Judaism in the Holy Week and Pascha Observances of the Greek Orthodox Church,” Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 10.1 (2015), 1–27.
- “‘Bow Your Head Low to the Great; Rescue the Oppressed from the Oppressor’: Ben Sira and the Struggle with Elitism,” in Festschrift in Honor of Paul Nadim Tarazi 3: Studies in Intertestamental, Extra-Canonical, and Early Christian Literature (ed. Tom Dykstra; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2015), 23–36.
- “Orthodox Americans, the Orthodox Peace Fellowship, and Iraq,” in For the Peace from Above: An Orthodox Handbook on War, Peace, and Nationalism (rev. ed.; ed. Hildo Bos and Jim Forest; Rollinsford, N.H.: Orthodox Research Institute, 2011), 279–94.
- “The Scriptural King,” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 50.3 (2006), 255–75.
Recent Presentations:
- “The Deification of ‘Witnesses’ in John’s Apocalypse,” Annual Meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association (CBA), Denver, CO, July 2018.
- “Eastern Orthodox Identity, Jews, and John’s Gospel,” Annual Meeting of the SBL, Boston, MA, November 2017.
- “The Logos and Lamb of the Lord’s Passover: Patristic Antitypes of the Johannine Type,” Annual Meeting of the CBA, Washington, DC, August 2017.
- “Reading John’s ‘Jews’ through Eastern Orthodox Thought and Practice,” 2017 Corcoran Chair Conference: The Gospel of John and Jewish-Christian Relations, April 2017.
- “‘Freed from the Law?’ Orthodox Fasting and Paul’s View of the Law,” Annual Meeting of the Orthodox Theological Society in America (OTSA), Boston, MA, September 2016.
- “Old, New, Neither: Romans 7 and an Eastern Orthodox Perspective,” Annual Meeting of the CBA, Santa Clara, CA, August 2016.
Other Links
Websites:
Panel Discussions and Blogs:
"Responding to Antisemitism" panel discussion (Oct 2020) (part of "Responding to Antisemitism" project)
“Christians of Holy Land and the Jewish State,” Public Orthodoxy (November 2018)
“The ‘Eternal and Undivided’ Jerusalem and the Bible,” The Bible and Interpretation (February 2018)
“Fasting, the Church, and the World,” Public Orthodoxy (June 2016)
“Jewish-Christian Relations and Orthodox Ecumenical Participation,” Public Orthodoxy (October 2015)