Michael Azar

Education

Ph.D., Fordham University
M.A., St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary
B.A., Colorado Christian University

Bio

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). He is currently writing a book on Orthodox Christian-Jewish relations, while 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 has been previously supported by a CCD Grant from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Biblical Association and a NEH Faculty Fellow grant from Fordham University’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center. He is currently a 2024–25 Lady Davis Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (postponed to 2025–26) and continues to serve as a special advisor to the Orthodox Chair of the Orthodox Christian-Jewish dialogue and as a member of its planning committee. He is a priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

Courses Taught

Undergraduate and Graduate Courses: 

• TRS 121x Bible: Sacred Story and Meaning (First-Year Seminar)
• TRS 121 Introduction to the Bible
• TRS 315 John’s Gospel and Letters
• TRS 317 Pauline Letters
• TRS 318 Apocalypse of John
• TRS 490 Theology Capstone Seminar
• TRS 501 New Testament Exegesis
• TRS 550 Christology
• TRS 284/584 ST: The Invention of Christianity
• Honors Tutorial/Reader: Early Christian-Jewish Interaction

Study Abroad: 

• TRS 396 Christ, Resistance, and Reconciliation in Germany (Summer study abroad in Germany)
• TRS 290 Christianity in the Middle East (Intersession study abroad in Jerusalem)

Select Publications

Select Publications:

• Fresh Perspectives on John Chrysostom’s Exegesis (ed. Michael G. Azar, Athanasios Despotis, and James B.
  Wallace; Biblical Exegesis from Eastern Orthodox Perspectives 1; Leiden: Brill, 2024)
  Exegeting the Jews: The Early Reception of the Johannine “Jews” (Bible in Ancient Christianity 10; Leiden: Brill), 2016.
• “Israel: The People of God on Palm Sunday in the Orthodox Church,” in The Byzantine Liturgy and the Jews (ed. Alexandru Ionita; forthcoming 2024).
• “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).
• "''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 Recorded Publications

Recent Recorded Panels and Presentations: 

• Moderator, "The Plight of Gaza's Christians: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives," Fordham University Orthodox Christian Studies Center (September 2024)
• Panelist, "Orthodox Christians in Dialogue with Judaism," Orthodox Theological Society of America (February 2024)
• "Jewish-Christian Relations and Sources of Orthodox Christian Theology: Problems and Paradigms," Keynote address for the spring meeting of the Society for Post-Supersessionist Theology (May 2023)
• Panelist, "The Future of Orthodox Biblical Studies," St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (August 2022)
• "From Pascha to Pentecost in the Greek Orthodox Church," From Easter to Pentecost Lecture Series, Tantur Ecumenical Institute for Theological Studies, Jerusalem (May 2022)
• "Rethinking Jewish-Christian Relations and Orthodox Christianity," 2022 Corcoran Chair Conference: Treasures New and Old, Boston, MA, March–April 2022
• Panelist, "Responding to Antisemitism," Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (August 2020)

Other Links

Websites:

Academia Page

Humanities Commons Page

Other Articles and Blogs: 

"Orthodox Christians in Gaza City," Public Orthodoxy (November 2023)

“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)