J. Albert Harrill (Ph.D., University of Chicago), Professor emeritus of History and Classics, examines early Christianity in its context of the Greco-Roman world.  

A biblical scholar, Dr. Harrill previously was a professor of religious studies at Indiana University, Bloomington (2002–2012), where he also directed the Program in Ancient Studies, and earlier taught at Boston University, DePaul University, and Creighton University.  He also held guest professorships at Williams College as Croghan Bicentennial Visiting Professor in Biblical and Early Christian Studies (2015), and at the University of Chicago Divinity School as Visiting Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature (2012). He was an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Universities of Bonn and Münster, both in Germany. His teaching, a career spanning over three decades, garnered awards by peers and students alike.

Dr. Harrill's publications include exegetical studies on the New Testament and other early Christian writings, the social history of ancient Mediterranean religions, and problems in modern biblical interpretation. To date, he is the author of three books. The Manumission of Slaves in Early Christianity (Mohr Siebeck, 1995) examines early Christian manumission practices within the wider institution and ideology of ancient slavery, reframing the exegetical questions beyond static, legal definitions and descriptions. Slaves in the New Testament: Literary, Social, and Moral Dimensions (Fortress Press, 2006) argues that early Christian writings participated in and promoted the literary imagination about slaves and an ideology of mastery widely diffuse in Roman moral discourse. In light of those findings the book then shifts to the modern period and analyzes nineteenth-century exegetical arguments for and against legal slavery in the U.S. antebellum South, to challenge the noble dream that historical criticism can settle Christian moral debate. Paul the Apostle: His Life and Legacy in Their Roman Context (Cambridge University Press, 2012) shows how Paul's discourse of authority was both representative of his Roman context and provocative to his rivals within the Christian movement. It then considers the legends that developed around Paul, which made the apostle a key transformative figure of classical antiquity.  He is currently at work on a new, historical-critical commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians for the Anchor Yale Bible series (Yale University Press).