DTS Faculty Authors Recognized with Book Awards
The Dallas Theological Seminary community knows the school’s faculty to be exemplary teachers, disciplers, and pioneering leaders in all areas of ministry. All alumni have stories about the influence that certain professors had on their own spiritual formation and vocation. Thanks to faculty members traveling to teach in other parts of the world, along with the accessibility of DTS courses online, the wise guidance of the seminary’s professors now reaches more people than ever.
In addition to classroom instruction, an important part of a scholar’s work is writing. Through their books, articles, podcasts, and blogs, DTS faculty build connections with learners everywhere. And this year, faculty members received special recognition for new books. Dr. Sandra Glahn’s book, Nobody’s Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament, earned the InterVarsity Press Readers’ Choice Award in the Arts and Humanities category, and was also a finalist for the Christianity Today Book Award, in the Biblical Studies category.
In Nobody’s Mother, Glahn brings new research about the Greek goddess Artemis to our understanding of 1 Timothy 2:15, that readers will discover new insights into Paul’s intent in the phrase “saved through childbirth.” Readers express their gratitude for the message of the book that has invited them back to Bible study. One person wrote, “I had written off Paul. I rarely read his work, as his words have caused me pain. . . . All I could see in my interpretations was that he was a horrible, mean man. . . As I read your book, I felt a weight taken off me.”
Dr. John Dyer’s book, People of the Screen: How Evangelicals Created the Digital Bible and How It Shapes Their Reading of Scripture, was also selected as a finalist in the Christianity Today Book Awards, in the Culture and the Arts category. Dyer says the book allows readers to “see the unique role that evangelicals have played in creating all the major types of Bible software—desktop apps for pastors and scholars, websites for casual searchers, and phone apps for reading and audio—and understand what that can tell us about evangelicalism.” He hopes readers will “continue to believe that the Bible contains the very words of God which are ‘living and active,’ but also realize that the technology through which they access it (scrolls, print, phones, audio) and the words that surround it (study notes, devotionals, reading plans) shape what they see and ultimately what they believe.”
These books are just two examples of the many excellent publications across all media from DTS faculty in 2023. We invite you to check out the full selection of good words from our beloved profs—and share what you learn with others in your community!
About the Contributors
Neil R. Coulter
Neil R. Coulter completed degrees in music performance and ethnomusicology from Wheaton College and Kent State University. He and his family lived in Papua New Guinea for twelve years, where Neil served as an ethnomusicology and arts consultant for Wycliffe Bible Translators. In 2015, he helped design and launch the PhD in World Arts at Dallas International University. He teaches doctoral courses in theory and ethnography at DIU’s Center for Excellence in World Arts. At DTS, he teaches about art, literature, film, and theology, and he is senior writer and editor of DTS Magazine. Neil is married to Joyce, and they have three sons.