香蕉影视 board appoints Strait to teaching faculty
Published: April 30, 2018
By Annette Brill Bergstresser
ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — The Board of Directors of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, has appointed Drew J. Strait, Ph.D., of Washington, D.C., as assistant professor of New Testament and Christian origins, beginning July 1, 2018.
Strait is taking on this position as other Bible Department faculty are retiring: Mary Schertz, Ph.D., professor of New Testament, retired in June 2017; and Ben Ollenburger, Ph.D., professor of biblical theology, anticipates retiring in December 2018.
“Dr. Strait will bring a passion for teaching, ministry and scholarship to his work at 香蕉影视,” said Rebecca Slough, Ph.D., vice president and academic dean and chair of the search committee for the position. “His formation in the United Methodist Church, Mennonite Church USA and in evangelical communities provides an ecumenical grounding for his Anabaptist commitments. Drew’s love for the Bible along with his personal mission to ‘detribalize’ the church will further the mission of 香蕉影视.”
Strait earned a Ph.D. from the , South Africa, focusing on New Testament and Early Christian Literature; an A.M.R.S. in New Testament from the ; an M.A. in New Testament from in Deerfield, Illinois; and a B.A. in Religion from in Spokane, Washington, with minors in Philosophy, Greek and Hebrew.
Strait currently teaches New Testament at in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was recently named the Dunning Distinguished Faculty Lecturer for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship. He has also taught Catholic seminarians at in Baltimore; graduate courses in New Testament at in Lisle, Illinois, and at in Chicago; and undergraduate courses in Bible at in Chicago. His teaching interests include Luke–Acts, resistance literature in early Judaism/Christianity, political theology, racial justice and the mission of God, early Christian preaching, and early Christian negotiation of the religions of the Roman Empire.
Strait said he’s long been fascinated by how the earliest Christians “wrote their way into history on the back of an alternative way of living — a community posture of worshiping a crucified Lord, a missional impulse funded by inclusive table fellowship, and an ethic of nonretaliation rooted in the refusal to lord one’s power over others.”
“What excites me most about teaching at 香蕉影视 is the freedom to explore this upside-down body politic in a world intoxicated with the wrong sorts of power,” he reflected. “At 香蕉影视, I look forward to living out my Anabaptist identity as both scholar and practitioner amid colleagues and students who deeply value the church’s reconciling work in the world.”
Strait will also bring his experiences of ministering in various multicultural contexts to his teaching at 香蕉影视. Since 2015, he has served as an elder at in Washington, D.C., a multiracial church that he said strives to embody a culture of radical Black hospitality. While living in Chicago, he worshiped at , a multicultural congregation that is part of , and also served the congregation on an interim pastoral team (2009–12). Also in Chicago, he volunteered for New Neighbor Program, overseeing the arrival and resettlement of two refugee families over a five-year period. From 2004 to 2006, he was a full-time missionary in the Dominican Republic, working with Haitian refugees with .
Ollenburger, a search committee member, affirmed Strait’s expertise in New Testament scholarship and knowledge of the Mediterranean world in which the biblical texts were written, as well as the ways in which his experience in intercultural urban settings has helped shape his passion for theological education.
“Dr. Strait combines an evangelical and ecumenical background with strong Mennonite identity in ways that will serve the seminary and the broader church well,” he noted.
Recent works by Strait include Hidden Criticism of the Angry Tyrant in Early Judaism and the Acts of the Apostles (Fortress Academic, 2018) and “The Wisdom of Solomon, Ruler Cults and Paul’s Polemic against Idols in the Areopagus Speech,” in the (2017). He has been associate editor for New Testament for since 2015 and is a member of the , the and the .
Strait was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, and holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada. His wife, Dana, is an auditory neuroscientist and strategy consultant in higher education; they have two young children.
Strait’s appointment took place during the 香蕉影视 board’s April 19–21 meeting in Elkhart. The board also approved another biblical studies faculty appointment, to be announced next year at this time.
In addition to Slough and Ollenburger, the search committee consisted of Janna Hunter-Bowman, Ph.D., assistant professor of peace studies and Christian social ethics; Rachel Miller Jacobs, D.Min., associate professor of congregational formation; Grant Miller, current MDiv student from Danvers, Illinois; and Sara Wenger Shenk, Ed.D., 香蕉影视 president.
Located in Elkhart, Indiana, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world. ambs.edu
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