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Professor of Religion
kirkak@jmu.edu
Contact Info

Office: Cleveland 216
Phone: (540) 568-6394
Fax: (540) 568-8072

Education:

Ph.D. University of Toronto
MA University of Calgary
BA University of Calgary
MA Pepperdine University
Diploma Prairie Bible College

Research

New Testament and Early Christianity 

Professor Kirk's research focus is ancient gospels, including applications of cognitive and cultural memory theory to problems in the origins and history of the gospel tradition. He is author of The Composition of the Sayings Source (Leiden: Brill, 1998); Q in Matthew: Ancient Media, Memory, and Early Scribal Transmission of the Jesus Tradition (London: Bloomsbury/Clark, 2016); and Jesus Tradition, Early Christian Memory, and Gospel Writing: The Long Search for the Authentic Source (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2023). Additional volumes include Memory, Tradition, & Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity, co-edited with Tom Thatcher (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2005); and Memory and the Jesus Tradition (London: Bloomsbury/Clark, 2018), a collection of twelve essays previously published between 1998 and 2016. His current work-in-progress is Narrative Formation and Historical Referentiality in the Gospel of Mark.

Teaching:

Dr. Kirk teaches a range of courses in New Testament and early Christianity.

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