Daniel Patte

Professor of Religious Studies, Emeritus
Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Emeritus

Daniel Patte's interest in hermeneutics (Early Jewish Hermeneutics in Palestine) and in theories of communication, structuralism, and semiotics (books on "Structural Exegesis") led him to pay special attention to The Religious Dimensions of Biblical Texts and, in particular, those of Paul's letters (Paul's Faith and the Power of the Gospel) and Matthew (The Gospel according to Matthew).

His involvement as General Editor of Semeia: An Experimental Journal for Biblical Criticism of the Society of Biblical Literature (1992-98), and his concern for moral responsibility (Ethics of Biblical Interpretation) led him to a practice of "Scriptural Criticism" that accounts for the analytical-exegetical, hermeneutical-theological, and contextual choices any interpretation of the Bible involves--formulated in  Romans through History and Cultures  (a Society of Biblical Literature seminar and a book series), in preparation for a commentary on Romans.

He illustrated the practice of Scriptural Criticism in The Challenge of Discipleship, in the co-authored books with M. Stubbs, J. Ukpong, and R. Velunta, The Gospel of Matthew: A Contextual Introduction for Group Study, and with the seventy scholars around the world of the  Global Bible Commentary . He is the General Editor of  The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity  (in process) that seeks to make understandable the complexity of present-day Christianity by clarifying the contextual character of Christian theological views, practices and movements through history and cultures.