The Reading Group meets once per month with the stated purpose to “discuss a resource from the Library concerning how to grow in our vocation as Christian academics for redemptive influence among our students, colleagues, academic disciplines, and universities.”
In my presentation, I will analyze some of the key themes of the article and give some background on why I wrote it (originally for a 2010 conference held at Jamaica Theological Seminary in Kingston, Jamaica) and what theological and cultural issues it was intended to address. I will also touch on how the article became the basis for my book A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Baker Academic, 2014).
In preparation for my June 5 presentation, a Christian scholar from Kenya (Sam Sani Nzevela) has written a brief review of the article.
By Sam Sani Nzevela, Software Web Solutions Architect, Machakos, Kenya
Having reviewed Richard Middleton’s chapter, I find it as one of the most compelling theological works of our time. It offers a robust and biblically grounded bridge connecting:
At a time when humanity faces growing social inequality, ecological degradation, governance failures, and moral uncertainty, Middleton returns us to a foundational truth: God’s redemptive purpose extends beyond individual salvation to the restoration and flourishing of all creation.
His work challenges the false separation between the spiritual and the material, between faith and public life, and between salvation and stewardship. Instead, it presents humanity as God’s image-bearers, entrusted with the responsibility of caring for creation, advancing justice, and promoting the common good.
I consider this chapter to be an inspired piece of modern theological scholarship. While Scripture alone remains the ultimate authority, Middleton’s contribution powerfully illuminates biblical truths that are urgently needed in our generation. His insights deserve serious consideration by churches, universities, policymakers, and educational institutions. Indeed, aspects of this creation-centered stewardship theology ought to be taught in schools as part of forming responsible citizens, ethical leaders, and faithful stewards of God’s creation.
For Africa and the wider world, this framework offers a practical pathway toward sustainable development, ethical governance, environmental responsibility, social justice, and human flourishing rooted in divine purpose.
I have had a wonderful and fulfilling full-time teaching career, which began some thirty years ago at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School and continued through my move to Roberts Wesleyan University and Northeastern Seminary.
I formally retired from the Seminary in 2024 and have since focused on writing (though as Emeritus Professor I will still teach from time to time).
I am currently working on two books (both are partially complete). One is on the ethics of power in 1 Samuel 1–15 (contracted with Eerdmans). The other is on the liberating worldview of the Scriptures (for Baker Academic); this is a complete rewrite of The Transforming Vision, the book I coauthored with Brian Walsh when we were both graduate students.
Discernment Process
When I retired, I had a clear sense that writing was going to be my major focus (I have three other book contracts beyond the two mentioned above). But I have also been in a period of discernment for new ventures that God might be calling me to.
Here is a somewhat humorous poem I wrote the year before I retired, while on a retreat at the Gell Center in the Finger Lakes (a beautiful rural area south of Rochester, NY where I live). I broke up some of my sentences to mimic my breathing as I climbed uphill.
Uphill All the Way
J. Richard Middleton
Panting and huffing, he lugged his sixty-eight-year-old frame over rotting logs, snagging his foot on a broken limb, stumbled, yet doggedly kept ascending the steep climb. No horizon in sight. Just trees, trees as far as vision. Yet far easier to make out than his future after retirement. After twenty-seven years of pouring his heart out to indifferent students, grading mediocre papers (and the odd brilliant piece), correcting bad grammar. It was time. Something new beckoned. If only he could see what it was.
October 2023 Gell Center, Finger Lakes
Contrary to the poem (which is only partly autobiographical), I’ve had excellent students throughout the years, who have gone on to do wonderful things for God’s kingdom. I’ve had the joy and privilege of keeping in touch with many of them.
Post-Retirement Opportunities
Since retirement, I have kept getting invitations to speak on topics close to my heart for various organizations, and I certainly could just take up such opportunities as they arise. But I have been wondering if there is a more strategic way to use my gifts and academic experience.
Being originally from the Caribbean, I have been especially interested in theological education for the global church. I’ve kept in touch with Jamaica Theological Seminary (where I earned my BTh) and the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology (where I taught while on sabbatical some years back). Both schools have recently contacted me about being involved in a variety of ways, including teaching, faculty development, and integrating a Christian worldview into the curriculum.
I am also a Canadian, having lived fifteen years in Ontario, where I worked as a campus minister and completed two graduate degrees, prior to my teaching career in the USA.
My period of discernment led me to join Global Scholars Canada (GSC), an organization that links Canadian scholars in a variety of fields with opportunities for teaching and mentoring in the Majority World.
I am hoping to leverage my Canadian and Jamaican experience and my expertise in biblical studies and the Christian worldview to help other scholars, whether in Canada or other countries, bring their faith to bear on their academic vocation in a way that witnesses to God’s kingdom purposes for the redemption of all of life.
I see my mission as raising the level of biblical literacy among Christian academics, but also among pastors and laypeople, by immersing them in serious, yet inspiring and practical, study of Scripture.
I am coming on board Global Scholars Canada as a part-time global scholar. Full-time scholars typically get placed in teaching positions overseas, negotiated between GSC and the hiring institution, with GSC helping to raise funds to supplement what the hiring institution is unable to cover.
Given that I have been ministering “overseas” since I left Jamaica as a young adult, and that I am part-time, my situation is somewhat different. I will be involved in specific short-term assignments that Global Scholars Canada will set up, such as speaking at conferences or mentoring young academics.
Two Specific Assignments
Global Scholars Canada is a partner with the Society of Christian Scholars, an international community of Christian academics that developed from a consultation (some sixteen years ago) of eleven scholars from six countries. The Society has numerous individual and organizational partners and affiliates throughout the world.
My very first assignment as a global scholar was an invitation that came through a member of the Caribbean Network, who is the librarian for the Society of Christian Scholars. I will be doing an online presentation for the Society’s Library Reading Group meeting in June 2026. I’ve been asked to introduce the article I wrote for the book of Caribbean theology that I coedited with Garnett Roper some years ago (the article explores a creation theology for the Caribbean).
My next assignment will be to give a keynote talk on essentials of the biblical worldview at a Global Leadership Conference sponsored by the Society of Christian Scholars, which will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, in early August 2026. I may also be giving a short paper entitled “The Vocation of the Christian Scholar: A Caribbean Biblical Studies Perspective.”
The conference has changed a bit since the flyer below (the exact date and location have shifted). But the theme and focus will be similar. This will be a great time for networking with scholars from around the world who teach in a variety of disciplines at public universities.
At the urging of Global Scholars Canada, I will be taking along a younger scholar, Chris Landon (who is currently working on his PhD at McMaster Divinity College), as a mentee. He will also be presenting a paper at the conference.
Although the conference is only a few days, it will be quite an undertaking, given the travel (and recovery) time and the cost of airfare and conference registration (which includes lodging and food).
Fundraising—Something I don’t Usually Do
Global Scholars Canada is committed to covering 90% of the cost of any mentees attending the conference (so they will cover this for Chris). They don’t cover quite as much for their scholars. But I am extremely grateful that their contribution will reimburse about half my expenses. I will need to raise the other half (which comes to about USD 1,100 = CAD 1,500).
Anyone interested in contributing towards these expenses (as charitable giving in the US or Canada), can check out the relevant links below. It will be much appreciated.
The Global Scholars Canada website has a list of different ways to give(online or by cheque) in support of their scholars. The first four ways are for Canadian donations (you just designate the scholar you are supporting).
The first is a wonderful analysis of Marley’s lyrics, album-by-album (from Catch a Fire to Confrontation), by the internationally famous poet, Kwame Dawes.
Dawes was born in Ghana, but spent his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica, before moving to the USA. Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius is published in at least two editions (Sanctuary Publishing, 2002; and Bobcat Books, 2007).
The Bible and Bob Marley: Half the Story Has Never Been Told
The book doesn’t analyze every biblical reference but focuses on the two main ways Marley’s lyrics appeal to the Bible. The first is his use of wisdom themes from Proverbs and elsewhere in the Old Testament and the second is his use of language from Paul’s epistles in the New Testament to articulate his mission as a Rasta / reggae ambassador to the world.
Dean MacNeil is a jazz musician who for many years taught a summer course on Bob Marley at the Berklee School of Music, which resulted in a student band doing a concert of Marley’s songs at the end of the semester. He has an MA in theology from Loyola Marymount University.
Hodges is a Brit teaching literature in Canada. He did his PhD at the University of Toronto with the famous Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison. His chapter on Marley is called, “Walk Good: Bob Marley and the Oratorical Tradition.” In it he suggests that Marley’s performances have a call-and-response character, where Marley functions like a Pentecostal or charismatic preacher, and his albums (especially Survival and Uprising) have the rhetorical power of charismatic sermons.
The Subversive Spirituality of Reggae
On February 17, 2023 I gave a presentation called “The Subversive Spirituality of Reggae: ‘Resisting against the System’ in the Music of Bob Marley & the Wailers,” in Rochester, NY. It was held at the Joy Gallery. Thanks to artist and RIT professor, Luvon Sheppard, for hosting us. The presentation was sponsored by the Rochester Jamaican Organization in celebration of Reggae Month.
CREATION to ESCHATON 