John Dickson (author)

John Dickson is an Australian Christian apologist, historian, and was the founder of the Centre for Public Christianity.

John Dickson
BornAustralia
OccupationAuthor, speaker, lecturer
Alma materMacquarie University
GenreChristian Author

In the 1980s and 1990s he was singer-songwriter in the Christian rock band In The Silence.

Since completing his PhD in Ancient History at Macquarie University (2001) focusing on the birth of Christianity in its Jewish and Graeco-Roman contexts, Dickson continues to write and teach in both popular and academic settings. After several years as an Honorary Associate of the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie, he received Honorary Fellow status in 2010. He has taught Advanced Topics in Ancient History and Early Christianity Historiography, semester-long courses for the Masters program at Macquarie University.

Since 2011 Dickson has been sessional staff at University of Sydney's Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies teaching From Historical Jesus to Written Gospels , a semester long course focused on the historiography of the figure of Jesus in the Roman East.

In 2012, Dickson wrote Hearing Her Voice: A Case for Women Giving Sermons. In it, he argued that 1 Timothy 2:12 ("I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man") does not mean that women cannot give sermons today, since the "teaching" referred to meant "preserving and laying down the traditions handed on by the apostles", and that does not happen in most sermons today. Matthias Media published a volume of essays in response to Dickson's book: Women, Sermons and the Bible: Essays interacting with John Dickson's Hearing Her Voice.

On 6 May 2015, Dickson's book A Sneaking Suspicion (1995) was banned from state schools by the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities on the basis of a "potential risk to students in the delivery of this material, if not taught sensitively and in an age appropriate manner."[1][2] The ban was lifted 18 May, 2015.[3]

Career

Dickson career has included:

  • Fellow of Macquarie’s Department of Ancient History (2004-17)[4]
  • Visiting Academic of the Faculty of Classics at Oxford University in the UK (2017-2020)[4]
  • Founding Director of the Centre for Public Christianity (2007-2019) [4]
  • Senior Minister of St Andrew's Anglican Church, Roseville (2009-2019) (in 2018 Dickson announced that he was stepping down from church ministry)[5]
  • Distinguished Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Public Christianity at Ridley College (Melbourne) announced in March 2019[6]
  • Created Undeceptions An organisation and podcast seeking to promote thoughtful Christianity in doubting times (April 2019)

Books
  • The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More Than Our Lips (Zondervan)
  • Promoting the Gospel: the Whole of Life for the Cause of Christ (Aquila)
  • If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain (Matthias Media, 2001)
  • If I Were God, I'd Make Myself Clearer (Matthias Media)
  • Simply Christianity: A Modern Guide to the Ancient Faith (Matthias Media) Australian Christian Book of the Year, 2000
  • A Spectator's Guide to World Religions: An Introduction to the Big Five (Blue Bottle Books) Australian Christian Book of the Year, 2005
  • The Christ Files: How Historians Know What They Know about Jesus (2006, Blue Bottle Books)
  • James: the Wisdom of the Brother of Jesus (Aquila, 2006)
  • Vital Signs: the Wisdom of James for a Life of Faith (Aquila), with Simon Smart
  • 666 and All That: The Truth About the Future (Aquila), with Greg Clarke
  • Jesus: A Short Life (Lion, 2008)
  • A Spectator's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth (2008, Blue Bottle Books)
  • Mission-Commitment in Ancient Judaism and in the Pauline Communities (Paul Mohr Verlag)
  • Life of Jesus: Who He Is and Why He Matters (Zondervan, 2010)
  • Hearing Her Voice: A Case for Woman Giving Sermons (Zondervan, 2014)
  • A Doubter's Guide to the Bible: Inside History's bestseller for believers and skeptics (Zondervan, 2015)
  • A Doubter's Guide to the Ten Commandments: How, for better or worse, our ideas about the good life come from Moses and Jesus (Zondervan, 2016)
  • Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership (Zondervan, 2018)
  • A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An introduction to the man from Nazareth for believers and sceptics (Zondervan, 2018)
  • Is Jesus History? (Good Book Company, 2019)
Young readers
  • A Hell of a Life: From Manger to Megastar (Matthias Media)
  • Hanging in There (Matthias Media)
  • A Sneaking Suspicion (Matthias Media)
gollark: Immortality?
gollark: > i can get a wish from a magic lamp, is there anything you recommendInfinite wishes.
gollark: wrong!!!! except for embedded systems and really low-level stuff.
gollark: Fake Rust advocates. They really use C.
gollark: They could be.

See also

References
  1. "Book ban reversed". Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  2. Piccoli, Adrian. "Letter to His Grace the Most Reverend Dr G Davies" (PDF). Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  3. Moore, Natasha (5 June 2015). "Religion still has a worthwhile place in the classroom". ABC News. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  4. "Bio - John Dickson". Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  5. Abbott, Rebecca (12 December 2018). "John Dickson steps down from church ministry". Eternity. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  6. "John Dickson appointed to Ridley Faculty". Ridley College (Melbourne). 18 March 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
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