Research, Teaching, Employment et al.

Research

In July 2005 I took up a five year fulltime Australian Research Council Professorial Fellowship to conduct research on Attitudes towards Sexuality in Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic Greco-Roman Era. I  that project in 2010. I continue that research as Emeritus Professor.

Recent books in the area of sexuality

• The Pseudepigrapha on Sexuality: Attitudes towards Sexuality in Apocalypses, Testament, Legends, Wisdom, and Related Literature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011)
• Sexuality in the New Testament (London: SPCK; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2010)
• The Dead Sea Scrolls on Sexuality: Attitudes Towards Sexuality in Sectarian and Related Literature at Qumran (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009)
• Enoch, Levi, and Jubilees on Sexuality: Attitudes Towards Sexuality in the Early Enoch Literature, the Aramaic Levi Document, and the Book of Jubilees (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007)
• Sexuality and the Jesus Tradition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005)
• The Septuagint, Sexuality and the New Testament: Case Studies on the Impact of the LXX in Philo and the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004).

Forthcoming

• Philo, Josephus, and the Testaments on Sexuality: Attitudes towards Sexuality in the Writings of Philo, Josephus, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs  (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 2011)
• The New Testament on Sexuality (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans)

Other recent books include: my study on Jesus' Attitude towards the Law as it is portrayed in the Gospels, which has been published as

• Jesus' Attitude towards the Law. A Study of the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002) 578 pp; earlier: Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2.97, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997) x + 563 pp.

My current research interests include, apart from sexuality in the New Testament and its world, the pre-Markan anecdotes and the historical Jesus, Jesus in cross-cultural perspective and Johannine studies, the LXX and its theological influence in the New Testament.

I am also interested in writing that communicates research to a wider public. Books include:

• The New Testament with Imagination: A Fresh Approach to its Writings and Themes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007) 978080282746
• Jesus and the Fundamentalism of his Day. The Gospels, the Bible and Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001; Melbourne: Uniting Education, 1998) 155 pp. ISBN 1 86407 195 8.

It uses the research which lies behind my Jesus' Attitude towards the Law (above) and explores many of the issues which arise from it in a style more suitable for the general reading public. It is the kind of book which could be useful in discussions on the place of the Bible in the church - always current!

See also my Dear Kim, This is what I believe: explaining Christian Faith Today (Melbourne: Uniting Ed, 1993; now in revised form on this website).

and The Christmas Stories (Melbourne: JBCE, 1986) now in revised and extended form on this website)

More information is available in my list of published books, articles and book chapters.

Teaching

I am currently supervising PhD research in the areas of Acts 10 and food laws;  John's Gospel and Ethics; Ecclesiology in the Sermon on the Mount; Luke-Acts and history.

Education and employment

I completed my BA in classics at Auckland University in 1966 and my ministerial education at Trinity Methodist Theological College, Auckland, 1964-1967. In 1968 I completed a BD from Otago University. I was ordained in 1969. I gained the degree Dr theol from the Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, in 1972 with a dissertation supervised by Professor Dr Ferdinand Hahn, and published in revised form in 1981: Sohn und Hoherpriester. Eine traditionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zur Christologie des Hebräerbriefes, WMANT 53 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1981).

From 1978 to 2005 I was Testament Lecturer with the Perth Theological Hall of the Uniting Church in Australia and in recent years Principal. Since 1986 I have also been teaching at Murdoch University, and since 1994 was employed by both the Church and the University in complementary fractional appointments. Until 2005 I was Professor of New Testament at Murdoch University and 1998-2003 was Head of the School of Social Inquiry. Until June, 2010 I was an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow at Murdoch University. I am now Emeritus Professor at Murdoch.

Memberships

I am a member of the

• Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas
• Catholic Biblical Association of America
• Catholic Biblical Association of Australia
• Society of Biblical Literature
• Australian Society for Classical Studies and am a
• Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA)
• holder of an Australian Centenary Medal  'for services to Australian society and the humanities in the area of religion'

Editorship

Co-Editor of the Review of Biblical Literature 2005-
I was Editor of Colloquium The Australian and New Theological Review. A Journal of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Theological Studies, 1996-2005
Hobbies

I also collect stamps from Australia Germany Laos Chile Peru and New Zealand Canada

email address: w.loader@murdoch.edu.au

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