Dale Allison

Dale Allison was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. Allison majored in philosophy and religion and graduated Summa Cum Laude with honors from Wichita State University (1977).[4] Subsequently, he received both an MA (1979) and a PhD (1982) in religion from Duke University, where he studied with W. D. Davies.[1]

Before his post in at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, he conducted research at various institutions including Texas Christian University, Saint Paul School of Theology, and Friends University.[4] He has also taught and held posts at the University of Glasgow, McMaster University, North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa, and Chapman University.[4]

His areas of expertise include the historical Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew, Second Temple Jewish Literature, and the history of interpretation and reception of the Bible.[4]

As a scholar of the Gospel of Matthew, Allison has written extensively on the subject. His books include the three-volume commentary, An Exegetical and Critical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew (1988-97), which he co-wrote with W. D. Davies, The New Moses: A Matthean Typology (1993), and Studies in Matthew (2005).

Allison has written much on Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth: Millenarian Prophet (1998) was a critique of members of the Jesus Seminar. Replies from prominent Jesus Seminar members like John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, as well as Allison's responses, appear in Robert J. Miller's The Apocalyptic Jesus: A Debate (2001). Outlining his skepticism of human memory, he wrote Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History (2010). On the topic of Jesus' resurrection he wrote both Resurrecting Jesus (2005) and The Resurrection of Jesus (2021). Other books include The Sermon on the Mount (2006) which is about Jesus' ethical teaching in Matthew 5-7 and The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus (2009) which presents Allison's reflection on the modern quest for the historical Jesus.

In the world of Second Temple Jewish literature, he has written commentaries on both the Testament of Abraham and 4 Baruch.

Allison has also written for audiences outside academia. Concerning spiritual and religious experiences, he wrote The Luminous Dusk (2006) and Encountering Mystery (2022). On death and what might lie beyond, Allison wrote Night Comes (2016). He also wrote The Love There That's Sleeping (2006) which surveys the musical corpus of George Harrison in the light of his biography and religious convictions.[5]

In 2008, Allison delivered the Kenneth W. Clark Lectures at Duke Divinity School.[6] In 2023, Allison delivered the Kent Shaffer Lectures at Yale Divinity School.[7]