27 Facts About Philip Esler

Philip Francis Esler was born on 27 August 1952 and is the Portland Chair in New Testament Studies at the University of Gloucestershire.

Philip Esler is an Australian-born higher education administrator and academic who became the inaugural chief executive of the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council in 2005, remaining in that role until 2009.

Philip Esler applies ideas and perspectives from disciplines such as social psychology, anthropology and sociology to Old and New Testament texts to gain a better sense of what they meant to their original audiences.

Philip Esler has published in the areas of New Testament theology and the Bible and the visual arts.

Philip Esler holds a Doctor of Divinity from the University of Oxford, by submitted work, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In October 1981, Esler went to Magdalen College, Oxford and undertook a D Phil in New Testament.

Philip Esler adopted this broad approach in his doctorate and applied ideas from the sociology of knowledge and of sectarianism to investigate how social and political factors had affected the way Luke wrote his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.

In 1984 Philip Esler returned to Sydney, initially as a solicitor at Allen, Allen and Hemsley before being called to the Bar in 1986.

In 1990 Philip Esler attended a meeting in Portland, Oregon of a group of mainly US biblical critics committed to social-scientific interpretation.

Philip Esler remains a member of the Context Group and has written on its history and modus operandi.

In 1992 Philip Esler was appointed Reader in New Testament in St Andrews University, becoming Professor of Biblical Criticism there in 1995.

At St Andrews Philip Esler initially published research which drew on his initial focus on the sociology of knowledge and of sectarianism and his expanding interests in Mediterranean anthropology, millennialism and magic.

Philip Esler has formulated an approach called 'archival ethnography' to assist in the interpretation of the legal papyri from 70 to 200 CE that survive from caves in the Dead Sea region.

Philip Esler applied both social identity theory and ideas on ethnicity in Galatians and Conflict and Identity in Romans.

Philip Esler has recently argued for the need to take seriously the reality of Judean ethnic identity in the ancient Mediterranean world and its asymmetrical relationship to Christ-movement socio-religious identity in the interpretation of New Testament texts.

Philip Esler writes on the way that biblical stories have been represented in Western art, including his study of two Rembrandt depictions of Saul and David in 1998.

Philip Esler's developing views were reflected in the evidence he provided to the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology at their introductory meeting with him on 28 February 2007 While at the AHRC, Esler chaired the Network Board of HERA: Humanities in the European Research Area, an EU-funded network of national Research Funding Agencies for collaborative research in the humanities.

For much of his last year at the AHRC, Philip Esler was involved in a major project on impact published in 2009 as Leading the World: The Economic Impact of UK Arts and Humanities Research.

Philip Esler brokered a collaborative agreement between all seven UK Research Councils and the Research Funding Agency of the State of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

On 1 October 2010 Philip Esler became principal and professor of Biblical interpretation at St Mary's University College, Twickenham.

From 2009 to 2015 Philip Esler was one of fifteen members of the Council of the Society of Biblical Literature, one of the oldest learned societies in the US, with members from the US and other countries.

On 22 January 2013 Philip Esler announced that he would step down as Principal of St Mary's on 31 March 2013.

On 1 September 2013 Philip Esler was appointed Portland Chair in New Testament Studies at the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham, England.

Philip Esler has written articles related to this book for OUP and for Bible and Interpretation.

In June 2017 The Blessing of Enoch: 1 Enoch and Contemporary Theology, which Philip Esler edited, was published by Cascade Books in Eugene, Oregon.

In July 2017 Routledge published Philip Esler's second, enlarged edition of The Early Christian World.

In mid-2019 Philip Esler published Ethiopian Christianity: History, Theology, Practice with Baylor University Press.