Gideon Park

Biography

Gideon W. Park holds a doctor of philosophy from Vanderbilt University, a master of sacred theology from Yale Divinity School, a master of divinity from Westminster Seminary California, and a bachelor of science from Missouri Baptist University. He started teaching at Belmont University in 2015, having completed a certificate in college teaching at the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. His pedagogy foregrounds critical thinking, reading, and writing in the academic study of religion.

His first book, The Politics of Race and Ethnicity in Matthew’s Passion Narrative (Palgrave Macmillan), presents an alternative reading of Jesus’s crucifixion as “King of the Judeans” as an ethnic slur. He is the editor of Stories of Minjung Theology (SBL Press) and a contributor to The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Korea (Oxford University Press). His peer-reviewed articles appear in Biblical Interpretation, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, and Journal of Biblical Literature.

Dr. Park has been awarded grants by the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Wabash Center for Teaching & Learning in Theology and Religion, and Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. He is a recipient of the SBL Regional Scholar award from the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion, the Dwight-Hooker fellowship at Yale Divinity School, the Provost graduate fellowship at Vanderbilt University, and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Belmont Fellows Program. He serves as faculty adviser for Bruins CrossFit Club, is CF-L1 certified, and trains at CrossFit Music City. He lives in Nashville, TN with his wife and two kids.