Date: January 26, 2022
The Rev. Dr. Richard Burridge is a good friend of Virginia Theological Seminary. If you look at his publications over the years, you will see that we are often given credit for a being a place where there is space and opportunity to write. He made several plans to visit us in 2021, but a little thing called COVID postponed all such plans. So it is lovely to finally welcome him back to our campus this year.
Dr. Burridge is a distinguished New Testament scholar. His book What are the Gospels? triggered a sea change in the perception of the Gospels. He argued in a compelling way that they were Greco-Roman biographies. Then in a series of books, he unpacked the implications. Four Gospels: One Jesus explained precisely how the different Gospels capture different, but mutually compatible, aspects of Jesus. Four Ministries: One Jesus applies the same principle to different ways of understanding the vocation of ministry. Imitating Jesus takes the project further and explores the implications of Greco-Roman Gospels for Christian Ethics. If you want to talk Jesus, then Richard Burridge is your scholar.
He arrives on the campus just as his latest book Holy Communion in Contagious Times is published. In the UK, The Church Times gave it significant attention. He is making the case that a “Zoom” communion can be valid. We will be having an event to discuss the argument of the book on the campus. So if you see Richard at breakfast or lunch in the Refectory, do go and talk to him.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President