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Ferrum College News

Ferrum College’s Interim Dean of Faculty and Program Coordinator for Religious Studies, Dr. Eric Vanden Eykel, has published Judeophobia and the New Testament with two co-editors.

FERRUM, VA, January 27, 2025 – 

Ferrum College’s Interim Dean of Faculty and Program Coordinator for Religious Studies, Dr. Eric Vanden Eykel, has published Judeophobia and the New Testament with two co-editors. Focusing on biblical texts that have been used to promote anti-Semitism, the book will be released by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. on April 24, 2025.

“Working on this project has been one of the toughest and also most rewarding parts of my career as a scholar of early Christianity. It has been tough because, frankly, the subject matter is tough,” said Vanden Eykel. The publisher describes the book as “essential reading for anyone concerned about the ways that Christian scripture has been used—both in the past and the present—in service of anti-Semitism.”

Headshot of Eric Vanden Eykel with blue shirt, brown jacket and glasses outside.

Vanden Eykel’s co-editors are Dr. Sarah E. Rollens, the R. A. Webb Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College, and Dr. Meredith J. C. Warren, a Senior Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies at the University of Sheffield, where she directs the Sheffield Centre for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies. Warren said, “This volume was an honor to edit, bringing together as it does experts from across New Testament studies. We hope this book makes a real contribution to the direction of the field and its approach to combating anti-Judaism.”

The book grew out of an article that Vanden Eykel, Rollens, and Warren wrote in response to a shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue. In 2020, the Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies published their article “Confronting Judeophobia in the Classroom.” After a Pennsylvania man had killed 11 people and wounded others in the Tree of Life Synagogue on October 27, 2018, it was revealed that the shooter had displayed on his social media page a reference to John’s Gospel 8:44 and his rough paraphrase of its meaning: “Jews are the children of Satan.” 

In the days following the shooting, educators found themselves struggling to help students trying to make sense of what had happened. In their article, Vanden Eykel, Rollens, and Warren outlined their approaches to teaching about anti-Semitism in biblical studies classrooms. Vanden Eykel explained that further research revealed how widespread the use of early Christian literature to support “harmful and hateful rhetoric” has been. He said, “My co-editors and I are hopeful that this project will encourage and equip readers to become more intelligent, mindful, and responsible interpreters of early Christian literature.”

The three co-authors are now writing a new book, also under contract with Eerdmans. Avoiding Antisemitism: A Guide for Christians will be published in 2026. Warren will visit the Ferrum College campus in March as a guest lecturer.