Lecturer in Old Testament
PhD, MA, BA
Bio
Michael started at Carey in 2021. He teaches Carey’s undergraduate Old Testament courses and also co-teaches courses in the postgraduate program and supervises MA theses.
Michael holds a PhD in Divinity from the University of Aberdeen/Trinity College Bristol. His dissertation explored how the Deuteronomic tithe meal and Corinthian Lord’s Supper served as morally transformative feasts that shaped the community for holiness, justice, mercy, and solidarity. Prior to coming to Carey, Michael spent 7 years working for Christian community development programs, first in Kenya, and then in the economically impoverished South Memphis community where his family lives. In addition to this extensive community development experience, he has also been involved in racially and economically diverse church plants since 2009, and is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Michael’s passion is to help the church hear and respond to God’s call in Scripture to become a community that embodies Jesus’s good news for the poor. As a result he has studied and published works on economic discipleship, racial justice, and poverty in Scripture, at both the academic and popular level.
“I think the Old Testament is absolutely mesmerising, and I love wrestling with it together with others. So the opportunity to join students in reading the Bible as God’s address summoning us to an intimate relationship with him and a life of kingdom engagement in the world is just incredible.”
Teaching Areas
- Introduction to the Old Testament
- Prophets a Canonical Reading
- Worship and Wisdom
- Biblical Narrative Old Testament
- Public Theology
Current Research Projects
- Michael Rhodes, Justice Unto Victory: Exegetical Explorations in Moral Formation. Under contract with IVP Academic.
- Michael Rhodes, “Eating on the Road to Egypt: Food and the Joseph Narrative,” Presentation to the Meals in the HB/OT and Its World unit at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting.
- David Beldman and Michael Rhodes, The Pentateuch, Reading Christian Scripture Series (Baker Academic), under contract.
- Michael Barram, Drew Hart, Gimbiya Kettering, and Michael Rhodes, eds. Biblical and Theological Reasons for Reparations: The Time is Now (Lexington Books), forthcoming 2023.
Selected Publications
- Rhodes, Michael J. Formative Feasting: Practices and Virtue Ethics in Deuteronomy’s Tithe Meal and the Corinthian Lord’s Supper. Studies in Biblical Literature, 2022.
- Rhodes, Michael J. “Becoming Militants of Reconciling Love: 1 John 3:1-3 and the Task of Ethical Formation.” Journal for Theological Interpretation 15.1 (2021): 79-100.
- Rhodes, Michael J. “(Becoming) Lovers in a Dangerous Time: Discipleship as Gift and Task in 1 John.” Word & World 41.1 (2021): 22-33.
- Rhodes, Michael J. “Arranging the Chairs in the Beloved Community: The Politics, Problems, and Prospects of Multi-Racial Churches in 1 Corinthians and Today.” Studies in Christian Ethics 33.4 (2019): 510-528.
- Rhodes, Michael J. and Robby Holt, with Brian Fikkert, Practicing the King’s Economy: Honoring Jesus in How We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give. Baker Academic, 2018.
- Fikkert, Brian and Michael Rhodes. “Homo Economicus Versus Homo Imago Dei,” Journal of Markets & Morality 20.1 (2017): 101-126.
- Rhodes, Michael J. “‘Forward Unto Virtue’: Formative Practices and 1 Corinthians 11:17-34.” Journal for Theological Interpretation 11.1 (2017): 119-138.
- Rhodes, Michael J. “‘Follow Us As We Follow Moses’: Learning Biblical Economics from the New Testament’s Appropriation of Old Testament Narratives, Practices and Liturgies” in Ecclesia and Ethics. Edited by E. Allen Jones et. al. T & T Clark, 2016.
Selected Popular Writing and Interviews
- “Why Don’t We Sing Justice Songs in Worship?,” Christianity Today, 2021
- “Paul’s Letter to a Prejudiced Church,” Christianity Today, Cover Story, 2021.
- “Confronting Christian Nationalism with the Book of Amos,” Center for Hebraic Thought, 2021
- “Moses’ Guide to Postpandemic Parties: How Biblical Guides to Feasting Teach Us to Fear God,” Christianity Today, 2021
- “Should We Repent of Our Grandparents’ Racism? Scripture on Intergenerational Sin,” Center for Hebraic Thought, 2020
- “Economic Thought in the Bible,” The Biblical Mind Podcast, 2020
- “Michael Rhodes, Author of ‘Practicing the King’s Economy,’” Seminary Dropout podcast, 2019