Academic Bio
 

My name is James Magee Jr. and I am a Canadian scholar of the Bible residing on the West Coast of British Columbia.

In 2011 I earned a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from the Vancouver School of Theology (VST) where I pursued a dual concentration in Hebrew Bible and New Testament. I was comprehensively examined in the first by the Rev. Dr. Patricia Dutcher-Walls and Dr. James M. Lindenberger and in the second by Dr. Harry O. Maier and the Rev. Dr. Stephen Farris.

My upper-level coursework focused on social scientific approaches to the Hebrew Bible, prophecy in ancient Israel, the history of biblical interpretation, the book of Acts, and the influence of Roman imperial iconography on early Christian writings. My papers explored the story of Judges 19 as an early example of urban legend (subsequently presented at a meeting of the Greater Vancouver Biblical Colloquium), the fate of prophecy in postexilic Judah as reflected in the work of the Chronicler, Bible translation as an act of interpretation with Gen 1.27 as a case study, the ostensible anti-Marcionite context for the composition of Acts, and multivalent models of divine sonship in the Lukan writings in light of Graeco-Roman ruler worship. This last paper won the Jeremias Prize  in 2010 from the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (CSBS) for best student essay in the area of New Testament and cognate studies. I presented it at the society’s annual meeting, held that year at Concordia University in Montreal.

After receiving a scholarship and the Dean’s Graduate Entrance Award to Trinity Western University (TWU), I pursued post-graduate coursework there in the areas of Hebrew Bible, Septuagint and New Testament. My papers explored the place of the tabernacle’s incense altar in the Priestly strata of the Pentateuch, synchronic literary approaches to composite biblical narratives with 2 Samuel 4 as a test case, differing chronological systems and literary editions in the Hebrew and Greek texts of Kings/3-4 Reigns, structural and form-critical reconsiderations of text-critical problems in Luke 24, and the Matthean account of Judas’ death in light of social memory theory. I presented a condensed version of this paper at the 2011 meeting of the CSBS at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.

A number of my graduate and post-graduate papers revolved around narratives that included young characters such as the royal prince Joash hidden in the temple from his murderous grandmother until the age of seven, Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth who was dropped by his nurse and crippled at the age of five, and the fatally ill son of King Jeroboam I of Israel. This brought me into contact with the discipline of childhood studies, the theories and findings of which a number of biblical scholars were then beginning to incorporate into their research. While auditing a course at VST on the historical Jesus in scholarship, film and novels, my lifelong love of movies merged with my training as a biblical scholar and recent forays into childhood studies to find my niche in the academy and the subject of my thesis: depictions of Jesus as a child in film. I presented a sketch of my anticipated thesis in the “Social World and the Historical Jesus” seminar of the 2014 meeting of the CSBS at Brock University in St. Catharines, where it was well-received.

I commenced writing my thesis in the fall of 2014 as the final requirement for a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies from TWU under the supervision of Dr. Dirk Büchner. I presented different aspects of my research at the next two meetings of the CSBS, at the University of Ottawa in 2015 and at the University of Calgary in 2016, after which Dr. Adele Reinhartz joined my supervisory team as an expert external examiner. I completed my thesis and successfully defended it in May of 2019, earning my degree and presenting some final research at the CSBS meeting that year at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

I returned to VST that summer as a Research Affiliate, where I continue to research at the intersections of biblical studies, childhood studies and film studies. Three years prior, the school’s Inter-Religious Studies Program began hosting an annual conference with a different theme each year. I have presented a paper there every year with the exception of 2020:

2016 – Encountering the Other

2017 – Visions of the End Times

2018 – Spiritual Perspectives on Death and Dying

2019 – Religion and Violence

2021 – Religion and Thoughtful Activism

2022 – Religious Responses to Climate Change

2023 – Making Meaning in a Time of Media Polarization 

2024 – Sacred Arts in a Pluralistic Society

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My first paper on the unflattering depiction of Israel’s deity as a petulant child in the 2014 movie Exodus: Gods and Kings won the award for best student essay at the conference and was subsequently published in a revised form in the first volume of Wipf and Stock’s Religious Pluralism and Public Life series titled Encountering the Other: Christian and Multifaith Perspectives (2020). The second volume in the series, Visions of the End Times: Revelations of Hope and Challenge (2022), contains my revised essay from the 2017 conference on depictions of the Antichrist as a child in cinema from The Omen onward. Volumes for the other conference papers, my own included, are in preparation and I am currently co-editing the 2019 collection on Religion and Violence with Rabbi Dr. Laura Duhan-Kaplan and Dr. Harry O. Maier.

In addition to regular participation at the annual Inter-Religious Studies conference, I continue to present papers on occasion at the CSBS, most recently in an on-line format in 2022 about the Synoptic Problem. I have guest-lectured on this topic in the graduate-level Synoptics course offered at VST and presented pertinent film clips in a VST summer school course on children in the New Testament taught by Dr. John W. Martens from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St. Mark’s College in Vancouver, out of which collaboration we are currently writing a book.

St. Mark’s hosted a conference in May 2023 celebrating ten years of Pope Francis’ pontificate where I presented a paper on charitable priests and nuns in cinema. Later that month I participated in the Zoom Panel session of the Canadian Society for Jewish Studies’ annual conference, held this year at York University in Toronto, presenting on film depictions of Jewish children hiding during the Holocaust, which I plan to turn into a book chapter.

I am indebted to my professors and colleagues mentioned above, as well as to many others, for their support and guidance over the past fifteen years of my academic career. It is a privilege working with them in cutting-edge scholarship on the Bible and all the other areas of religious studies, childhood studies and film studies where my research has taken me over the past decade. The variety of perspectives and theological traditions I have encountered in my schooling and at conferences attended reflect the diversity of the academy generally, a space where differences of opinion and interpretation can and should be shared, debated, and affirmed or revised in light of new evidence or better methods, but always in a respectful and charitable manner.

I endeavor to model this in my interactions with fellow scholars and lay persons alike, all of whom have something important to teach me along the path that is my life and I hope that something I share on this website may enrich your own.

JMJ