The Beast, the Antichrist, and 666 An Alternative to Speculation

Chapman University’s
Department of Religious Studies
is pleased to invite you to attend a lecture by this year’s distinguished
Visiting Griset Chair
in Bible and Christian Studies, Professor Paul N. Anderson on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 7 p.m. in the Wallace All-Faiths Chapel, in a lecture titled – The Beast, the Antichrist, and 666: An Alternative to Speculation

While these noted Johannine themes and other biblical texts have contributed to amazing paradigms of speculation over the years, Visiting Prof. Paul Anderson will challenge some prevalent views while affirming some others. When viewed in late first-century historical perspective the relevance of these biblical texts becomes all the more striking. Within a contextual analysis, Prof. Anderson will examine crises in the early church with timely implications for faithful discipleship in every generation–an alternative to speculation.

Paul N. Anderson is Visiting Griset Chair of Bible and Christian Tradition at Chapman University for Spring 2017, where he is currently teaching a seminar entitled “Riddles of the Fourth Gospel.” He is Professor of Biblical and Quaker Studies at George Fox University and serves as Extraordinary Professor of Religion at the North West University of Potchefstroom, South Africa. Author of over two hundred published essays and author or editor of a dozen books, Anderson is a co-founder of the John, Jesus, and History Project. His contextual introduction to the New Testament, From Crisis to Christ, offers new paradigms for biblical interpretation, and his books on John include The Christology of the Fourth Gospel, The Fourth Gospel and the Quest for Jesus, and The Riddles of the Fourth Gospel. His Ph.D. is from Glasgow University, and he has served as a visiting professor or scholar at the Radboud University of Nijmegen (Fulbright Specialist), the Guttenberg University of Mainz (DAAD), Princeton Theological Seminary, and Yale Divinity School. He edited Quaker Religious Thought and is the New Testament editor of the Biblical Interpretation Series (E.J. Brill).

This event is free and open to the public. For further information, please contact Professor Nancy Martin at
nmartin@chapman.edu.