Dr. Scott C. Ryan
Biography
Dr. Ryan received the Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Gardner Webb University, Boiling Springs, NC; the Master of Divinity and Master of Theology from Duke University Divinity School, Durham, NC; and the Ph.D. in Religion from Baylor University, Waco, TX. Dr. Ryan teaches a variety of courses in Religion and Biblical Studies at Claflin. Prior to coming to Claflin in 2019, Dr. Ryan served as the Wabash Post-Doctoral Fellow in Religion at Baylor University, where he taught undergraduate courses and oversaw a teaching initiative designed to increase faculty participation in mentoring graduate students for the teaching vocation and to advance knowledge of pedagogical strategies among faculty and students. While at Baylor, he received the Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2017–18 and the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award in 2016–17. In 2024, Dr. Ryan was selected as a Fulbright Specialist, and in 2025 he was selected as a Finalist for an American Council of Learned Societies Faculty Fellowship.
Dr. Ryan’s research focuses on ancient Jewish and earliest Christian literature in Greco-Roman contexts, especially the Apostle Paul and his letters. In his first book, Divine Conflict and the Divine Warrior: Listening to Romans and Other Jewish Voices, published by Mohr Siebeck in the Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2 series, he addressed the variety of uses of divine conflict motifs in ancient Jewish documents and places these texts in conversation with Paul’s Letter to the Romans. He also maintains research interests in ideas of judgment in ancient Jewish texts and the New Testament, the Gospel of Mark, the material remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and teaching and learning in higher education. Dr. Ryan is at work on two book-length projects, one titled Paul’s Apocalyptic Grammar: Diving Conflict and the Pauline Letters, and another titled Death and the New Testament. He has published articles in peer-reviewed journals, including New Testament Studies, Interpretation, Horizons in Biblical Theology, Perspectives in Religious Studies, American Baptist Quarterly, Teaching Theology & Religion, and The Wabash Center Journal on Teaching.
Education
B.A. in Religious Studies, Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, NC
M.Div., Duke University Divinity School, Durham, NC
Th.M., Duke University Divinity School, Durham, NC
Ph.D. in Religion/Biblical Studies, Baylor University, Waco, TX
- Teaching Certificate in Higher Education
- Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award
- Outstanding Dissertation Award
Research Interests
New Testament, Earliest Christianity, and Christian Origins; Paul’s Letters; Jewish and Greco-Roman Divine Conflict traditions; Public Discourse and the use of Biblical Texts in Political Rhetoric; Pompeii and Herculaneum; Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Recent Publications
Select Publications
Books/Monographs:
- “The Powers and Popular Religion in Pompeii and Paul’s Letter to the Romans,” Horizons in Biblical Theology45.1 (2023): 3–36.
- “The Violence of the God of Peace and the Peace of a Violent Humanity: Reading Divine and Human Violence in Paul’s Letter to the Romans.” Pages 176–193 in From the Rising to the Setting Sun: Global Perspectives on Bible and Violence. Edited by Helen Paynter and Michael Spallione. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2023.
- “‘The Deliverer Will Come’: Investigating Paul’s Adaptations of Divine Conflict Traditions in Romans,” Interpretation 76.4 (2022): 303–313.
- “God in Conflict: Images of the Divine Warrior in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Texts,” Biblical Interpretation (October 2019).
- “Presenting the Pauline Voice: An Appreciation of the Letter to the Laodiceans,” with Bruce W. Longenecker, New Testament Studies 62.1 (2016): 136–148.
- “‘That These Glorious Results Will at Some Day Be Realized’: An Examination of the Rhetoric of Self-Help, Respectability, and Social Uplift in the Early Works of E.C. Morris,” Baptist History and Heritage Journal 49.3 (2014): 7–22.
- “Biblical Figure Playlist,” Teaching Theology & Religion 26.1 (2023): 1–2.
- “Integrating Workforce Competencies into Introductory Religion Writing Assignments: A Suggestion for Addressing a Pedagogical Challenge,” The Wabash Center Journal on Teaching 2.1 (2021): 215–222. “Integrating Workforce Competencies into Introductory Religion Writing Assignments: A Suggestion for Addressing a Pedagogical Challenge,” The Wabash Center Journal on Teaching 2.1 (2021): 2115-222.
- “Writing Yourself into the Narrative: Texts and Contexts,” Teaching Theology & Religion 22.4 (2019): 334.