Faculty Directory
David W. Jorgensen
Assistant Editor, New Testament Abstracts
David W. Jorgensen
Ph.D.
Contact
Simboli Hall 204B
Telephone: 617-552-6519
Email: david.jorgensen@bc.edu
Education
- B.A., Dartmouth College
- M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School
- M.A., Princeton University
- Ph.D., Princeton University
Research Interests
Early Christian history and literature; canonical and noncanonical Gospels; the apostle Paul; processes of scripturalization and canonization of NT texts; the reception and interpretation of biblical and apostolic texts, especially in the 2nd-5th centuries; patristic writers, especially Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian; Marcion; early Christian thinkers, groups, and texts formerly known as Gnostic; the origins, natures, and destinies of orthodoxies and heresies; Unitarian Universalist history.
Expertise
- Biblical Studies
- Historical Theology and Church History
Profile
Dr. David W. Jorgensen is the Assistant Editor of New Testament Abstracts and Assistant Research Professor of New Testament. Prior to coming to Boston College, he taught biblical studies and religions of the ancient Mediterranean at Colby College, the University of Maine at Farmington, the Maine School of Ministry, and Meadville Lombard Theological School, and patristic studies at the Pappas Patristic Summer Institute at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. During 2016-17, he was a Junior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University, Budapest.
His doctoral dissertation (Princeton University, 2014) won the 2015 Society of Biblical Literature鈥擠e Gruyter Prize for Biblical Studies and Reception History, and was published in revised form with De Gruyter in 2016 as Treasure Hidden in a Field: Early Christian Reception of the Gospel of Matthew. The book examines second-century Valentinian (a.k.a. 鈥淕nostic鈥�) and patristic exegesis of a shared foundational text鈥攖he Gospel of Matthew鈥攁nd finds that certain Valentinian exegetical and theological innovations were influential upon, and ultimately adopted by, 鈥渙rthodox鈥� Christianity, chief among these being the allegorical interpretation of the New Testament. It further argues that the Valentinians are the first to conceptualize the Gospel of Matthew as sacred scripture, and that they play a significant role in the 鈥渟cripturalization鈥� of the Gospels of Matthew and John and the letters of Paul, a process preliminary to their canonization.聽
Prior to his doctoral work, he completed an M.T.S. at Harvard Divinity School with a concentration in New Testament and Christian Origins, and he holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Dartmouth College. He is an active member of the North American Patristics Society, where in recent years he has organized panels on Alternative Christianities (2022), Nag Hammadi and Gnostic Studies (2018) and The Origins of a Christian Scripture (2016).聽 He is also a member of the Society of Biblical Literature.
He enjoys hiking, swimming, birdwatching, and movies, and has large collections of music and boardgames.