Biography
Dr. Rick Talbott is professor of Ancient Mediterranean Religions. He received his PhD from the History Department at UCLA where he also taught such courses as Introduction to the History of Religions,The Buddha and Jesus,Ritual in Modern Scholarship, and The Historical Background of Early Christianity. Dr. Talbott received his B.A. from CSUN and where he has been teaching courses for the Department for over 20 years. He became a full-time member of the faculty in 2006.
Dr. Talbott teaches the following lower division courses: Introduction to Religious Studies, and The Bible. His upper division courses include: The New Testament, The Teaching of Jesus, Pauline Letters, Gnosticism.
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Dr. Talbott’s current research interests focus on how social memory and oral culture help us understand the eventual creation of the New Testament Gospels. He continues to research how Ancient Mediterranean religious rituals and rhetoric functioned as part of the exercise of power in political and economic systems within the early Jesus movement.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Jesus, Paul, and Power: Rhetoric, Ritual, and Metaphor in Ancient Mediterranean Christianity. Cascade Books, 2010.
“Imagining the Mattehean Eunuch Community: Kyriarchy on the Chopping Block.” Journal of Feminist Studies, 2006.
“Nazareth’s Rebellious Son, BTB, 2008; “Jesus, Paul, and Power: Rhetoric, Ritual, and Metaphor in Ancient Mediterranean Christianity,” Cascade Books, 2010.
Book review of Maurice Casey’s “Jesus of Nazareth: An Independent Historian’s Account of His Life and Teaching,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2012.
MEMBERSHIPS
American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature.
Co-editor with Professor Amir Hussain on a series of books the History of Religions for Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Member of the editorial board for the Journal of The American Academy of Religion.