DR. SHANNON ROGERS FLYNT (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF CLASSICS)

B.S., Samford University, 1991

M.A., University of Alabama, 1994

Ph.D., University of Missouri, 2005 

Dr. Flynt returned to her Alma Mater in 2000 after a distinguished graduate research and teaching career in anthropology, classical archaeology, and ancient studies. Her professional specialty – Roman archaeology – combines the history, math, art, linguistic, and travel interests she refined as an undergraduate student at Samford. Now on the other side of the lecturn at Samford, the Summa Cum Laude, Phi Kappa Phi alumna currently serves as the university’s Fulbright Program Advisor and teaches Art History I, II, and II, Cultural Perspectives I and II, and the Classics Department’s Rediscovery of the Classical World, Senior Capstone, and international study in Rome courses. This spring, Dr. Flynt will be teaching Western Intellectual Tradition 102: Christianity from Antiquity to the Renaissance. (Read more...)

DR. JAMES STRANGE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF RELIGION)

B.A., Furman University, 1985

M.Div., Southern Seminary, 1991

M.A., University of South Florida, 1999

Ph.D., Emory University, 2007 

Dr. Strange arrived at Samford in 2007 from Tampa, Florida, where he taught courses in world religions, archaeology of Palestine, and biblical Hebrew at the University of South Florida and Eckerd College. Before that he taught courses in Koine Greek at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. It was as a Classics undergrad that Dr. Strange caught the archaeology bug. In the summer of 1983, he traveled to Israel to excavate at a site near Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth for the inaugural season of the University of South Florida’s Excavations at Sepphoris. Twenty-six seasons of digging at the site by four different excavation teams have changed the way scholars think about Galilee and the Jesus movement. This spring in the UFP, Dr. Strange will be teaching Biblical Perspectives. (Read more...)

DR. JASON WALLACE (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY)

B.A., Auburn University, 1992

M.Div., Westminster Theological Seminary, 1998
Ph.D., M.A., University of Virginia, 2004

Dr. Wallace is an Assistant Professor of History and the co-director of Samford’s Cultural Perspectives program. He specializes in Religious and Intellectual History, and, in addition to Core courses, he teaches courses on the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, and methods of historical research and writing. Prior to joining the University Fellows Program, Dr. Wallace taught in Samford’s Honors Program. In 2006, he was named Honors professor of the year. Dr. Wallace also serves as the director of the Howard College of Arts and Sciences Davis Lecture Series, which brings a prominent public intellectual to campus every fall. Most recently, Dr. Wallace’s book was accepted for publication by the University of Notre Dame Press. This fall in the UFP, Dr. Wallace will be teaching Western Intellectual Tradition III. (Read more...)

DR. JOSEPH SCRIVNER (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH)

B.A., Crichton College, 1993

M.A., Reformed Theological Seminary, 1998

Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary, 2008  

Dr. Scrivner joined the Religion Department in 2002. His arrival revived the offering of Biblical Hebrew for Samford undergraduates. As an aid in teaching Biblical Hebrew, he has co-authored A Handbook to a Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Abingdon), a supplemental volume to the well-known Hebrew textbook by Choon Leong Seow, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. In addition, he teaches courses on Old Testament Prophecy, the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and Old Testament wisdom literature. In all of his courses, Dr. Scrivner is very interested in the relationship between a literary-historical analysis of the Bible and the most important Christian beliefs, such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the Inspiration of Scripture. He will be teaching Biblical Perspectives in the UFP. (Read more...)

DR. KEN ROXBURGH (S. LOUIS & ANN W. ARMSTRONG PROFESSOR OF RELIGION, CHAIR OF RELIGION DEPT)

B.A. (Hons), London School of Theology, 1977

M.Th., Aberdeen University, 1990

Ph.D., Edinburgh University, 1997

Dr. Ken Roxburgh is the S. Louis and Ann W. Armstrong Professor of Religion, and chair of the religion department at Samford University. He came to Samford in 2002, following sixteen years of pastoral ministry in Scottish Baptist congregations, and worked as the President of the Scottish Baptist College in Glasgow for eight years. During his time he served as an external examiner in several British universities. He teaches courses in theology, pastoral theology, Baptist history, and biblical studies, as well as the senior seminar in religion. (Read more...)

DR. SCOTT MCGINNIS (ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF RELIGION)

B.A., Samford University, 1990

M.B.A., University of Alabama, 1993

M.A., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1996

M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998

Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2002

Dr. McGinnis came to teach at Samford in 2002 in a homecoming of sorts: fourteen years earlier he had graduated from Samford with a degree in economics. As an undergraduate, Dr. McGinnis took a course in the university’s Honors Program that sparked his interest in intellectual history, a fascination that he carried with him throughout his graduate work in medieval and Early Modern history. In Samford’s Department of Religion, he teaches courses in theology, history, and biblical studies, as well as a writing-intensive seminar in theories of religion. His research interests center around the nexus of religious dissent, church-state relations, and popular religious movement. (Read more...)