Lecturers
Lecturer
Email: rcummings@csun.edu
Biography
Randal Cummings is a lecturer in the Religious Studies Department at California State University, Northridge.
He received his B.A. in English and Comparative Literatures from CSUN, his Masters in “History of Religions” from UCLA and his C.Phil in 1. History of Religions; 2. Biblical Texts and Theology; 3. Church History; and 4. Modern Intellectual History from UCLA.
Selected Publications
He recently published an article, “Teaching Fundamentalists in the Classroom” for the AAR’s “Spotlight on Teaching” series, and is currently completing a chapter forTeaching Religion and Violence dealing with “Religion and Violence in Popular Culture” to be released by Oxford Press.
Memberships
Prof. Cummings chairs the Arts of Interpretation Group that meets annually at the American Academy of Religions.
Lecturer
Email: james.findlay@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-3925
Biography
Dr. Findlay is a lecturer in the Religious Studies Department at California State University, Northridge. James Findlay teaches courses in: Introduction to Religious Studies, The Bible, World Religions, Christianity, Contemporary Ethical Issues, and Religion, Logic, and the Media.
Memberships
Lecturer representative to the University Faculty Senate.
Education:
Ph.D., Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, The Claremont Graduate University, May 2005.
Th.M., Old Testament Studies, Harvard Divinity School, May 1997.
M.Div., Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Recipient of the Hutchinson Academic Scholarship, May 1989.
B.A., Honors Graduate in Religion, Haverford College, May 1980.
Publications & Prizes:
The Other Side Magazine, April 1985, “Propaganda, Words, and the Word.”
Society of Biblical Literature, Pacific Coast Region, Student Essay Prize in Hebrew Bible, Spring 1999, “An Investigation of the Intertextuality of the Call Narratives of Isaiah and Jeremiah.”
“The Priestly Ideology of the Septuagint Translator of Numbers 16-17.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 30.4 (2006): 421-429.
From Prophet to Priest: The Characterization of Aaron in the Pentateuch, Peeters Publishers: Leuven, Belgium, 2017.
"Student Creative Projects: Aural and Video Productions as Biblical Exegesis," SBL Forum, n.p. [cited July 2008].
Polished Apple Award, California State University, Northridge, May 2012, May 2016, April 2017. Student Nominated Award for Teaching Excellence.
Awards/Honors
College of Humanities Golden Apple Award 2012 (read the full article)
Blog:
Dr. Findlay also has his own blog, "Spiritual Exploration," which focuses on spiritual practice and discernment. The blog can be found at: http://spiritualexploration.wordpress.com
Lecturer
Email: elaine.goodfriend@csun.edu
Biography
Dr. Elaine Goodfriend is a lecturer at California State University, Northridge and teaches courses in History, Jewish Studies, and Religious Studies. Elaine Adler Goodfriend has a B.A. in Semitic Languages and Literatures from Cornell University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from U.C. Berkeley. She has taught at CSUN for the past sixteen years, and has taught at other local universities, including Loyola Marymount, the American Jewish University, and Claremont Graduate School.
Research and Teaching Interests
Her interests are the Hebrew Bible and Jewish History.
Selected Publications
Elaine’s most recent publication is the entry, “Ethical Theories in the Bible,” for The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Ethics and Morality, edited by Elliot Dorff (publication forthcoming). She has published articles in the Anchor Bible Dictionary, The Torah: A Women's Commentary, and The Cambridge Dictionary of Jewish History, Religion, and Culture.
Lecturer
Email: timothy.kuns@csun.edu
Lecturer
Office: Santa Susana Hall 239
Phone: 818-677-2741
Email: rick.talbott@csun.edu
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.
Lecturer
Email: albert.tevanyan@csun.edu
Lecturer
Email: ingrid.wilkerson@csun.edu