Jason Whitlark, Ph.D.

Dr. Jason Whitlark joined the BIC faculty in 2007. He advanced to the rank of Associate Professor in 2014 and Full Professor in 2019. From 2013-2022, he served as the Faculty Assistant Director of the BIC.  He did his undergraduate in molecular biology at Auburn University. He studies divinity at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament from Baylor's Religion Department. 

Dr. Whitlark regularly teaches World Cultures I, Biblical Heritage and Contemporary Ethical Issues, Capstone courses for the BIC. He has taught Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles, Jesus and the Gospels, New Testament Interpretation, and Paul and His Writings for the Religion Department. From 2024-2026 has directed the Baylor in Greece and Türkiye program in the summers. Dr. Whitlark has been a Teaching Fellow for the Academy of Teaching and Learning that explored flipped classrooms pedagogical methods. 

Dr. Whitlark research interests largely revolve around the Letter the Hebrews. He has explored the understanding of divine enablement in Hebrews, its intersection with Roman imperialism, its adaptation of classical rhetoric including it implementation of humor, its soteriology and eschatology, and its reception by the church in various periods of church history.  Dr. Whitlark has published four books and an edited volume along with numerous articles and chapters. He received the award for Outstanding Research Faculty Member in 2014 and has been admitted into the Society for New Testament Studies.  His books include:

• Enabling Fidelity to God: Perseverance in Hebrews in Light of the Reciprocity Systems of the Ancient Mediterranean Milieu (Paternoster 2008)
• "Getting Saved": The Whole Story of Salvation in the New Testament (with Charles Talbert, Eerdmans 2011)
• Resisting Empire: Rethinking the Purpose of the Letter to "the Hebrews" (T&T Clark 2014)
• Interpretation and the Claims of the Text: Resourcing New Testament Theology (edited with Bruce W. Longenecker, Lidija Novakovic, and Mikeal C. Parson, Baylor University Press 2014)
• Inventing Hebrews: Design and Purpose in Ancient Rhetoric (with Michael W. Martin, Cambridge University Press 2018)