Michael Whitenton, Ph.D.
BIC Full-Time Lecturer
Baylor Interdisciplinary Core
BIC Courses: World of Rhetoric I & II, Examined Life I, II, & III
Michael Whitenton’s teaching and research focus on rhetoric, early Christianity, interfaith cooperation, and bridge-building. No matter the topic, Dr. Whitenton’s teaching aims at providing students with process-oriented transformative learning experiences that express the interrelatedness of the humanities and the social sciences and prepare students for lives of empathetic, service-oriented leadership wherever their individual callings might take them. Dr. Whitenton’s research focuses on the study of ancient & cognitive rhetorics, emotions, and early Christianity through the integration of more traditional research methods with work from linguistics, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and narratology. He is currently pursuing a series of projects exploring issues in characterization in early Christianity. Dr. Whitenton earned a Ph.D. in Religion from Baylor University (with a focus on ancient rhetoric) and completed a B.S. in Community Health from Texas A&M University. In his spare time, you will find him either playing with his family or running around Waco.
Recent Books:
Hearing Kyriotic Sonship: A Cognitive and Rhetorical Approach to the Characterization of Mark’s Jesus. Biblical Interpretation Series 148. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
Configuring Nicodemus: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Complex Characterization. Library of New Testament Studies. London: T&T Clark, 2019.
Recent Articles and Other Contributions:
Annotations for Philippians in The Baylor Annotated Study Bible. Edited by W.H. Bellinger and Todd D. Still. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press (2019).
“Tasting the Kingdom: Wine-drinking and Audience Inference in Mark 15:36,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 40 (2018): 403-23.
“The Dissembler of John 3: A Cognitive and Rhetorical Approach to the Characterization of Nicodemus,” Journal of Biblical Literature 135 (2016): 141–58.
“Feeling the Silence: A Moment-by-Moment Account of Emotions at the End of Mark (16:1-8),” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 79 (2016): 272–89.
“The Moral Development of the Boy Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 38 (2015): 219–40.