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Welcome to Season 4, Episode 24 of What Matters Most! In this episode I speak with Dr. Meredith Warren. Dr. Warren is Senior Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies at University of Sheffield and the Director of the Sheffield Centre for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies. She took up her position in Sheffield in 2015. She was educated at McGill University and is a Metis citizen, born in Vancouver. Her research areas include gender; the senses; anti-Semitism; and apocalyptic literature. This episode focuses on a book Dr. Warren edited with Eric Vanden Eykel and Sarah Rollens, Judeophobia and the New Testament: Texts and Contexts (Eerdmans, 2025). (I improperly mentioned Shayna Sheinfeld as a co-editor at one point in the podcast, so my apologies to Sarah Rollens! Shayna, as you will see below, is a co-editor of another book with Meredith.) This book covers a perennial and significant topic for readers of the New Testament, whether people in the pew, people preaching from the pulpit, or students and scholars of the New Testament.

Dr. Warren has written many articles, book chapters, and books, some of which I will note below, but do check out her faculty page at Sheffield or her Wikipedia page for more information. Her co-authored textbook, with Sara Parks, and Shayna Sheinfeld, Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean, won the Frank W. Beare Award from the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies in 2023. She is the author of many articles and book chapters, and books, including the book with one of my favourite titles, My Flesh is Meat Indeed: A Non-Sacramental Reading of John 6: 51–58 (Fortress Press, 2015).

I started studying Judaism and Christianity in the early 1980s and four decades later, the same conversations about Judeophobia are necessary, which could be seen as depressing, which I sometimes feel about these issues, but Meredith also gave me a lot of hope. There are a lot of young scholars facing these issues head on in this book, and older scholars too, but they are naming the problems and challenging us not to turn away from the necessary work that we all need to do. That in itself is hopeful. But it was also hopeful to hear Meredith talk about the fact that this work does have positive repercussions, especially for people falling into Judeophobic tropes and stereotypes without knowing it. Teaching does genuinely help. A book like this can genuinely help. Yes, as Meredith said, there are bad actors, who will engage in hateful speech and hateful behaviour precisely because it is hateful behaviour, but a book like this, or a teacher or preacher inspired by this research, might be able to turn people away from imbibing this hateful rhetoric and allowing it to take root. Let’s be hopeful. Each of us can be a sign of goodness by countering Judeophobic readings of the New Testament and by speaking against them when we read them or hear them. I came away from my conversation with Dr Meredith Warren inspired. I hope you will too! I also want to note the scholar Jonathan Judaken, whom Meredith mentioned as infuential for choosing “Judeophobia” for thinking through these issues in the NT. You can find his work listed at the link above. In addition, Meredith mentioned an article “Confronting Judeophobia in the Classroom,” which you can find by clicking on the link!

Finally, you can find the document on Mean, Angry Old Testament God vs. Nice, Loving New Testament God? at the link. This appears as an appendix in the book, but was written by Eva Mroczek Spatz Chair of Jewish Studies, Dalhousie University (Halifax).

A few thanks are in order. First of all, I am grateful to Martin Strong, who guides me in the podcasting world and joins me for the Pop Culture Matters regularly. Second, the episodes are edited, engineered, and produced by Kevin Eng who is the first listener to all the episodes and my consultant for each episode, especially with the snippets that begin each episode. Thank you, Kevin, for all of your expertise and support and especially for saving this episode when I could not convert it to a listenable or viewable file. Finally, to the Fang Fang Chandra, the CCE assistant, who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly. June 8, the day I recorded with Meredith, was also Fang Fang’s birthday, so happy birthday Fang Fang!

I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas. If you are interested in donating yourself to the CCE, please check out the CCE website where you can find the donate button on the top right corner. We are a non-profit organization, and all donations over $20.00 are tax deductible.

Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Follow us at our Instagram page, @stmarkscce and drop us a line as to what you want to see or hear. We’ll post there with a question as to what you are most interested in. Or email us with your suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].

John W. Martens