Dr. Glen L. Thompson
Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Historical Theology, Asia Lutheran Seminary (Hong Kong)
Visiting Professor of History, Wisconsin Lutheran College (Milwaukee, WI)
Dr. Thompson served as Professor of History at Wisconsin Lutheran College from 2002 to 2011 when he moved to Hong Kong to join the faculty of Asia Lutheran Seminary. He served as the Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament and Historical Theology there until his retirement in 2019. After graduating from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary with an M.Div. degree in 1977, he spent six years in Lusaka, Zambia where he served as a pastoral advisor for numerous churches and a teacher at the Bible Institute and Seminary of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa. He moved with his family to New York City in 1983 when he enrolled at Columbia University. There he earned his M.A., M.Phil, and Ph.D. (1990) degrees in ancient history while starting and pastoring a Lutheran congregation in Manhattan. From 1992 to 1997 he served on the faculty of Michigan Lutheran Seminary (Saginaw, MI). He served as director of the Multi-Ethnic Pre-Seminary Program based at Martin Luther College (New Ulm, MN) from 1997-2002. He moved to Wisconsin Lutheran College (Milwaukee, WI) in 2002 where he and his students founded the www.fourthcentury.com website in 2007. In his retirement he lives in Milwaukee and continues to work with students to expand the website as well as other writing and research.
Education
- B.A., Northwestern College
- M.Div., Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary
- M.A., M. Phil. Ph.D., Columbia University
Current Academic Interests/Specialties
- The early Christian church, especially the early papacy
- Greek and Latin Paleography and textual criticism
- The Acts of the Apostles
- Christianity in Tang and Yuan Dynasty China
- Oral/Aural pedagogy of Koine Greek
- Early house churches
- The Roman road system as used by St. Paul
Professional Organizations
- Evangelical Theological Society (Chair of the Patristics Study Section, 1998-2008)
- Institute for Biblical Research
- North American Patristic Society
- Society of Biblical Literature
Recent Seminars
- 2010 — NEH Summer Seminar Award; American Academy in Rome: The Falls of Rome, National Endowent for the Humanities (Rome, Italy)
- 2008 — Summer Seminar on the Material Culture of the New Testament World, Crissler Library (Ephesos, Turkey)
Website
Recent Publications
Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishers, 2024.
In This Way We Came to Rome: With Paul on the Appian Way. Bellingham WA: Lexham Press, 2024.
Readings from the Ancient and Medieval Church (to A.D. 1400). Chinese edition: Hong Kong: Taosheng, 2022; English Edition: Kindle e-book and paperback.
“The Cross and Jingjiao Theology,” in Silk Road Traces: Studies on Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia (Vienna: LIT, 2022), 355-374.
“Bible Study from the Middle Ages to the Reformation: Caricature and Reality,” Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly 3 (2022), pp. 196-206.
“Did Christianity (or St. Thomas) Come to First-Century China?,” in Byzantium to China: Religion, History and Culture on the Silk Roads. Studies in Honour of Samuel N.C. Lieu (editors K. Parry and G. Mikkelsen). Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 519-545.
The Church of the East in Central Asia and China, S. Lieu and G. Thompson eds. China and the Mediterranean World 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2020).
“Strange Teaching in a Strange Land,” in The Church of the East in Central Asia and China, S. Lieu and G. Thompson eds. China and the Mediterranean World 1 (Brepols, 2020), pp. 143-162.
“The Structure of the Xi’an Stele,” in Artifact, Text, Context. Studies on Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia, Li Tang and D. Winkler eds. (LIT, 2020), pp. 161-193.
History of the Ancient and Medieval Church (to A.D. 1400) (Chinese edition: Hong Kong: Taosheng, 2019; English edition Kindle ebook and Kindle paperback, 2019).
“The Daughter of the Word: What Luther Learned from the Early Church and the Fathers,” Perichoresis, 17.4 (2019), pp. 41-56.
Evangelical Christianity and the Chinese Church (Chinese edition: Hong Kong: Taosheng, 2018; English edition Kindle ebook and Kindle paperback, 2018).
“The Route of Paul’s Second Journey in Asia Minor” (with Mark Wilson), Tyndale Bulletin (forthcoming 2017)
“Paul’s Walk to Assos: A Hodological Inquiry into its Geography, Archaeology, and Purpose” (with Mark Wilson), in Stones, Bones and the Sacred: Festschrift for Dennis Smith (SBL, 2016), 269-313
The Correspondence of Julius I: Critical Text, Translation, and Historical Commentary, Library of Early Christianity (Catholic University of America Press, 2015).
Bible Background: Geography, History, and Daily Life in Bible Times (in Chinese: Hong Kong: Taosheng Publishing, 2015)
“The Pax Constantiniana and the Roman Episcopate,” in Studies in the Early Papacy, G. Dunn, ed. (Burlington VT: Ashgate Publ., 2015), 17-36
“Bauer’s Early Christian Rome and the Development of ‘Orthodoxy’,” in Orthodoxy and Heresy in Early Christian Contexts, P. Hartog, ed., (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2015), 213-234
“From Sinner to Saint? Seeking a Consistent Constantine,” in Rethinking Constantine: History, Theology, and Legacy, E. Smithers, ed., (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2014), pp. 5-25
“Introduction,” in 《 (Justin Martyr, Collected Works), 翻译：石敏敏, (Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing, 2014), 1-16
“What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate: Paul and Barnabas at Lystra— Seen from Wauwatosa,” in Heritage and Hope: Essays in Honor of the 150th Anniversary of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, edited by Cherney, Kenneth A, (Milwaukee WI: Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Press, 2013), 105-134
“How the Jingjiao Became Nestorian.” In From the Oxus River to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia, Li Tang & Dietmar W. Winkler, eds. Orientalia-Patristica-Oecumenica 5 (Wien: LIT Verlag, 2013), 417-439
“Catacombs,” “Chinese Christianity,” “Eusebius of Caesarea,” “Konstantin von Tishendorf,” in The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization (London: Blackwells, 2011)
“Evangelicals and the Quest for the Historical Church: A Lutheran Response,” in The Contemporary Church and the Early Church, Paul Hartog, ed. (Wipf and Stock, 2010)
“Was Alopen a Missionary?,” in Hidden Treasures and Intercultural Encounters: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia; Dietmar Winkler and Li Tang, eds. (Wien: Lit Verlag, 2009), pp. 267-278
“Introduction,” in 《论道成肉身》, [古罗马]阿塔那修 著 (Athanasius, On the Incarnation), 翻译：石敏敏, (Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing, 2009), 1-14
Recent Papers and Presentations
Paul’s Arrival in Italy: From Puteoli to Rome, Society for Biblical Literature Annual Meeting (San Antonio TX) (2023)
Early Christian Travel in Macedonia and Greece, Milwaukee Area Biblical Archaeology Society (Milwaukee WI) (2023) [vimeo]
The 10 Vows in the Book of Lord Messiah (with Angus Cheung Kwok Fai), 7th Salzburg International Conference on the Church of the East in China and Central Asia, Samarkand, Uzbekistan (2023)
St. Paul’s Prison Journey: Capua to Rome, Milwaukee Area Biblical Archaeology Society (Milwaukee WI) (2023) [https://vimeo.com/showcase/8888661]
Christian Compassion Through The Centuries, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Annual Symposium (Mequon WI) (2022)
New Research on the Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431), Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (Fort Worth TX) (2021)
And So We Came to Rome: Sinuessa to Rome, Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (San Diego CA) (2019)
Early Christianity in China: An Analysis of Recent Developments, Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (San Diego CA) (2019)
The Scandal of the Cross in the Jingjiao Mission, 6th Salzburg International Conference on Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia (Almaty, Kazakhstan) (2019)
Creeds, Councils and Controversies: Patristic Confessions as Models for Luther and Today, Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (Providence RI) (2017)
Where St. Paul Really Traveled, University of Evansville (Evansville IN) (2017)
Early House Churches from the Ground Up, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (Mequon WI) (2017)
Ἐκκλησία and Ὀικία: Understanding Early House Churches, Milwaukee Area Biblical Archaeology Society (Milwaukee WI) (2017)
The Structure of the Stele, 5th Salzburg International Conference on the Church of the East in China and Central Asia, Salzburg, Austria (2016)
The Epitaphium Liberii – Anatomy of a Debate, North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting, Chicago (2016)
Ecclesia and Oikia: Revisiting the Pauline House Church, Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (Atlanta, GA) (2015)
Strange Teaching from a Strange Land: Foreignness, Heresy, and Our Understanding of the Jingjiao and Yelikewenjiao, International Conference on Jingjiao (Hong Kong University, 2015)
Journey to the East: Christianity in China in the Tang and Yuan Dynasties, University Museum and Art Gallery (Hong Kong University, 2015)
From Jerusalem to Luoyang: Did Christianity (or Judaism) Arrive in 1st-Century China?, Asia Society (Hong Kong) (2015)
Using the Aural/Oral Approach to Biblical Greek in Asia: A Case Study from Hong Kong, Society for Biblical Literature Annual Meeting (San Diego, CA) (2014)
Upgrading our Maps of Paul’s First Asia Minor Journey: Methodology, Practice, Conclusions, Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (San Diego, CA) (2014)
Localizing the Projected Route of Paul’s Second Journey in Anatolia (poster, together with Dr. Mark Wilson), Pathways of Communication: Roads and Routes in Anatolia from Prehistory to Seljuk Times, British Instiute in Ankara, Ankara, Turkey (2014)
Did Christianity Come to Han China? 4th Salzburg International Conference on the Church of the East in China and Central Asia, Salzburg, Austria (2013)
Did Jesus Have A Wife? Asia Lutheran Seminary, Honk Kong (2012)
Re-evaluating Constantine: Simul Iustus et Peccator, Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (Milwaukee, WI) (2012)
The Role of Rome in the Development of ‘Orthodoxy’, Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (San Francisco, CA) (2011)
The Pax Constantiniana and the Roman Episcopate, 14th International Conference of Patristics Studies (Oxford, UK) (2011)
Visualizing Early Roman Christianity, Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (Atlanta, GA) (2010)
Jingjiao: Die erste christliche Kirche in China, Staatsunabhängige Theologische Hochschule Basel (Basel, Switzerland) (2010)
How the Jingjiao Became Nestorian, Third International Conference on the Church of the East in China and Central Asia (Salzburg Austria) (2009)
Work in Progress
- Ancient sources on the Council of Nicaea (325)
- Chronology and translations of documents leading up to the Council of Ephesus (431)
- The Correspondence of Liberius: A Critical Edition and Translation
- Early Christian House Churches
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