Dennis Ronald MacDonald | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1946 (age 77–78) |
| Known for | Idea that the New Testament were responses to the Homeric Epics |
| Title | John Wesley Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Bob Jones University, McCormick Theological Seminary |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Thesis | (1978) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Biblical studies |
| Sub-discipline | New Testament studies |
| Institutions | Claremont School of Theology |
Dennis Ronald MacDonald (born 1946) is the John Wesley Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Claremont School of Theology in California. MacDonald proposes a theory wherein the earliest books of the New Testament were responses to the Homeric Epics, including the Gospel of Mark and the Acts of the Apostles. The methodology he pioneered is called Mimesis Criticism. If his theories are correct then "nearly everything written on [the] early Christian narrative is flawed."[1] According to him, modern biblical scholarship has failed to recognize the impact of Homeric Poetry.[1]
The other major branch of MacDonald's scholarly activity is his contribution to the Synoptic Problem. He calls his solution the Q+/Papias Hypothesis.