Martin, Troy W. 1953–

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Martin, Troy W. 1953–

(Troy Wayne Martin)

PERSONAL: Born March 15, 1953, in Seminole, TX; son of Troy Sibbley Martin and Lavalta Ruth (Floyd) Martin; married Sheryl Mae Couch, June 23, 1974; children: Andrea Valen, Amie Danae. Education: Southern Nazarene University, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1974, M.A. (summa cum laude), 1978; Nazarene Theological Seminary, M.Div. (magna cum laude), 1980; University of Chicago, Ph.D., 1990.

ADDRESSES: Home—513 Cleveland Ave., Bourbonnais, IL 60914-2229. Office—Saint Xavier University, 3700 W. 103rd St., Chicago, IL 60655. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: First Church of the Nazarene, Atchison, KS, pastor, 1979–81; Church of the Nazarene, Lemont, IL, associate pastor, 1982–88; Olivet Nazarene University, Kankakee, IL, assistant professor, 1988–91; Saint Xavier University, Chicago, IL, assistant professor, 1991–94, associate professor, 1994–2001, professor of religious studies, 2001–.

MEMBER: Society of Biblical Literature, American Academy of Religion, Wesleyan Theological Society, Chicago Society for Biblical Research.

AWARDS, HONORS: Baker Book House Distinguished Achievement Award, 1974; Biblical Languages Award, American Bible Society, 1980; Lilly grant, 1991; teaching incentive grants, 1993, 1992, CEP research grants, 1995 and 1997, Excellence in Scholarship awards, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, CEP development grants, 1998, 2000, and 2001, CEP faculty research initiative grants, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, Dean's summer stipend for scholarly Development, 1999, 2001, 2002, Dean's fund for scholarly development, 2000, CEP collaborative research grants, 2000, 2001, and School of Arts and Sciences Teacher/Scholar Award, 2000, all from Saint Xavier University; Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst scholarship, 1998.

WRITINGS:

Metaphor and Composition in First Peter, Scholars Press (Atlanta, GA), 1992.

By Philosophy and Empty Deceit: Colossians as Response to a Cynic Critique, Sheffield Academic Press (Sheffield, England), 1996.

(With Avis Clendenen) Forgiveness: Finding Freedom through Reconciliation, Crossroad (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to books, including Judgment Day at the White House: A Critical Declaration Exploring Moral Issues and the Political Use and Abuse of Religion, edited by Gabriel Fackre, William B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1999; Antiquity and Humanity: Essays on Ancient Religion and Philosophy Presented to Hans Dieter Betz on His Seventieth Birthday, edited by Adela Yarbro Collins and Margaret M. Mitchell, J.C.B. Mohr/Paul Siebeck, 2001; Paul and Pathos, edited by Thomas H. Olbricht and Jerry L. Sumney, Society of Biblical Literature (Atlanta, GA), 2001; and The Galatians Debate, edited by Mark D. Nanos, Hendrickson (Peabody, MA), 2002. Contributor to journals, including Olivet Theological Journal, Pneuma and Praxis, Herald of Holiness, Wesleyan Theological Journal, Journal of Biblical Literature, Biblical Research, Novum Testamentum, Illustrated Bible Life, New Testa ment Studies, Expository Times, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, and Hermes: Zeitschrift für die klassische Philologie.

SIDELIGHTS: A religion professor at Saint Xavier University who teaches subjects that include the Reformation, medieval history, and theology, Troy W. Martin has also authored or contributed to several books. His first publication, Metaphor and Composition in First Peter, is based on his doctoral dissertation. In his analysis of the New Testament book, Martin explains it was actually an epistle and that the main metaphor running through I Peter is that of the diaspora. While reviewers of the book found Martin's scholarship impeccable, some felt that his conclusions are not entirely convincing. For example, in a review for the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Peter H. Davids called Metaphor and Composition in First Peter a "'must read' for those involved in research on I Peter," but also noted that the author "cannot do an exegesis of the Epistle thorough enough to lay doubts completely to rest." Journal of Biblical Literature contributor J. Ramsey Michaels similarly commented that while Martin's arguments for the diaspora metaphor achieve "mixed success," "many of the points he makes are worthy of consideration entirely apart from the merits of his major thesis."

In By Philosophy and Empty Deceit: Colossians as Response to a Cynic Critique Martin attempts to explain what lies behind another New Testament book. Most scholars view Colossians as Paul's response to an outside religious group attacking the Christian practices of the faithful in Collosae. Martin, according to Barry S. Crawford in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, takes a "radically different view," however, arguing that the critics of the Colossians were actually Cynics. To support his argument, the scholar relies on text from the original Greek to analyze the language of Colossians in ways that have not been done before. Although Crawford noted that the translation on which Martin relies, "if not completely idiosyncratic, differs sharply from the standard English versions," the critic concluded, "It would be hard to find a study whose author is more deeply immersed in the details of Colossians' vocabulary or the intricacies of its puzzling syntactical constructions. For this reason alone, no one interested in the problem of identifying the Colossian opponents can afford to overlook this book."

More recently, Martin collaborated with fellow Saint Xavier University professor Avis Clendenen to write Forgiveness: Finding Freedom through Reconciliation, which readdresses the Christian concept of forgiveness in the Bible. It is the authors' contention that forgiveness, in the Christian sense, is not a one-sided exercise; rather, reconciliation can only be achieved when two sides come together. However, Martin and Clendenen also recognize that sometimes direct interaction can be dangerous; in this case, they explain that God's help may be enlisted for help in forgiving others. As Stephen A. Schmidt reported in a Religious Education review, "the book ends with helpful, creative insights about the 'transferal' of ultimate forgiveness responsibility to God, followed by an engaging discussion of Purgatory." Schmidt concluded that all readers "will benefit from a serious reading of this carefully argued, well-written, and theologically profound explanation of this seminal doctrine in the Christian tradition."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Catholic Biblical Quarterly, July, 1993, Peter H. Davids, review of Metaphor and Composition in First Peter, pp. 594-595; April, 1997, Barry S. Crawford, review of By Philosophy and Empty Deceit: Colossians as Response to a Cynic Critique, pp. 386-387.

Journal of Biblical Literature, summer, 1993, J. Ramsey Michaels, review of Metaphor and Composition in First Peter, pp. 358-360; fall, 1998, F. Gerald Downing, review of By Philosophy and Empty Deceit, pp. 542-544.

Library Journal, March 15, 2002, Pam Matthews, review of Forgiveness: Finding Freedom through Reconciliation, p. 97.

Religious Education, winter, 2003, Stephen A. Schmidt, review of Forgiveness.

Religious Studies Review, July, 1993, Casimir Bernas, review of Metaphor and Composition in First Peter, p. 265; January, 1997, Ronald F. Hock, review of By Philosophy and Empty Deceit, p. 74.