Dr Paul Jones
Principal of Trinity College Queensland and Lecturer in Old Testament and Homiletics
The Bible and education have been two lifelong interests of mine. I grew up as a missionary kid in Nigeria and Benin, and have spent most of my adult life studying and/or teaching the Bible, whether in high school classrooms, the pulpit, or something in between. Upon reflection, I’m grateful for the amazing opportunities I’ve had to study theology and be spiritually formed in Australia (MST, ACU), Canada (Regent College) and the UK (Durham University). Looking back over the past 20 years, it’s clear that the schools, churches, and higher educational institutions I’ve been drawn to have all been international communities of ecumenical diversity.
Looking forward, as Principal and Director of Education for Ministry, I am genuinely excited about what the future holds for Trinity College, for local congregations, and for the Uniting Church in Australia. When thinking about calling and vocation, I often defer to Frederick Buechner’s wise counsel: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” I am very pleased that at this point in my life, Trinity College Queensland is exactly such a place.
When I’m not at the College, I’m usually with the people I love most: my wife and two daughters. Ideally, at the beach.
Publications
Books
Sharing God’s Passion: Prophetic Spirituality (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2012), 284 + xvi pp.
Job’s Way Through Pain: Karma, Clichés and Questions (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2014), 103 + xiii pp.
Anonymous Prophets and Archetypal Kings: Reading 1 Kings 13 (London: T&T Clark, 2021), 246 + xxi pp.
Reviews
Mann, Thomas W., ‘The Book of the Former Prophets’ (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2012), xi + 443 pp. in Reviews in Religion and Theology (Nov, 2013)
Bodner, Keith, ‘Jeroboam’s Royal Drama’ (NY: OUP, 2012), 167 pp., in Theology (SPCK: Mar/Apr, 2013)
Penchansky, David, ‘Understanding Wisdom Literature: Conflict and Dissonance in the Hebrew Text’ (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 120 pp., in Reviews in Religion and Theology (Jan, 2013)
Joseph, Alison L., ‘Portrait of the Kings: The Davidic Prototype in Deuteronomistic Poetics’ Vetus Testamentum 67/1 (2017), pp 153-7
Yoon, Man Hee, The Fate of the Man of God from Judah: A Literary and Theological Reading of 1 Kings 13 (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2020), xvi + 169 pp., in Review of Biblical Literature 12/2020.
Chapters and Papers
‘Josiah as the Man of God from Judah: A Literary-Theological Reading of 1 Kings 13’, paper at SBL 2016 (Nov 19-22 in San Antonio, TX).
‘Your Word is a Lamp Unto My Feet (Ps 106.105): Preaching to Illuminate the Path’, paper at Australasian Academy of Homiletics (19-21 April, 2017 in Sydney, Australia)
‘The Power in Love: What was ‘Unconventional’ about Bishop Michael Curry’s Sermon?’ article for ABC Religion & Ethics (online; May 21, 2018)
‘Who is to Blame When We Are “Afflicted with Evil”? (Job 2.7): Pastoral Theology from the Book of Job’, paper at VOSE conference: Ancient Wisdom, Modern World (Aug 28-29 in Perth, Australia)
‘Deceiving the Man of God from Judah: A Question of Motive’ in Keith Bodner & Benjamin J.M. Johnson (eds), Characters and Characterization in 1-2 Kings (London: Bloomsbury, October 2019]
‘Divine Culpability and Human Response-Ability: Who is to Blame When We are “Afflicted by Evil” (Job 2:7)?’ in John Frederick and Ryan A. Brandt (eds.), Theological Interpretation of Scripture as Spiritual Formation (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, forthcoming in 2022).
Faculty
