Dr Chris Tilling

Title: Head of Research, Graduate Tutor, Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies

Centres:

London

Email: chris.tilling@stmellitus.ac.uk

Dr Chris Tilling is Head of Research, Graduate Tutor and Senior Lecturer at St Mellitus College. He is a research-active New Testament scholar with an internationally recognised publication record in Pauline studies and early Christology.

As Head of Research and Senior Lecturer at St Mellitus College, Dr Tilling shapes the College’s research strategy, directs its postgraduate and doctoral options, and helps foster a vibrant research culture among staff, students and Church of England ordinands. He has published widely—including the critically acclaimed Paul’s Divine Christology—and he is under contract for a commentary on 2 Corinthians (N ICNT) and a monograph on Romans.

Dr Tilling supervises and examines PhD students across the UK and North America and has overseen Britain’s largest theology MA cohort. His public-facing work (podcasts, media interviews, conference keynotes) delivers demonstrable research impact, while his bilingual profile and long-standing collaborations in Germany foster international networks.

Dr Tilling brings proven academic leadership, REF-ready outputs, extensive peer-review service, an inclusive and interdisciplinary teaching portfolio that spans face-to-face, hybrid and fully online delivery. He has also played a key role in the growth of SMC for the last 17 years and considers it a privilege to be part of such a vibrant, skilful and fun team.

Publications

Books

202X (Contracted) The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. NICNT. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, forthcoming.
202X (Contracted) Reading Romans (Cascade Companions). Eugene: Cascade, forthcoming.
2026 Editor (with Mitchell D. Mallary) of Eschatology & History: A Critical Engagement with N. T. Wright’s Gifford Lectures (forthcoming)
2025 Editor (with Darren Sumner) of The T&T Clark Handbook of Christology (London: Bloomsbury, 2025)
2015 New edition of Paul’s Divine Christology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015, with a foreword by Prof Douglas Campbell, Duke University.
2014 How God Became Jesus, co-authored with Michael F. Bird, Craig A. Evans, Simon J. Gathercole, and Charles E. Hill. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2014.
2014 Editor of Beyond Old and New Perspectives on Paul. Eugene, Or: Cascade, 2014, and author of three chapters: “Introduction”, “Campbell’s Apocalyptic Gospel and Pauline Athanasianism”, “Campbell’s Faith: Advancing the Pistis Christou Debate”.
2012 Paul’s Divine Christology. WUNT II. 323. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012

Journal Articles and review essays

2024 “Divine Unconditionality or a Staple Diet of Ifs and Buts? A Review of Paul and the Resurrection of Israel” Religious Studies Review Vol. 50, No. 3 (Fall, 2024): 547–551.
2022 “Down with This Sort of Thing: Seth Heringer and the End of the Historical-Critical Method” JTI 16.2 (2022): 275-292
2022 “White’s The Incarnate Lord: An Appreciative Interaction” Nova et Vetera 20, (2022): 629-648
2020 “Ziegler’s Militant Grace: A Review Essay” JRT 14 (2020): 307–316
2016 “From Adams’s critique of Wright’s historiography to Barth’s critique of religion: A review essay of Sam Adams’s The Reality of God and Historical Method”, TT, 73.2 (2016): 168–177
2016 “Review Article of Simon Gathercole, Defending Substitution: An Essay on Atonement in Paul.” JTS 67, no. 1 (2016): 251–54.
2016 “Paul, the Trinity and Contemporary Trinitarian Debates (in honour of Paul Fiddes)”, PJBR, 11 no. 1 (2016).
2015 “Paul and the Faithfulness of God. A Review Essay (Part 1)” Anvil 31, no. 1 (March 2015): 45–56; “Paul and the Faithfulness of God. A Review Essay (Part 2)” Anvil 31, no. 1 (March 2015): 57–69.
2011 “The Deliverance of God, and of Paul?” JSPL 1, no. 1 (2011): 85–101.
2008 “A Summary of ‘Formulating the Inspiration of Scripture in Light of Paul’s Theological Reasoning in 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1’.” Evangelikale Theologie 14, no. 1 (May 2008): 19-20.
2008 “Engaging Science in the Mode of Trust: Hans Küng’s ‘The Beginning of All Things’.” Zygon 43, no. 1 (March 2008): 195-210.

Chapters in edited volumes

2024 “Deconstruction and the New Testament” in Handbook on Postconservative Theological Interpretation (Eugene, Or.: Cascade, 2024)
2023 “The Value of CD 2 for Biblical Studies,” in Marty Folsom ed., Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics for Everyone. Volume 2: The Doctrine of God. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Academic, 2023: 325-329
2021 “Paul, Divine Christology, and the Trinity,” in Tilling, Chris, and Darren Sumner, eds. T&T Clark Companion to Christology. London: Bloomsbury T&TClark, 2025.
2021 “Freedom in Paul and Modernity,” in Begbie, Jeremy, Rathey, Markus and Chua, Daniel (Eds.) Theology, Music, and Modernity: Struggles for Freedom (Oxford: OUP, 2021)
2019 “Abraham in New Testament Letters,” in A. Adams, Sean and Domoney-Lyttle, Zanne (Eds.) Abraham in Jewish and Early Christian Literature. Library of Second Temple Studies (London: T&T Clark, 2019): 127-148
2018 “Paul, Christ, and Narrative Time,” in Torrance, Andrew B and McCall, Thomas H. (Eds.) Christ and the Created Order: Perspectives from Theology, Philosophy, and Science (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2018)
2018 “Paul the Trinitarian,” in Lincoln Harvey ed., Essays on the Trinity (Eugene, Or.: Cascade, 2018)
2017 “Knowledge Puffs Up, But Love Builds Up: The Apostle Paul and the Task of Dogmatics,” in Oliver D. Crisp and Fred Sanders (Eds.), The Task of Dogmatics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017)
2016 “Paul, Evil and Justification Debates,” in Keith, C. and Stuckenbruck, L. T. (Eds). in Evil in Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity (Tübingen: Mohr, 2016).
2012 “Ephesians and Christology” in Christ, Spirit and the Church: Essays in Honour of Max Turner, edited by Volker Rabens, I. H. Marshall and Cornelis Bennema (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012: 177-197).
2011 “Pneumatology and the New Testament.” In The Holy Spirit in the World Today, edited by Jane Williams, 151–66. London: Alpha International, 2011.
2008 “Tribes of Isra” In Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus, edited by Craig A. Evans, 662-64. London: Routledge, 2008.

Entries in reference volumes

“Tribes of Israel.” In Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus, edited by Craig A. Evans, 662-64. London: Routledge, 2008.

Book reviews and editorials

2023 Foreword for Jeff McSwain, Hidden in Contradiction.Eugene, Or: Cascade, 2023: ix-xviii
2020 Foreword for Michael Hardin, Knowing God? .Eugene, Or: Cascade, 2020: xi-xii
2020 “Review of Encountering the Living God in Scripture by W. Wright IV and F. Martin”, SJT (2020)
2018 “Review of Paul’s Eschatological Anthropology: The Dynamics of Human Transformation by Sarah Harding”, CBQ 80, no. 3: 528–29
2018 Editorial and review essay, “Paul and the Gift, by John Barclay”, Syndicate https://syndicate.network/symposia/theology/paul-and-the-gift/
2017 Editorial and review essay, “Christ is King, by Joshua Jipp”, Syndicate https://syndicate.network/symposia/biblical-studies/christ-is-king/
2016 “Review of Nelson, Sarisky, and Stratis, eds., TheologicalTheology: Essays in Honour of John B. Webster”, Regent’s Reviews 8, no. 1 (October 2016): 16–18.
2015 Editorial and review, “Jesus Against the Scribal Elite by Chris Keith”, Syndicate 2, no. 5 (September/October 2015): 154–57.
2015 Editorial, “Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism”, Syndicate 2, no. 3 (May/June 2015): 110–12.
2008 “Review of Hurtado’s How on Earth Did Jesus Become God?” Theology CXI, no. 860 (March/April 2008): 121-22.
2007 “Review of Hafemann’s Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel.” EJT 16, no. 2 (2007): 148-50.

Modules Taught

Introduction to the Bible
Bible in Context
Bible and Theology
Beginning Greek
Intermediate Greek
Further New Testament Studies (Galatians)
MA modules and classes

Areas of Interest

Christology
The Trinity
The Apostle Paul and his theology
Historical-critical exegesis
Karl Barth
Contemporary political discourse
Theology of Scripture