Matthew Korpman

Photo of Matthew Korpman

Department of Theology and Religion
Doctoral researcher

Contact details

Email
mxk136@student.bham.ac.uk

PhD title: Foolish Wisdom: Rediscovering the Parable of the Ten Virgins
Supervisors: Professor Candida Moss and Professor Charlotte Hempel
PhD Theology and Religion

Qualifications

  • Master of Arts in Religion in Second Temple Judaism (Yale Divinity School)
  • Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies (La Sierra University)
  • Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology (La Sierra University); Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (La Sierra University)
  • Bachelor of Fine Arts in Screenwriting (La Sierra University)

Biography

Matthew Korpman received four undergraduate degrees (and one minor) from La Sierra University between 2013-2018, graduating with a 3.98 GPA, before being accepted as a masters student at Yale University’s Divinity School to pursue studies in Second Temple Judaism under the direction of John J. Collins. After graduating in 2020, having studied under various scholars (including Harold Attridge, Miroslav Volf, Gregory Mobley, and S. Mark Heim), he was accepted into the PhD program (focused in New Testament) at the University of Birmingham under the supervision of Candida Moss and Charlotte Hempel.

He has worked as a student pastor and student university chaplain during his undergraduate years, and has served as an itinerant preacher for various churches within and outside Seventh-day Adventism during his graduate studies.

Teaching

Matthew Korpman has taught classes both online and in-person at La Sierra University’s HMS Richards Divinity School in a range of subjects, including: Readings in Scripture (Hebrew Bible), Introduction to the New Testament, the Historical Jesus, Theology 1: Doctrine of Inspiration, and Postmodernism.

Research

Matthew J. Korpman’s thesis involves a close reading of Matt. 25:1-13 (along with its adjacent parables), reconsidering it’s conceptual world in light of contemporary Jewish and Roman evidence. It also involves reconstructing the early reception history of the parable from the first few centuries of Christian history.

Other activities

Conference presentations

  • “It is A Mystery: Ellen White’s Evolving View of Animals and the Imago Dei,” Adventist Society for Religious Studies 2021 Meeting
  • “Love As Both Communal and Particular: How Christianity Embodies the Common Good,” ​Society of Adventist Philosophers 2021 Meeting
  • “And He Took Up His Discourse: Arguments for the Independence of 1 Enoch 1-5,” ​Society of Biblical Literature 2021 Annual Meeting
  • “He is Going Ahead of You to Galilee: Mark 16:1-8 and the Fate of Judas Iscariot,” ​University of Birmingham Biblical Studies Seminar 2021
  • “Antiochus Epiphanes in 1919: Ellen White, Daniel, and the Books of the Maccabees,” ​Adventist Society for Religious Studies 2019 Meeting
  • “Do Not Do What You Hate: Tobit, the Gospel of Thomas, and the Question of Matthew 7:12,” ​Society of Biblical Literature 2019 International Meeting
  • Panelist on session reviewing William Johnson’s book “Where Are We Headed?” Adventist Society for Religious Studies 2017 Meeting

Membership of organisations

  • 2021 – Present: member of Society of Adventist Philosophers (SAP)
  • 2017 – Present: member of Adventist Society for Religious Studies (ASRS)
  • 2017 – Present: member of Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)
  • 2018 – Present: inducted member of Sigma Tau Delta (honors society for English)
  • 2017 – Present: inducted member of Alpha Mu Gamma (honors society for Language Study)
  • 2014 – Present: inducted member of Theta Alpha Kappa (honors society for Religion)
  • 2013 – 2018: part of Honors Program at La Sierra University

University sponsored trips

  • 2016: 6 weeks studying Hebrew in Jerusalem, Israel
  • 2015: 3 weeks studying Religious Diversity in Singapore and Malaysia

Publications

Books

  • Saying No to God: How to Read the Bible Radically and Faithfully (Orange, CA: Quoir, 2019).

Articles and book chapters

  • “Preaching A Black Christ: Doing Black Theology with Ellen White,” in A House On Fire: Why Anti-Racism Is An Adventist Christian Imperative, eds. Nathan Brown and Maury Jackson (Signs Publishing, forthcoming 2022)
  • “William Foy and the Apocrypha: Demonstrating Ellen White’s Early Belief in the Authority of 2 Esdras,” Adventist Today (TBA 2022)
  • “More Than An Afterthought: Assessing Seventh-day Adventist Efforts to Address Climate Change,” Adventist Today 30.1 (2022)
  • “When God Wants Dis/obedience: Wrestling with Genesis 22,” Adventist Today 29.3 (2021): 12-15
  • “The Protestant Reception of the Apocrypha,” in the Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha, ed. Gerbern Oegema (Oxford University Press, forthcoming May 2021), 74-93
  • “Fighting the Divine: Relational Theology as Confrontational,” in Partnering with God, eds. Thomas Jay Oord, Bonnie Rambob, Tim Reddish, and Fran Stedman (SacraSage, 2021), 37-42
  • “Doubt Everything,” in Before You Lose Your Mind: Deconstructing Bad Theology, ed. Keith Giles (Quoir, 2021), 57-69
  • “Antiochus Epiphanes in 1919: Ellen White, Daniel, and the Books of the Maccabees,” Adventist Today 28.2 (2020): 30-33
  • “Forgotten Scriptures: Allusions and Quotations by Ellen White to the Apocrypha,” Spes Christiana 31.2 (2020): 109-146
  • "Una breve historia de los apócrifos en el adventismo,” Memrah 2 (2020): 73-88
  • “Dan Shall Judge: The Danites and Iron Age Israel’s Connection with the Denyen Sea People.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 44.3 (2020): 490-499
  • “Teaching the Documentary Hypothesis,” Didaktikos: Journal of Theological Education 3.3 (2019): 30-31
  • “Can Anything Good Come from Sodom? A Feminist and Narrative Critique of Lot’s Daughters in Gen. 19:30-38.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43.3 (2019): 334-342
  • “Adventism’s Hidden Book: A Brief History of the Apocrypha,” Spectrum 46.1 (2018): 33-55."