About
She/her
Public email:
cmehans2020@gmail.com
I have published in a wide variety of fields, predominantly in New Testament studies, but also work on Tolkien, modern controversies, and other topics.
In New Testament studies, I have specialized primarily on historical Jesus studies (especially the Christ Myth debate). However, my work has recently moved to issues of the historicity of the martyrdom traditions.
I professionally focus on Creative Writing outside of NT studies. I am currently applying for an MA in Creative Writing, and I hope to eventually teach it. I have edited for creative literature journals and magazines in the past, and I named the “Outstanding SVSU Graduate in Creative Writing” for my work (both in and out of classrooms).
My public scholarship currently has my legal name. That is my deadname and I’d appreciate it if you reference me as Chrissy or Christine, not my deadname.
Publications
ACADEMIC ARTICLES [P = Peer Reviewed]
Forthcoming “The Named Gods of Deuteronomy: Additional Comments on Deuteronomy 32:1–43.” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review [P]
Forthcoming “Popular History and Roman Provenance: A Discussion of the Works of Atwill, Piso, Gallus, and Davis.” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review [P]
Forthcoming with Kamil Gregor. “Mytho-Historical Heroes: The Raglan Archetype in Application to Ancient Mediterranean Persons.” Literature & Aesthetics [P]
Forthcoming “How Apologists Failed the Christ Myth Debate: An Analysis of Apologetic Arguments for Jesus’ Historicity and Their Weaknesses.” Hope’s Reason: A Journal of Apologetics [P]
Forthcoming “A Response to David Allen: Tacitus’s Supposed Use of Josephus and Larger Issues.” Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism [P]
Forthcoming “Creating the Home of Jesus: The Issue of Nazareth and Capernaum Revisited.” Journal of the Orthodox Center for the Advancement of Biblical Studies [P]
Forthcoming “The Myth of Martyrdom: On Paul’s Death and the Dating of Luke-Acts,” Journal of the Orthodox Center for the Advancement of Biblical Studies [P]
2023 “The Number of the Myth: A Defense of the Ahistoricity of the Neronian Persecution.” Journal of Early Christian History (2023), doi: 10.1080/2222582X.2023.2208316 [P]
2023 “The Indisputable Fact of the Baptism: The Problematic Consensus on John’s Baptism of Jesus.” Literature & Aesthetics 33, no. 1 (2023): 1–18 [P]
2023 “The Problem of Annals 15.44: On the Plinian Origin of Tacitus’ Information on Christians.” Journal of Early Christian History 13, no. 1 (2023): 62–80, doi: 10.1080/2222582X.2023.2173628 [P]
2023 “Christianity Without Christ: The Phenomenon of Christian Mythicists.” Fieldwork in Religion 18, no. 1 (2023): 37–52, doi: 10.1558/firn.24385 [P]
2022 “The Christ Myth Debate in Marxist Literature.” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 13, no. 2 (2022): 190–222, doi: 10.5840/asrr2022111594 [P]
2022 “The Many Gods of Deuteronomy: A Response to Michael Heiser’s Interpretation of Deut. 32:8–9.” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 13, no. 1 (2022): 76–94, doi: 10.5840/asrr202261792 [P]
2022 “An Examination of Joel Edmund Anderson’s Christianity and the (R)evolution in Worldviews.” Literature & Aesthetics 31, no. 2 (2021): 158–88 [P]
2022 “The Monstrous Feminine: Ungoliant, Shelob, and Women in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth.” Crossroads: A Journal of English Studies 34 (2021): 4–15, doi: 10.15290/10.15290/CR.2021.34.3.01 [P]
2022 “Re-examining the Pre-Christian Jesus.” Journal of Early Christian History 12, no. 2 (2022): 17–40, doi: 10.1080/2222582X.2021.2001667 [P]
2022 “You Invent for Yourselves a Trypho: Addressing Radical Reinterpretations of Trypho and Canonical and Non-Canonical Scriptures.” Journal of Biblical Theology 5, no. 2 (2022): 115–140 [P]
2021 “The Grievance Studies Hoaxes in Retrospect: The Issues and the Ethics of the Affair.” Northern Plains Ethics Journal 9 (2021): 127–142 [P]
2021 “Romans 1:3 and the Celestial Jesus: A Rebuttal to Revisionist Interpretations of Jesus’ Descendance From David in Paul.” McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry 22 (2020-2021): 31–60 [P]
2021 “Lord Raglan’s Hero and Jesus: A Rebuttal to Methodologically Dubious Uses of the Raglan Archetype.” Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 16 (2020): 129–149 [P]
2021 “An Evaluation of the Neo-Dutch Radical School of New Testament Criticism.” The Journal of Biblical Theology 4, no. 2 (2021): 240–264 [P]
2021 “Jesus’ Historicity and Sources: The Misuse of Extrabiblical Sources for Jesus and a Suggestion.” The Journal of Biblical Theology 4, no. 3 (2021): 139–162 [P]
2020 “The Christ and the Discourse: A Critique of the Historiographical and Rhetorical Trends in the Christ Myth Debate.” Northern Plains Ethics Journal 8 (2020): 97–123 [P]
2019 “A Thracian Resurrection: Is Zalmoxis a Dying-Rising God who Parallels Jesus?” Journal of Higher Criticism 14, no. 4 (2019): 70–98
BOOK REVIEWS
2023 Review of Wolfram Kinzig, Christian Persecution in Antiquity, trans. Markus Bockmeuhl (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2021) in Journal of Early Christian History (2023). doi: 10.1080/2222582X.2023.2278505
2023 Review of James Crossley and Robert J. Myles, Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict (Winchester: Zer0 Books, 2023) in Canadian-American Theological Review 12, no. 1 (2023): 105–8.
2023 Review of Jonathan Bernier, Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament: The Evidence for Early Composition (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2022) in Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 18 (2022): R7–12.
2023 Review of Gary R. Habermas, Risen Indeed: A Historical Investigation into the Resurrection of Jesus (Bellingham: Lexham Academic, 2021) in McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry (2021–2022): R81–6.
2022 Review of Robyn Faith Walsh. The Origins of Early Christian Literature: Contextualizing the New Testament Within Greco-Roman Literary Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021) in Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 18 (2022): R1–6.
2022 Review of James F. McGrath, What Jesus Learned from Women (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2021) in The McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry 22 (2020-2021): R89–92.
2022 Review of Joel Marcus, John the Baptist in History and Theology (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2018) in The McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry 22 (2020-2021): R93–8.
2021 Review of Richard C. Carrier, Jesus From Outer Space: What the Earliest Christians Really Believed about Christ (Durham: Pitchstone Publishing, 2020) in The McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry 22 (2020-2021): R1–6.
2021 Review of Raphael Lataster, Questioning the Historicity of Jesus: How a Philosophical Analysis Elucidates the Historical Discourse (Leiden: Rodopi/Brill, 2019) in The McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry 21 (2019–2020): R75–79.
Projects
Nine more works in submission.
Several more in development. These include several co-written articles. Memberships
Canadian-American Theological Society
