Michal Beth Dinkler, an associate professor of New Testament and early Christian literature, has been appointed the next head of Timothy Dwight College.
By Kimberly Winston
They are questions every good Sunday school teacher knows to expect: Why does the New Testament include four gospels, telling the story of Jesus’s life four different ways? What was each author trying to persuade us of and did he succeed?
Those questions are central to the work of Michal Beth Dinkler, Associate Professor of New Testament and ancient Christianity at Yale Divinity School. This summer, Dinkler will be the one tackling those questions when she teaches The Danger of a Single Christian Story as part of the YDS Summer Study program.
“Every retelling of a story is an attempt to persuade in some way,” Dinkler said in a recent interview. “And these four gospels show us the importance of context, for the person who is telling the story and for the people to whom they’re telling it. Coming to any biblical text and trying to force it into one kind of capital ’T’ truth is an unimaginative way of understanding God’s work in the world. The New