J. Richard Middleton
Dr. J. Richard Middleton joined Global Scholars Canada in 2025. Richard is a biblical scholar who has explored the implications of Scripture for a Christian worldview. Born and raised in Jamaica, his left for graduate studies in Canada after earning a BTh degree from Jamaica Theological Seminary in Kingston. Richard earned an MA in philosophy from the University of Guelph, and a PhD from the Free University in Amsterdam through a joint programme with the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto.
Richard has served as a campus minister at six universities in Canada (Toronto, McMaster, Guelph, and Brock) and the USA (Syracuse and Rochester) before becoming professor of Old Testament at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in 1996. He then moved to Roberts Wesleyan University and Northeastern Seminary, where he taught for twenty-three years. Along the way he has served as an adjunct professor at Redeemer University, the Institute for Christian Studies, and the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology.
Richard has had the privilege of sharing his teaching on the Bible and the Christian worldview with audiences (in person and remote) in Canada, the USA, Scotland, England, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Jamaica, Belize, Slovakia, Israel, and South Korea. Key themes in his teaching include the Bible as one coherent story, the world as God’s good creation, humanity as imago Dei, the radical message of the prophets, the relationship of spirituality and justice, Jesus’s messianic mission, the gospel of the Kingdom, lament as a Christian response to suffering, and new creation eschatology (a new heaven and a new earth).
As an Old Testament scholar, he has focused on the books of Genesis, Exodus, Samuel, Job, and the Psalms. He has published articles on creation theology, eschatology, the problem of evil, the music of Bob Marley and the Wailers, and the dynamics of human and divine power in biblical narratives.
During graduate studies in Canada, while he was a campus minister, Richard coauthored two books with Brian Walsh, The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview (IVP, 1984) and Truth Is Stranger than It Used to Be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age (IVP, 1995).
He has since written The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Brazos, 2005), A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Baker Academic, 2014), and Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God (Baker Academic, 2021).
Richard is presently working on a book on the ethics of power in 1 Samuel, titled Portrait of a Disgruntled Prophet: Samuel’s Resistance to God and the Undoing of Saul (for Eerdmans), and is doing a complete rewrite of The Transforming Vision for a new era, called Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws: The Bible’s Liberating Worldview (for Baker Academic). Other books to follow include a study of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2–3 (for Cascade), biblical foundations of worship and liturgy (for IVP Academic), and how the infancy narratives of Matthew 1–2 draw on the Old Testament (publisher TBA).
Richard is past president of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (2019–2021) and the Canadian-American Theological Association (2011–2014). He is a Fellow of Every Voice: A Center for Kingdom Diversity in Christian Theological Education, under whose auspices he has mentored Majority World and American minority scholars. He has a particular interest in cross-cultural and transnational networking and has organized academic conferences in Jamaica, Canada, and the USA.
Richard is married to Marica, his teenage sweetheart (they met at church in Jamaica); because of their mixed cultural heritage, they regard themselves as “Jamericadians.” They have two sons, Andrew (who lives and works in Abu Dhabi) and Kevin (a physician assistant in western New York state).
Vision & Mission Statement:
My vision is that Christians might be empowered by the biblical worldview to discern their calling to participate in God’s purposes for the redemption of earthly life. In service of this vision, my mission is to raise the level of biblical literacy among Christian academics, pastors, and laypeople by immersing them in serious, yet inspiring and practical, study of Scripture.
Through my teaching and writing, I seek to help Christians:
1. Understand of the contours of the biblical worldview as a basis for holistic Christian life and ministry.
2. Critically analyze the church’s dualistic tradition concerning the relationship of the “sacred” to the “secular” in light of biblical faith.
3. Recognize the modern and postmodern idolatries that shape and guide contemporary western and global culture, which impinge on our lives.
4. Engage in self-evaluation about how the vision of Scripture relates both positively and critically to the whole of life.
5. Discern the scope of their calling to serve God and participate in his redemptive purposes in a broken and hurting world.
To facilitate the above, I draw on my published books and articles and my extensive teaching experience to inspire audiences of interested academics, pastors, and laypeople with the riches of Scripture and the relevance of the Bible’s worldview for all of life.