Eddie Ellis

Dr. Ellis teaches in the Department of Biblical Studies. His professional areas of interest include Pauline Studies and narrative criticism of the Gospels.

He grew up in the orange groves of central Florida and did his undergraduate work at Stetson University in Deland, Florida (BA, English, 1986). Feeling a call to the ordained ministry, he sought training at Asbury Seminary (MDiv, 1991). After serving seven and a half years as a pastor in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, he came to believe that he was called to a ministry of teaching. He returned to school for the necessary training, studying at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology (ThM, 1999) and Baylor University (PhD, 2005). After a year of part-time teaching at Baylor, he accepted a full-time position at Olivet in 2006. He remains an ordained United Methodist Elder under appointment of the Florida Area bishop. (That means that, by making the job his appointment, the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church gives its official approval to Dr. Ellis’s working at Olivet.)

Dr. Ellis’s publications include Paul and Ancient Views of Sexual Desire (2007); scholarly journal articles; online reviews of academic books; presentations at scholarly conferences; a chapter in The Long Journey Home: Understanding and Ministering to the Sexually Abused (2011); Good Boy, Achilles! (2016), a work of Christian fiction for children; and an entry in the Global Wesleyan Dictionary of Biblical Theology (forthcoming).

In his free time, Dr. Ellis enjoys fishing, hunting, singing, writing, and spending time with his wife, Terri, and their two sons.