Eugene Eung-Chun Park Ph.D.
Dana and David Dornsife Professor of New Testament
Theology
About Dr. Park
Eugene Eung-Chun Park is a NT scholar who specializes in interpreting both canonical and apocryphal early Christian literature from the perspective of Greco-Roman history, literature, and philosophy. He is especially interested in exploring the influence of Plato’s thought on earliest Christian writings.
The major areas of his academic interest are Matthew in the Jewish and Hellenistic context, life and theology of Paul, anti-imperial ideologies in the NT, issues of justice in the NT, theological diversity in early Christianity, etc. He is an active member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS).
At SFTS and GTU, he regularly teaches both introductory courses in Gospels and Pauline Epistles and advanced doctoral seminars on Matthew in context, New Perspectives on Paul, Parables of Jesus, and Reading Plato in Classical Greek. He is serving on the core doctoral faculty at the GTU and in that capacity he has supervised many MA and PhD students in New Testament.
He is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and as a Korean-American he maintains a close relationship with the theological and ecclesiastical communities in Korea.
Education
- Ph.D., Early Christian Literature, University of Chicago
- S.T.M., in New Testament, Yale Divinity School
- M.Div., Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Seoul
- B.A., English Education, Seoul National University
Professional Background
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Professor of New Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary (since 1996)
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Mentor at the summer research program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2011-19)
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Visiting Professor at Yonsei University School of Theology (2010)
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Senior Research Associate at Westminster College and the Divinity School at the University of Cambridge (2003)
Publications
Either Jew or Gentile: Paul’s Unfolding Theology of Inclusivity. (Westminster John Knox, 2003)
The Mission Discourse in Matthew's Interpretation (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1995)
Gospel for the World: Studies in the Acts of the Apostles (Korean Institute for Biblical Studies, 1997; in Korean)
“Dialectic of aletheia and eleutheria in Galatians,” in William Loader et al. eds. Matthew, Paul, and Others (University of Innsbruck Press, 2019), 121-136
“Covenantal Nomism and the Gospel of Matthew” in Catholic Biblical Quarterly 77 (2015), 668-685
“Cynic Itinerant Philosophers and Galilean Wandering Missionaries in Matthew” in Marvin Chaney et al. eds. Reading A Tendentious Bible (Sheffield Phoenix, 2014), 125-139
Awards and Service
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GTU Excellence in Teaching Award (2024)
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Wabash Institute Grant for Peer Mentoring Leadership, 2018
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Wabash Institute Theological Faculty Fellowship, 2009
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Luce Foundation fellowship for the IASACT at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004