Marlin Directory


CraigS. Wansink

Craig S. Wansink

Professor of Religious Studies
Joan P. and Macon F. Brock, Jr. Director
of the Robert Nusbaum Center
Chair of Religious Studies


Degrees Held

B.S., Morningside College
M.Div, McCormick Seminary
M.A., Ph.D., Yale University

Office Location: 106 Robert Nusbaum Center, Clarke Hall
Phone: 757-455-3406
Email: cwansink@vwu.edu
Department/s:
- Religious Studies
- Robert Nusbaum Center

Dr. Wansink is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and the Joan P. and Macon F. Brock, Jr. Director of the Robert Nusbaum Center at Virginia Wesleyan University. He has his PhD in New Testament and Ancient Christianity from Yale University, and has studied at universities in Japan, Jordan, Germany, and Israel. His primary research interests are in New Testament and world religions. Dr. Wansink was raised in Sioux City, Iowa, where he studied economics as an undergraduate at Morningside University. He received his Master of Divinity degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and served churches in Illinois and Virginia. He is a member of the CIVIC Leadership Institute (2004), he serves on the Board of Trustees at Morningside University, and he regularly speaks in a variety of venues in Hampton Roads, including at the Joint Forces Staff College, at the Institute for Learning in Retirement, at local elementary schools and high schools, and at local churches, synagogues, arts centers, and civic organizations. In 1987 he was ordained as a Presbyterian (PCUSA) minister, and he serves as Senior Pastor at Second Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Virginia. Dr. Wansink and his wife, Nancy Chapman, make their home in Virginia Beach.

Research and Publications

(forthcoming; in page proofs but not yet printed) Forbidden Stories of the Bible: The Provocative and the Profane.

2019—Terry Lindvall, Craig Wansink, and John Lawing, Old Men of the Bible: Reflections on Faith and Aging (Smyth & Helwys, 2019)

2014—Review of The Christmas Encyclopedia, 3rd edition. William D. Crump. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, in The Journal of American Culture.

2014—“Imprisonment” essay in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Bible and Ethics (Robert Brawley, ed.; OUP: 2014)

2013— “Are There Atheists in Foxholes? Combat Intensity and Religious Behavior.” Co-authored with Brian Wansink, in Journal of Religion and Health, 52:3 (Sept), 768-79.

2013—Review of Picturing Disability: Beggar, Freak, Citizen, and Other Photographic Rhetoric. Robert Bogdan, with Martin Elks and James A. Knoll. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2012, in TheJournal of American Culture Vol. 36, Issue 2, 149-150

2010—“The Largest Last Supper: Depictions of Food Portions and Plate Size Increased Over the Millennium.” Co-authored with Brian Wansink, in International Journal of Obesity (34, April 2010), 943-944

2010—"Philemon," in John Muddiman and John Barton, ed., The Pauline Epistles (Oxford University Press, 2010)

2009—Exegesis essays on Mark 1:9-15 (pp. 39-40), Mark 8:31-38 (pp. 48-49), and John 2:13-22 (pp. 57-58) in Lectionary Homiletics (Vo. XX. No. 2, February-March 2009)

2008—Daily Dose of Knowledge: Bible, co-author (Lincolnwood, Illinois: West Side Publishing)

2007—Book review of David Hempton’s Methodism: Empire of the Spirit, in
The Journal of American Culture 30 (2), 250–251

2007—Exegesis essays in Lectionary Homiletics (June 2007).

2006—Article on “Papyrus,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication, and Media (Berkshire/Routledge Religion & Society Series; Routledge, 2006), 318-320.

2006—Article on “Translation,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication, and Media (Berkshire/Routledge Religion & Society Series; Routledge, 2006), 437-440.

2005—Exegesis essays in Lectionary Homiletics (May 2005).

2003—Exegesis essays in Lectionary Homiletics (November 2003).

2003—Article on “Roman Empire,” in S. Juss, C. Cookson, and D. Davis (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Religious Freedom(Berkshire/Routledge Religion & Society Series; Routledge, 2003).

2003—Article on “Prisons,” in S. Juss, C. Cookson, and D. Davis (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Religious Freedom(Berkshire/Routledge Religion & Society Series; Routledge, 2003).

2003—Book review of Jeffrey A. Trumbower’s Rescue for the Dead: The Posthumous Salvation of Non-Christians in Early Christianity (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001), in Journal of Early Christian Studies (2003).

2003—Book note on S. A. Cummins’ Paul and the Crucified Christ in Antioch: Maccabean Martyrdom and Galatians 1 and 2 (SNTS 114; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), in Religious Studies Review (29.1, January 2003).

2002—Book note on Markus Barth and Helmut Blanke’s The Letter to Philemon: A New Translation with Notes and Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), in Religious Studies Review(2002).

2002—Book note on Richard J. Cassidy’s Paul in Chains: Roman Imprisonment and the Letters of St. Paul (New York, New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2001), in Religious Studies Review (2003).

2002—Article entitled ”Faith of Our Neighbors: World Religions in Hampton Roads,” in C. Cookson (ed.), Religious/Freedom, Southern Style (Norfolk, VA: The Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, 2002), 68-77.

2002—Article entitled ”The ‘90s--A New Era,” Virginia Wesleyan Magazine, 8-9, Winter 2002.

2001—Commentary on "Paul's Letter to Philemon", in John Barton and John Muddiman (eds.), The Oxford Bible Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

2001—Book review of Peter W. Macky’s St. Paul’s Cosmic War Myth: A Military Version of the Gospel (New York: Peter Lang, 1998), in Religious Studies Review (Fall, 2001).

2001—Book review of Joseph A. Fitzmyer’s The Letter to Philemon (The Anchor Bible Series; New York: Doubleday, 2000), in Religious Studies Review (Fall, 2001).

2000—Article entitled "Roman Law and Legal Systems", in Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter (eds.), Dictionary of New Testament Background (InterVarsity Press, 2000).

1996—Monograph entitled Chained in Christ: The Experience and Rhetoric of Paul's Imprisonments (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996).

1996—Article entitled "'You Will Be Restored Again to Your Office:' Autobiographical Insights in The Shepherd of Hermas," in Alf Özen (ed.), Historische Wahrheit und theologische Wissenschaft (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1996), 71-86.

1992—Book Note on J. S. Jeffer's Conflict at Rome, Theology Today 49 (July 1992), 283.

1991—Edition and translation of "Encomium on the Four Bodiless Living Creatures Attributed to John Chrysostom," in Leo Depuydt (ed.), Homiletica From the Pierpont Morgan Library (CSCO, Volumes 524 and 525; Scriptores Coptici, 43 and 44; Louvain: Peeters, 1991), 43.27-46; 44.27-47.

(Note: This project was an edition and translation of an unpublished eighth century parchment from the rare manuscript collection at the Pierpont Morgan Library in NYC.)

1986—Article entitled "Epistula ad Diognetum: A School Exercise in the Use of Greek Protreptic," in Church Divinity(Notre Dame, 1986), 97-109.

Center Transformation
New leadership announced for Center for the Study of Religious Freedom