Mary H. Schertz, PhD

Prior to joining the AMBS faculty in 1988, Mary taught at Goshen College for one year; at Vanderbilt University School of Religion she was a teaching assistant and New Testament researcher and bibliographer. As director of the Institute of Mennonite Studies, Mary helped launch the journal, Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology, jointly published with Canadian Mennonite University.

Degrees

• PhD, Vanderbilt University School of Religion, 1993
• MDiv, Goshen Biblical Seminary, 1983
• BA, Goshen College, 1971

Teaching philosophy

"The text of the New Testament sometimes suffers from over-familiarity. We know it so well that we hear but don’t hear, see but don’t see. Studies in the language, history, literary conventions, and social world of the New Testament text can ‘slow us down’ enough to help us really hear and see what God is saying and doing through Scripture. Giving the New Testament the kind of attention we would give a letter from a very dear friend may renew both us as learners and the church of which we are a part."

Publications

• Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology, editor
• Beautiful Upon the Mountains: Biblical Essays on Mission, Peace, and the Reign of God (Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2004), co-editor
• “For God So Loved” in The Heart of the Matter: Pastoral Ministry in Anabaptist Perspective (Cascadia, 2004)
• “Preaching and the Bible: First We Have to Read It” in Anabaptist Preaching: A Conversation Between Pulpit, Pew and Bible (Cascadia, 2003)
• “Keeping Faith: New Testament Scholarship and the Church” in Minding the Church: Scholarship in the Anabaptist Tradition (Pandora, 2002)
• Seeing the Text: Exegesis for Students of Greek and Hebrew (Abingdon, 2001), co-author