What Do Rituals ‘Do,’ and What Makes a Ritual Sacred? (Ben Noonan)

Dr. Benjamin J. Noonan (PhD, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion) joined the faculty of CIU’s Seminary & School of Ministry in 2014. He teaches Old Testament and Hebrew courses for CIU and is the faculty advisor for Grad Life Council (which creates fellowship opportunities for CIU’s graduate and seminary students) and CIU’s local chapter of Eta Beta Rho (a national scholastic honor society for students of Hebrew). His most recent book is Advances in the Study of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic: New Insights for Reading the Old Testament. He is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, where he serves on the Pentateuch Program Unit Steering Committee, as well as the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, and the National Association of Professors of Hebrew. He has taught at Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Founder and Director of the Center for Hebraic Thought

Dru teaches Biblical literature, theology, and biblical interpretation at The King’s College. He is an editor for the Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism series; an associate director for the Jewish Philosophical Theology Project at The Herzl Institute in Israel; and a co-host for the OnScript Podcast. His recent books include Biblical Philosophy: An Hebraic Approach to the Old and New Testaments (Cambridge University Press); Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, and Sacraments (Eerdmans); and Epistemology and Biblical Theology (Routledge). 

Before that, he was a high-school dropout, skinhead, punk rock drummer, combat veteran, IT supervisor, and pastor—all things that he hopes none of his children ever become.

He and his wife have four children. Interviews, articles, and excerpts of books can found at drujohnson.com.