I began my teaching career at Missouri State University as an adjunct instructor of biblical studies and classical mythology in the early 2000s. After my PhD program, I made the academic journey through Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor ranks, with Tenure, at George Fox University—along the way helping to start the University’s Honor’s program, directing the summer online program, and serving as chair for the Theology department. In 2020, I transitioned into university-wide leadership, first as Associate Provost and then as Academic Vice President tasked overseeing a wide variety of programming in nontraditional and digital areas, where my supervisory portfolio includes George Fox University’s Accelerated Online Degree programs, Portland Seminary, academic AI integration and direction, and George Fox Digital (half of all undergraduate general education programming, the summer online, and other digital projects such as the George Fox TALKS podcast and content involving AI leadership/education). I continue to teach occasionally for the undergraduate Theology department and for Portland Seminary, as well as publishing in my academic field—I am currently working on a manuscript for a book entitled The American Giant: Reading the Bible as History & Conspiracy, and have recently published essays on the book of Job and biblical giants as monsters.
Here is my full academic CV (public GoogleDoc)
CURRICULUM VITAE (ABBREVIATED)
Updated November 2026
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Harvard University (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations)
Dissertation with Distinction
M.A., Missouri State University (Religious Studies)
The Distinguished Thesis Award; Basil and JoAnn Boritzki Endowed Scholarship
B.A., Evangel University (Biblical Studies; English)
Twila Brown Edwards Theology and Literature Award
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2021 – present Academic Vice President, Digital Programs & Innovation
Prior iterations of the title include:
VP, George Fox Digital; VP, Digital Programs & Academic Iterations
George Fox University
2021 – present Full Professor, Biblical Studies
George Fox University
2020 – 2021 Associate Provost (Academic Innovation, Research, Libraries)
George Fox University
2018 – 2020 Department Chair, Theology
George Fox University
2016 – 2020 Associate Professor, Biblical Studies (with tenure, 2017)
George Fox University
2016 – 2020 Director, Summer Online Program
George Fox University
2011 – 2015 Assistant Professor, Biblical Studies
George Fox University
2010 Teaching Fellow (primary instructor)
Psalms (in Hebrew)
Harvard University
2004 – 2006 Per-course (Adjunct) Instructor
Missouri State University
PUBLICATIONS
Solo-Authored Books
2023 The Preacher’s Hebrew Companion to Genesis 1–11: A Selective Commentary for Meditation
and Sermon Preparation. The Preacher’s Hebrew Companion Series (Peabody: Hendrickson)
2020 Ancient Israel’s Neighbors (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
2019 Heroic Bodies in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
2015 Phoenician Aniconism in Its Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern Contexts (Atlanta:
Society of Biblical Literature; Archaeology & Biblical Studies 21; editor Brian B. Schmidt)
2014 Consider Leviathan: Narratives of Nature and the Self in Job (Minneapolis: Fortress Press)
2012 The Last of the Rephaim: Conquest and Cataclysm in the Heroic Ages of Ancient Israel
(Boston: Ilex Foundation; Washington, D.C.: The Center for Hellenic Studies;
via Harvard University Press)
Co-Edited Books
2019 Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean; co-edited with Carolina
López-Ruiz (Oxford: Oxford University Press); paperback version issued in 2022
Peer-Reviewed Journals
2025 “Shocking Discoveries of Giants You Will Not Believe!!! Conspiracy Belief and Archaeological
Interest in YouTube Videos About Biblical and Other Giants.”
Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 37.2–3: 109–140
2015 “Monster Violence in the Book of Job.” Journal of Religion and Violence 3.2: 269–87
2013 “Ezekiel’s Topography of the (Un-)Heroic Dead in Ezek 32:17–32.”
Journal of Biblical Literature 132.3: 607–24
2013 “The Fate and Power of Heroic Bones and the Politics of Bone Transfer in Ancient Israel and Greece.”
Harvard Theological Review 106.2: 201–16
2011 “Funerary Iconography on an Infant Burial Jar from Ashkelon.”
Israel Exploration Journal 61.1: 32–53. Co-authored with Kathleen Birney
2011 “‘Some Worthless and Reckless Fellows’: Landlessness and Parasocial Leadership in Judges.”
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 11.2: 1–29
2010 “Legalists, Visionaries, and New Names: Sectarianism and the Search for Apocalyptic Origins
in Isaiah 56–66.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 40.1: 9–26
Chapters in Books
2026 “The Moral Vision of Nature in the Book of Job.” In James E. Harding (ed.),
Job, Themes and Issues in Biblical Studies (Sheffield: Equinox), pp. 252–277
2026 “The Iconography of the Male Heroic Body in Ancient Israel.” In Bruno Biermann,
Laura Gonnermann, and Izaak de Hulster (eds.), Gender and Iconography in Antiquity:
Femininities, Masculinities, Ambiguities, and Beyond in the Ancient Levant, Near East,
and Mediterranean (Vetus Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht),
pp. 107–134
2025 “Biblical Giants as Monsters.” In Brandon Grafius and John Morehead (eds.), Oxford Handbook of
Biblical Monsters (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 99–116
2019 “Phoenicians in the Hebrew Bible.” In Carolina López-Ruiz and Brian Doak (eds.),
Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean (Oxford: Oxford University Press),
pp. 657–70
2016 “The Giant in a Thousand Years: Tracing Narratives of Gigantism in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond.”
In Matthew Goff, Loren Stuckenbruck, and Enrico Morano (eds.), Ancient Tales of Giants from Qumran
and Turfan: Contexts, Traditions, and Influences (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck), pp. 13–32
2016 “Remembering the Future, Predicting the Past: Vaticinia ex Eventu in the Historiographic Traditions
of the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East.” In Javier Martínez and Edmund Paul Cueva (eds.),
Splendide Mendax: Rethinking Fakes & Forgeries in Classical, Late Antique, & Early Christian Literature
(Barkhuis: Netherlands), pp. 23–53
2014 “Written with the Finger of God: Divine and Human Writing in Exodus.” In Lois Olena and Eric Newberg (eds.),
Children of the Calling: Essays in Honor of Stanley M. Burgess and Ruth V. Burgess (Eugene, OR: Wipf and
Stock), pp. 81–110
ACADEMIC & POPULAR PRESENTATIONS
Invited Engagements (Academic and Popular)
2026 Messiah University Fall Faith & Society Lecture: “Heartbroken, Haunted, and Healed:
The Bible’s Earliest Stories of Technology and the Future of Faith in a Digital World.”
Messiah University, Mechanicsburg, PA (27 October)
2026 “AI and the Work of Pastors on Issues of Sex, Grief, and Death.” Messiah University
Pastors Luncheon. Invited speaker and workshop host. Messiah University,
Mechanicsburg, PA (28 October)
2026 Panel Host and Participant: “When Science Becomes Apologetics: Lewis’s Most Overlooked Strategy.”
With Isaac Choi, Heidi Lindsley, Jim Slagle, and Piotr Bylica. The Undiscovered C.S. Lewis Conference.
George Fox University (25 September)
2026 “The Costs and Benefits of Living in a Digital Age.” Presenter and panelist with Felicia Wu Song
and Haleluya Hadero; Christianity Today, “Big Tent Initiative,” The Father’s House Church,
Oakland, CA (19 September)
2025 “AI at the Infinite Intersection of Faith & Learning.” Invited talk at the K-12 Educators Conference.
Newberg, Oregon (10 October)
2025 “Hearing God’s Words in the Human Temple of Learning.” Evangel University
Department of Theology Alumnus of the Year Award Lecture. Seymour Chapel, AGTS (3 October)
2025 Panel Host and Participant: “The Best Advice About AI & Faith You're Going to Get in 2025.”
With Meghan Sullivan, Andy Crouch, Tyler Staten, and Isaac Choi. Resonate Conference.
George Fox University (27 September)
2025 “Framing the AI Question: At the Intersection of Faith, Learning, and Mission.” Invited presentation
for the Consortium of Christian Colleges Presidents’ meeting at George Fox University (23 September)
2024 “AI in the Classroom.” Invited lecture and professional development session for K12 teachers.
Newberg-Dundee School District. Newberg High School (28 August)
2024 “The Symbolism and Religious Significance of Standing Stones in Canaanite, Phoenician and other
Iron Age Levantine Cultures”; American University of Beirut-Mediterráneo, Paphos, Cyprus (8 May)
2024 "War, Self-Defense, & Pacifism." Guest lecture and Q&A discussion with Blueprint Church
(Atlanta, GA; via Zoom), hosted by Sho Baraka (31 January)
2019 “Ancient Israel’s Neighbors: How Unique Was Ancient Israel and the Bible?” Three-part
invited public lecture series at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Salem, OR
(October 20, 27, and November 3)
2017 “The Role of the Bible in Postsecondary Education: The View from a Christian Liberal Arts
Context in the United States” (invited panel presentation at the Ronning Centre for the Study
of Religion and Public Life at the University of Alberta [Augustana], Canada; 8 March)
2017 “Ask the Animals: Nature and Theodicy in the Book of Job” (lecture delivered at the Ronning Centre
for the Study of Religion and Public Life at the University of Alberta [Augustana], Canada; 7 March)
2014 “The Giant in a Thousand Years: Tracing Narratives of Gigantism in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond”
(Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich; “Tales of Giants from Qumran and Turfan: Ancient Contexts,
Traditions and Influences”; 8 June)
2014 Invited reviewer of Mark S. Smith, Poetic Heroes: Literary Commemorations of Warriors and Warrior
Culture in the Early Biblical World (Eerdmans, 2014) (Ugaritic and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy Section;
SBL Annual Meeting; San Diego, CA; 24 November)
2014 “Consider Leviathan: Nature and Theodicy in the Book of Job” (Fall Faculty Researcher of the Year
Lecture & Richter Scholar Symposium; George Fox University; Newberg, OR; 21 October)
2012 “‘No Statues or Familiar Images’: Re-examining the Claim for Phoenician Aniconism”
(Aviram Prize presentation; ASOR Annual Meeting; Chicago, IL; 16 November)
Academic Conference Presentations (by proposal)
2026 “If Everyone Is Cheating: The Collision of AI Policy and Practice at a Christian University”
(solo-presented, but co-proposed with Mary Peterson; Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture,
“Technology and the Human Person in the Age of AI”; 27 February)
2025 “The Monster, the Outsider, and the Weirdo in Northwest Semitic Literatures”
(panelist; SBL Annual Meeting, Ugaritic Studies and NW Semitic Epigraphy section;
Boston, MA; November 24)
2025 “The American Bible of Giants: Colonial Bones and Nephilim Spiritualities in America”
(Society of Early Americanists Biennial Conference, University of Notre Dame; June 6)
2023 “Rethinking the Moral Sense of Nature in the Book of Job” (SBL Annual Meeting, program unit
Nature Imager and Conceptions of Nature in the Bible; San Antonio, TX; November 18–21)
2022 “SHOCKING DISCOVERIES OF GIANTS YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE!!! Popular Historiography,
Conspiracy Belief, and Antiquarian Impulse in YouTube Videos About Biblical Giants”
(SBL Annual Meeting, program unit Bible and Popular Culture; Denver, CO; November 19)
2019 “The Joban Animal Menagerie: Parents, Killers, Negligence, and Thriving” (SBL Annual Meeting,
program unit Animal Studies and the Bible; San Diego, CA; 26 November)
2017 “The Iconography of the Heroic Body in Israel and elsewhere in the Ancient Near East”
(SBL Annual Meeting, program unit Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible;
Boston, MA; 20 November)
2016 “The State of Nature, Theodicy, and the Heroic Journey in the New Gilgamesh Tablet and the Hebrew Bible”
(SBL Annual Meeting; San Antonio, TX; 21 November)
2015 “Aniconic Non-Images in Iron Age Phoenicia and Israel: Theoretical Considerations and
Comparative Avenues” (SBL Annual Meeting; Atlanta, GA; 22 November)
2014 “Monster Violence in the Book of Job as Moral Disorientation and Reorientation”
(AAR Annual Meeting; San Diego, CA; 22 November)
2013 “Phoenician Aniconography and the Theoretical Challenge of Aniconism”
(SBL Annual Meeting; Baltimore, MD; 24 November)
2012 “Re-Visiting the Joban ‘Natural Theology’ Drama and the Evolution of Israelite Anthropology”
(SBL Annual Meeting; Chicago, IL; 19 November)
2011 “The Greek Gigantomachy and the Israelite Gigantomachy: Giants as Chaosmacht in Israel
and the Iron Age Aegean” (AAR Annual Meeting; San Francisco, CA; 21 November)
2010 “The Fate and Power of Heroic Bones and the Politics of Bone Transferal in Ancient Greece
and Israel” (Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions panel on “Civil Strife and Ancient
Mediterranean Religions”; SBL Annual Meeting; Atlanta, GA; 22 November)
2010 “Ezekiel’s Topography of the (Un-)Heroic Dead in Ezek 32:17–32”
(SBL Annual Meeting; Atlanta, GA; 23 November)
2009 “The Last of the Rephaim: Conquest and Cataclysm in the Hebrew Bible, the Iliad,
and the Ancient Near East” (SBL Annual Meeting; New Orleans, LA; 23 November
2008 “Intramural Infant Burial in Philistia and the Iconography of Death on a Newly Discovered
Jar Burial from Ashkelon” (co-presented with Kathleen Birney; ASOR Annual Meeting;
Boston, MA; 22 November)
2007 “A Re-evaluation of the Iconographic Motifs of the Ta‘anach Cult Stand”
(SBL Annual Meeting; San Diego, CA; 18 November)
2007 “Ezekiel’s Theology of Divination” (SBL Annual Meeting; San Diego, CA; 17 November)
2005 “Using Mediated Learning to Teach Hebrew Bible” (Missouri State University Teaching Showcase;
10 January)
2004 “Rape and Responsibility in Jeremiah 20.7–18” (SBL Central States Meeting; St. Louis MO; 29 March)
2003 “Rape and Responsibility in Jeremiah 20.7–18” (Greater Springfield Bible Professors Annual Conference;
Springfield MO; 9 October)
WRITING, FICTION, PODCASTS & VIDEO FOR POPULAR AUDIENCES
2025 – Video & podcast interviews online:
“History Valley” (YouTube): 25 April 2026
“MythVision” (YouTube): 4 March 2026
“Bible & Archaeology” from the University of Iowa (YouTube); 14 Feb 2026
“Bible & Archaeology” from the University of Iowa (YouTube); 9 May 2025
“What Your Pastor Didn’t Tell You” (YouTube); 13 June 202”
“Biblical Time Machine” (Apple; Spotify); 7 October 2025
2024 – YouTube channel (under the name “Brian Doak”),
https://www.youtube.com/@briandoak; over 4,200 subscribers and 150 teaching videos
on topics related to academic Biblical Studies, ancient history, and more
2026 “In the Car” (short fiction). Every Day Fiction. 10 September
2026 “Mountain Religion: Gloom & Glory” (essay). Hard Pack. Issue 06, Winter 2026.
2025 Contributor example for Beth McMurtrie, “Teaching: Is It Time to Overhaul Your Course?”
Chronicle of Higher Education (18 September)
2024 “Two Mountains” (short fiction). Hard Pack. Issue 04, Winter 2024.
2018 – 2024 Podcast co-host: “Weird Religion” (www.weirdreligion.com). On Apple, Spotify, and other platforms.
First released 28 August 2018.
2023 “Five Ideas for How Professors Can Deal with GPT-3…For Now.” Co-authored with
Travis Pickell. Christian Scholars Review (blog). 4 January.
2020 – Host and executive producer for George Fox TALKS podcast (YouTube; Apple; Spotify);
multiple episodes, recent examples:
Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger
Public theologian Ekemini Uwan
Civil War Historian Allen Guelzo
Award winning photographer Kieran Dodds
2020 “Heroic Bodies in Ancient Israel: The Case of Saul’s Height,” online at The Bible and Interpretation;
posted 23 January
2019 “The Afterlife in The Good Place and Black Mirror,” live podcast recording session (two parts) for
Theologia camp at George Fox University; co-hosted with Leah Payne; 24 June
2019 Live radio interview appearances with Weird Religion podcast co-host Leah Payne on “Fresh Take”
(WHBY, in central Wisconsin), hosted by Josh Dukelow (five seperate appearances; January – September)
2019 Guest scholar appearance on the Travel Channel TV show “America Unearthed,” S4E5,
filmed in Rock Springs, Wyoming (“Phoenicians in America”); aired 25 June
2018 “Does God Command Genocide in the Bible?” Panel lecture for the George Fox Honors
Program Forum, series on Theological Interpretations of Scripture. Delivered on 2 October
2018 “The Christian conspiracies that keep evangelicals on Trump’s side,” online at
The Washington Post (Made By History Perspectives column), co-authored with
Leah Payne; posted 19 October
2015 “The Embarrassing and Alluring Biblical Giant,” online at The Bible and Interpretation; posted 2 December
AWARDS, GRANTS, AND HONORS
2025 – 2026 Selected for the Executive Leadership Academy (Council of Independent Colleges and Universities,
American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and American Academic Leadership Institute)
2025 Distinguished Alumnus Award, Evangel University Department of Theology
2021 Grant from the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust for George Fox Digital: $1,500,000 (co-author with
Robin Baker, Shawn Daley, et al.)
2020 Sustainability grant from Lily Endowment for “Theologia” at George Fox University: $231,000
(co-author with Roger Nam)
2020 Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion grant ($5,000) for “The Pedagogy
of Podcasting: New Horizons for Theological and Religious Studies Teachers in the Digital Age”
(with Leah Payne, David Dault, and Daniel White Hodge)
2017 Visiting Fellow of the Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life; University of
Alberta, Augustana (Camrose, Alberta; 6–8 March)
2015 “Citizenship in the American and Global Polity”; nominated participant in the Wye Faculty Seminar;
Aspen Institute Wye River Campus (Queenstown, MD; 18–24 July)
2014 George Fox University Undergraduate Researcher of the Year
2012 Aviram Prize (Dorot Foundation; American Schools of Oriental Research; best archaeological paper
by a junior scholar) ($2500)
2009 Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University
(based on student evaluations, for work as a Teaching Fellow in the “The Contested Bible:
The Sacred-Secular Dance”)
2006 Lindstrom Foundation Student Service Scholarship (American Schools of Oriental Research)
2005 The 2004–05 Missouri State University Distinguished Thesis Award, for M.A. thesis,
“Patriarch as Trickster: The Social and Literary Function of the Jacob Cycle in Genesis 25–33”
(cross disciplinary; one awarded per year)
2003 The Basil and JoAnn Boritzki Endowed Scholarship (university wide and cross-disciplinary,
two awarded per year; Missouri State University Graduate School)
2002 The Outstanding Graduate—Evangel University Department of Biblical Studies (competitive;
one awarded per year)
2002 The Twila Brown Edwards Theology and Literature Award (Evangel University; competitive;
one awarded per year)
RELATED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2007 – 2011 Harvard Theological Review, Harvard Divinity School; Editorial Assistant (reader of submitted
manuscripts); Copyeditor (accepted manuscripts); 2009 – 2011
2007 Archaeological Fieldwork with the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon; full season volunteer excavator;
Ashkelon, Israel; worked primarily in 11th–10th century BCE Philistine domestic space
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL & ACADEMIC SERVICE
At George Fox University, unless stated otherwise
Advisory Board Member, World Oregon (2025–present)
University AI Strategy Group (2025–present)
Committee Chair: Faculty AI Committee (2024–present)
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training: Official Hiring Advocate (2019–present)
Senator: GFU Faculty Senate (elected position)
Committee Member: George Fox Honors Program (2013–2020)
Committee Member: Undergraduate Strategic Planning Committee (2018)
Committee Member: General Education (various years)
Director of Departmental Assessment, Theology (2017–2020)
Breakfast Conversation Host, CIC Department and Division Chair Workshop (Spokane, WA) (2018)
Section steering committee, Society of Biblical Literature: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy (2018–present)
Manuscript peer reviews for: Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, Vetus Testamentum, Biblical Interpretation, Journal of Religion and Violence; International Journal of Christianity & Education; Journal of Religion and Popular Culture; Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Studies; Religions
Book proposal or book chapter peer reviews for: Oxford University Press, Bloomsbury, Routledge, Gorgias, Lockwood
Proposal and other external peer reviews for: European Associate of Biblical Studies research grants; Distinguished Professor appointment; Full Professor appointments
SELECTED VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES
Announcer, timekeeping, officiating; Chehalem Swim Team and Newberg High School Swim (2021–2025)
Aid station volunteer, Volcanic 25K race, with GoBeyond (2023–2025)
Fundraising, YES (Yamhill Enrichment Society), on behalf of JOY Orchestra
T-ball coach (5-year olds)
St. Barnabas Episcopal Parish: volunteer work and fundraising for The Soup Kitchen; Henderson House (domestic violence services)
Pro bono teaching & lectures (e.g., recent professional development for K-12 teachers on AI in the classroom; Zoom lecture for St. Mary’s University in Calgary, Canada, on “Concepts of Justice in the Ancient Near East”)
Here is my full academic CV (public GoogleDoc)