Matthew Thiessen

Dr. Matthew Thiessen (PhD, Duke University) is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University, where he has taught since 2016. Before coming to McMaster, he taught at St. Louis University and the College of Emmanuel and St. Chad. His 2020 monograph, Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels’ Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism, explores how the dynamics of the ritual purity system function in the healing and exorcism ministry of Jesus in the synoptic Gospels.