Michael Reardon

Michael was born in New York City and spent his formative years moving around the Midwest.  After attending a Bible and missionary training program in California, he moved to Toronto in 2012.  Over the next several years he was deeply involved in campus ministry, facilitating the development and expansion of student clubs on university campuses in four cities.  He also serves in various capacities within his local congregation: children’s meetings (JK-gr. 6), young people (gr. 7-12), gospel outreach, and adult truth education. 

Michael received an MTS in Ethics and Historical Theology from the University of Toronto (Wycliffe College) and his his PhD in New Testament and Historical Theology from the same institution.  Much of his research probes the relationship between Paul’s soteriology, ecclesiology, and Christology in pursuit of answering a simple, yet profound question: what does Paul mean when he identifies the church as the “Body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27), “one Body in Christ” (Rom. 12:5) or “Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12)?  Other areas of interest include pneumatology, Jewish/Christian relations, German idealism, Stoicism, and hermeneutic philosophy.

Michael joined CCC as a faculty member in 2018 and has served as the Academic Dean since 2020.  In 2020 he was also appointed as the Director of the Eckstein Institute for Jewish-Christian Relations.  Outside of academia Michael is a proud family man.  He has been married since 2012 and has three children: an eleven-year-old daughter, five-year-old son, and 10-month old son.  Together, they enjoy biking, board games, travelling, singing, and cooking. 

Degrees

• PhD (New Testament and Historical Theology), University of Toronto
• MTS (Ethics and Historical Theology), University of Toronto
• BBA (Economics), University of Oklahoma

Favorite Courses Taught

• Advanced New Testament (BIBL 420)
• Historical Theology (THEO 320)
• Jewish Roots of Christianity (MINS 220)
• Hermeneutics (BIBL 500)
• Upper-level Biblical Greek: Greek III (GREK 505) and Greek IV (GREK 515)

Favorite Bible Verse

“But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.” – Phil. 3:8

Publications

Books

Transformed into the Same Image: New Investigations into the Doctrine of Deification, edited by Paul Copan and Michael Reardon (IVP Academic).
https://www.ivpress.com/transformed-into-the-same-image

The Seed of Abraham: Intersections of Jewish and Christian Thought, edited by Michael Reardon and Rabbi Pesach Wolicki (Pickwick Publications, in print).

Journal Articles

“Essence and Economy: An Introduction to Witness Lee’s Doctrine of the Trinity.” Journal of Theological Studies (slated for publication Spring 2025).

“‘You Adore a God who makes you gods’: Augustine’s Doctrine of Deification.” Horizons 51, no. 1 (2024): 104-133.

“Becoming God: Interpreting Pauline Soteriology as Deification.” Currents in Biblical Research 22, no. 1 (2023): 83-107.

Book Chapters

Reardon, M. (2021).  “The Corporate Σῶμα in Epictetus and Paul” in Practicing Intertextuality: Jewish and Greco-Roman Exegetical Techniques in the New Testament (pp. 167-185).  Edited by Max Lee and B. J. Oropeza. Cascade Books.

Reardon, M. (2020).  “Martin Luther’s Pneumatology, German Idealism, and Modern Catholic Thought” in The Holy Spirit and the Reformation Legacy (pp. 3-23).  Edited by Mark Jumper and Mark Cartledge. Pickwick Publications.

Selected Book Reviews   

Reardon, M. (2023).  Review of Desiring the Beautiful: The Erotic-Aesthetic Dimension of Deification in Dionysius the Aeropagite and Maximus the Confessor, by Filip Ivanovic.  Review of Biblical Literature.  URL: (https://www.sblcentral.org/home/bookDetails/13144)

Reardon, M. (2022).  Review of Deification in the Latin Patristic Tradition, edited by Jared Ortiz.  Review of Biblical Literature.  URL: (https://www.sblcentral.org/home/bookDetails/13143)

Reardon, M. (2021).  Review of Triadosis: Union with the Triune God, by Eduard Borysov.  Reading Religion.  URL: (http://readingreligion.org/books/triadosis-union-triune-god)

Reardon, M. (2020).  Review of the book The Making of Christian Morality:  Reading Paul in Ancient and Modern Contexts by D. G. Horrell.  Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 63(2), 392-394.

Reardon, M. (2020).  Review of the book Pauline Dogmatics: The Triumph of God’s Love, by D. A. Campbell.  Toronto Journal of Theology, 36(1), 120-122.

Editorial (non-academic)

Reardon, M. & Majumdar, S. (2022).  “Here’s why anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism,” Toronto Sun.  URL: (https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-heres-why-antizionism-is-antisemitism)