Background

James G. Williams was born on June 19, 1936, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. He is the son of Glen and Anice Evelyn Williams.

Education

James Williams studied at the University of Tulsa where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1959. Three years later, he obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Perkins School of Theology of Southern Methodist University. In 1966 he got a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Hebrew Bible and Cognate Studies.

During the time of the formal study, he also served as a pastor at Methodist churches in Oklahoma and Illinois and at a Congregational church in Ohio.

Career

James Williams began his career as a pastor of the United Methodist Churches in 1956. From 1963 till 1966 he was a pastor of the United Church of Christ. After receiving his doctor's degree in 1966, he began his teaching career. He went to Syracuse University where he became a professor of religion. During his time at Syracuse University, he headed, at various times, graduate studies in religion and Jewish studies, and he served on the college promotion and tenures committees for ten years. He retired from the post of professor in 1998. In 1990 he was also a distinguished visiting professor at Texas Christian University.

Williams is also known as the author of such books as Those Who Ponder Proverbs (1981), Women Recounted: Narrative Thinking and the God of Israel (1982), Gospel Against Parable (1985), The Bible, Violence and the Sacred: Liberation from the Myth of Sanctioned Violence (1991) and Instantiation Theory: On the Foundations of Automated Deduction (1991). He also edited and authored introduction of The Girard Reader (1996), edited and translated from French the work, titled Resurrection from the Underground: Feodor Dostoevsky (1997), translated from German the work Jesus of Nazareth (1998), translated from German the work Jesus in the Drama of Salvation (1999), edited with Mary Gerhart the book Genre, Narrativity and Theology (1988) and Girardians: The Colloquium on Violence and Religion, 1990-2010 (2012).

He is also known for making research on the mimetic theory and Christian theology and research on culture and addiction. He co-authored Simulation Activities in Library, Communication and Information Science (1976) and Encyclopedia of Microcomputers: A Managerial Perspective to Relative Addressing (2012).

Achievements

• James Williams is known and recognized as an outstanding and prolific author. He is particularly known as a teacher of religion, who served at Syracuse University. For his academic activity, he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1979. As an author, he gained acknowledgement for his works on religion.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Bible, Violence and the Sacred: Liberation from the Myth of Sanctioned Violence

    (The Bible, Violence and the Sacred represents the first c...)

    1991
  • Instantiation Theory: On the Foundations of Automated Deduction

    (Instantiation Theory presents a new, general unification ...)

    1991
  • Women Recounted: Narrative Thinking and the God of Israel

    (Drawing upon recent literary criticism, James Williams ex...)

    1982
  • Those Who Ponder Proverbs 1981
  • Gospel Against Parable 1985

Membership

James Williams is a member of the Catholic Biblical Association, Society of Biblical Literature (past chairperson of Literary Criticism Section and Wisdom Section) and Colloquium on Violence and Religion.

• chairperson of the board of trustees

  Schroeppel Historical Society , United States

  1991 - 1994

Interests

• music, sport

Connections

James Williams married Margaret Yvonne Idol on March 19, 1955. The marriage produced three children - Katherine Yvonne, Michael Glen and Shanah Gail.

Father:

Glen Williams

Mother:

Anice Evelyn Williams

Wife:

Margaret Yvonne Idol