HolladayCharles Howard Candler Professor of New Testament Carl R. Holladay has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research.

Holladay is one of 228 individuals in the class of 2017 and one of two scholars elected from Emory University. As AAAS members, they will be called on to contribute to the academy’s studies in science and technology, global security, social policy and American institutions, and the humanities and education. The honorees will be inducted at a ceremony on October 7, 2017, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The full list of new members is on the Academy's website.

A member of the Candler faculty since 1980, Holladay is also a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory and a popular lecturer at colleges and universities around the world. His research focuses on Luke-Acts, Hellenistic Judaism, and Christology.

Holladay is the sole author of nine books, including A Critical Introduction to the New Testament: Interpreting the Message and Meaning of Jesus Christ (Abingdon, 2005), which is used extensively by seminaries and ministers, offering historical context as well as an orientation to religious, theological and ethical issues surrounding Jesus’s message. He has also co-authored or co-edited four books, including Biblical Exegesis: A Beginner’s Handbook (Westminster John Knox, 1st ed., 1982), a widely used introductory text on exegetical methods, theory and practice, now in its third edition. Holladay’s Acts: A Commentary (Westminster John Knox, 2016) provides a theological, contextual, and literary interpretation of the biblical book, paying attention to Acts as a rich narrative that accounts for the development of the early Christian church. His most recent book is Introduction to the New Testament: Reference Edition (Baylor, 2017), which roots each of the New Testament’s 27 writings in their historical, literary, and theological contexts.

He has received several prestigious fellowships and honors, including a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, a Luce Fellowship, and a Festschrift titled Scripture and Traditions: Essays on Early Judaism and Christianity in Honor of Carl R. Holladay (Brill, 2008).

An ordained minister in the Church of Christ, Holladay serves on editorial boards for multiple scholarly journals, is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, and currently serves as 2016-2017 president of the Society for New Testament Studies.

Holladay joins E. Brooks Holifield, Charles Howard Candler Professor Emeritus of American Church History, and Carol A. Newsom, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Old Testament, as the third Candler faculty member to be elected to the Academy in the last six years.

Since its founding in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has elected leading "thinkers and doers" from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th. The current membership of 4,800 Fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary Members includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners, and brings a wide range of expertise to the academy's multidisciplinary analyses of contemporary issues.