Faculty and Administration

Dr. Westfall has been at McMaster Divinity College since 2005, teaching courses in New Testament, Greek exegesis, biblical interpretation and women in ministry, which are devoted to a commitment to transformation by God’s word through its application to all aspects of life and ministry.

Practical Ministry Experience:
While in the Campus Ministry in Flagstaff, AZ, Westfall was licensed for ministry with the Conservative Baptist Association. Westfall participated in the foundation and development of Open Door Fellowship, Providence Network, and Open Door Ministries in Denver Colorado, which form a ministry complex dedicated to help those who are at risk for homelessness and discipleship in the urban community. In Canada, she was a founder and chair of the board of Providence Canada, which has ministered to the those who are at risk for homelessness in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a director/deacon of Wentworth Baptist Church.

Research Interests:
Dr. Westfall has a constellation of interests that are focused on issues concerned with the New Testament and its interpretation with contemporary methodologies. She places a special focus on texts and issues that have been traditionally overlooked.

The Book of Hebrews
The General Epistles and Revelation
Discourse Analysis
Linguistics and Biblical Language
Sociological Criticism
Old Testament in the New Testament
Jewish Christianity
Gender and the Bible/Paul and Gender
Biblical Social Justice
Dr. Westfall, also maintains a special interest in Bible translation and serves as a member of the editorial board for the Common English Bible.

Current Projects:
Dr. Westfall is currently co-chair of the Biblical Greek and Linguistics section of the Society of Biblical Literature, co-chair of the Evangelicals and Gender section of the Evangelical Theological Society and joining the steering committee of the Hebrews section of the Evangelical Society.

She is completing a book on Paul and Gender for the Library of Pauline Studies, which is a work that concerns one of the most pressing issues in evangelicalism. It offers a fresh perspective on texts that have been a conundrum while weighing in the significance of additional data of Paul’s teaching on both genders.

She is also working on Hebrews: A Handbook on the Greek Text, which is part of a series that offers lexical, analytical and syntactical analysis of the Greek text and provides real help for the student, pastor or scholar who wants to make sense of it.

She is co-editing The Bible and Social Justice with Bryan Dyer, which is the latest volume of the Bingham Colloquium Series. It is a collection of the papers that were presented at the Bingham Colloquium on Social Justice in June, 2012.

She is also a consultant in an international committee of cross-discipline Academics who have compiled and conducted the largest academic survey of Muslim women in the world. They are studying why women choose to veil; the pilot research was done through interviews at McMaster University.

Publications:
A Discourse Analysis of the Structure of Hebrews: Relationship between Form and Meaning. London: T&T Clark, 2006.

S.E. Porter and C.L. Westfall (eds), Christian Mission: Old Testament Foundations and New Testament Developments (Bingham Colloquium Series; /Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2010).

S.E. Porter and C.L. Westfall (eds), Empire and the New Testament (Bingham Colloquium Series; Eugene, OR, Pickwick, 2010).

S.E. Porter and C.L. Westfall (eds), The Church Then and Now (McMaster Divinity College Press New Testament Study Series; Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2012).