Eric Ottenheijm's prime interest is the way religious identities are formed in cultural, political, as well as religious exchanges. In particular, the distinct articulations of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity in Roman, Greek, and Byzantine contexts are an underlying fascination of his studies. Moreover, Ottenheijm delves into more contemporaneous issues of the relationship between religion and society. His interest in material culture (as a voluntary participant in the Horvath Kur project in Galilee) reflects a hermeneutical approach that includes material culture and texts in relation to daily life. A good example is a co-authored study, with his Ph.D. student Jonathan Pater, "Meals in the Synagogue. Reassessing the Evidence," 247-269 in Rick Bonnie / Raimo Hakola / Ulla Tervahauta (eds.), The Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends. Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 279 (Göttingen: Vandenhouck & Ruprecht, 2020) 247-269. ISBN 9783666522147.
Current Projects:
1. Parables in Synoptic Gospels and Rabbinic Literature. This project, 'Parables and the Partings of the Ways' NWO funded 2014-2020), saw numerous scholarly publications, amongst which is the volume Parables in Changing Contexts. Essays on the Study of Parables in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. Edited by Eric Ottenheijm and Marcel Poorthuis. Jewish and Christian Perspectives 35 (Brill: Leiden, 2020 (Brill, 2020). A volume on the conference Power of Parables has passed the peer review stage and is forthcoming in 2023. Currently, Ottenheijm works on a historical study of the Early Jewish Parable. A popular scientific volume in Dutch which appeared in 2020 witnessed its second print and will appear in a German translation in 2023: Parabels. Onderricht van Jezus en de rabbijnen (Berne Media).
Moreover, he publishes regularly on the project website (www.parabelproject.nl), together with his team and renowned experts, he has prepared a book on the function and meaning of parables in world religions, philosophy, and modern literature (expected in the Spring of 2023).
2. The Gospel of Matthew in its Early Jewish Context.
Ottenheijm is especially interested in the way text, material culture, and genre reflect the formations of competing elites and their communities. In line with critical scholars in the field (e.g. Boyarin) he argues for a less articulated religious profile of communities still sharing practices, and ideas, as well as inhabiting a shared social reality. In order to advance his proficiencies in dealing with material culture, he participates in the Horvath Kur project in Galilee (dir. Zangenberg a.o). A good example is his co-authored study with Jonathan Pater, "Meals in the Synagogue. Reassessing the Evidence," 245-269 in Rick Bonnie / Raimo Hakola / Ulla Tervahauta (eds.), The Synagogue in Ancient Palestine: Current Issues and Emerging Trends. Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 279 (Göttingen: Vandenhouck & Ruprecht, 2020) 247-269. ISBN 9783666522147.
3. Besides he regularly publishes on topics in Rabbinic literature (Pirkei Abot, Mishnah, and Tosefta, Midrash), on texts and material culture, as well as on modern Judaism and Interreligious relations in the contemporary world.
His pioneering study on the Inn of the Good Samaritan illustrates his interest in the relationship between religion and the secular society in a politically wrought context (The ‘Inn of the Good Samaritan’. Religious, Civic, and Political Rhetoric of a Biblical Site,’ in Peter B. Hartogh, Shulamith Laderman, Vered Tohar, Archibald L.H.M. van Wieringen (eds.), Jerusalem and other holy places as foci of multireligious and ideological confrontation. JCP 45 (Brill: Leiden, 2021), ). Ottenheijm moreover seeks to understand issues such as religious violence, but also the way secular society and the presence of religious traditions influence new ways of belonging. The edited book 'Geloven in Geweld (Soest, 2020) is an example of Ottenheijm’s yearlong active involvement in national Jewish-Christian Dialogue organizations: Sha’ar, Ojec, as well as the Catholic Council for Judaism. Ottenheijm is chairman of the CRINT Foundation, responsible for the series Compendia Rerum Judaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, and a member of the Editorial Board of Jewish and Christian Perspectives (Brill, Leiden).