John Dickson Writer
John Dickson is an Australian writer, historian, minister and Honorary Fellow in the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University. He is co-founder and director of the Centre for Public Christianity, a media company which seeks to "promote the public understanding of the Christian faith". In 2010 he started part-time as the senior minister of St Andrew's, Roseville.Dickson's books focus on the relevance of Jesus in the contemporary world. He won Australian Christian Book of the Year in 2000 and 2005.Before starting his writing career in 1993, Dickson was a singer-songwriter with the band In the Silence, with whom he continues to perform occasionally. He also hosted the music TV show, Swordfish on Network Ten for two years.Dickson has a PhD in ancient history from Macquarie University and is a speaker and writer. Much of his attention in recent years has focused on the "life of Jesus" and challenging the arguments of the new atheists.One of Dickson's books, The Christ Files, was made into a documentary and shown on Network Seven at Easter 2008 as well as Christmas Day in 2009.In 2012, Dickson wrote Hearing Her Voice: A Case for Women Giving Sermons. In it, he argued that 1 Timothy 2:12 ("I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man") does not mean that women cannot give sermons today, since the "teaching" referred to meant "preserving and laying down the traditions handed on by the apostles", and that does not happen in most sermons today. Matthias Media published a volume of essays in response to Dickson's book: Women, Sermons and the Bible: Essays interacting with John Dickson's Hearing Her Voice.