Dale C. Allison Jr. (born November 25, 1955)[1] is a historian whose areas of expertise include the historical Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew, Second Temple Jewish literature, and the history of the interpretation and reception of the Bible.
Allison has been called "North America's most complete New Testament scholar" (Scot McKnight) as well as "the premier Matthew specialist of his generation in the United States" (Benedict Viviano).
He also sought to blur the lines between present scholarship and earlier work—ancient, medieval, theological, and popular—in his International Critical Commentary on James (2013).
The book generated replies from prominent members of the Jesus Seminar—John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, and Stephen Patterson.
Allison returned to the subject of eschatology in Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History (2010), which the Biblical Archaeological Society selected as "Best Book Relating to the New Testament" for 2009-2010.
Later, in The Resurrection of Jesus (2021), he expanded on these topics, responded to critics, and argued for the relevance of adding comparative materials such as Buddhist traditions about the Rainbow body.
The Love There That’s Sleeping (2006) surveys the musical corpus of George Harrison in the light of his biography and religious convictions.
The relationship between Allison's personal religious experiences and his scholarship is discussed by Jeffrey Kripal in The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities (2023).