Dr.
Maier is The Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan
University. A graduate of Harvard
University (M.A., 1954) and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (M. Div., 1955), he
pursued post-graduate studies on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Universities of
Heidelberg, Germany, and Basel, Switzerland.
After studying at the latter under famed scholars Karl Barth and Oscar
Cullmann, he received the Doctor of Philosophy degree summa cum laude in 1957.
In 1968, Doubleday published Dr. Maier’s first documentary novel, Pontius Pilate, a fresh view of the politics behind Jesus’
crucifixion. The book received wide
critical acclaim and has gone through numerous printings, editions, and
translations.
A specialist in correlating data from the ancient world with the New
Testament, Dr. Maier next authored a best-selling trilogy of books on the life
of Jesus and earliest Christianity,
now included in one volume: In the
Fullness of Time –A Historian Looks at Christmas, Easter and the Early
Church (Kregel, 1998). The book was
widely syndicated in the nation’s newspapers.
The Flames of Rome was published in 1981 (Doubleday), a documentary
novel on how Christianity reached Rome, and why Nero persecuted the church so
horribly after the great fire of A.D. 64. Maier’s
latest fiction is A Skeleton in God’s
Closet (Thomas Nelson, 1994), a powerful theological thriller that became #1
national best seller in the category of religious fiction.
Dr. Maier’s biography of his late father, Dr. Walter A. Maier, founding
speaker of “The Lutheran Hour” radio broadcast, is entitled A
Man Spoke, a World Listened (McGraw-Hill, 1963). The young Dr. Maier also edited an anthology of his
father’s voluminous writings, entitled The
Best of Walter A. Maier (Concordia, 1980).
An authority on the first-century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus,
Maier translated from Greek a new full-color edition of his writings, entitled Josephus – The Essential Works (Kregel, 1995).
A similar book followed in 1999: Eusebius
– The Church History (Kregel), a new translation and commentary on the
first Christian historian. Several
million Maier books are now in print in a dozen languages.
For children, Maier penned The
Very First Christmas (Concordia), which received the Gold Medallion Award in
1999(ECPA). The
Very First Easter followed in early 2000.
He has also written and hosted two four-hour, eight segment video series:
Jesus – Legend or Lord?,
The Odyssey of St. Paul, and Christianity, The First Three Centuries,
which are designed for church, school, and home use (Tobias Communications:
1-800-463-4685).
Dr.
Maier travels and lectures widely, appears frequently in national radio,
television, and newspaper interviews, and has published more than 200 articles
and reviews in general and professional journals.
In 1967 he married Joan M. Ludtke, and they have four daughters: Laura
(b.1968), Julie (b.1970), Krista (b.1979), and Katherine (b.1982).
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