Biography Of Dr. Joel Soza

Dr. Joel Soza is currently an Associate Professor of Old Testament at Malone University in Canton, Ohio and has been the director of the Master of Arts in Christian Ministries. Dr. Soza has been a chaplain with the United States Navy Reserve, having earned his commission in 1991. He has held assignments with the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard. He was honorably discharged from the Chaplain Corps in Dec. of 2004. He presently serves the Christian church with his itinerant ministry called “Sh’ma Ministries”, in which he preaches, teaches, ministers in music, as well as provides a wider array of ministry (e.g. published books for purchase, military chaplaincy perspective).

Dr. Soza graduated from Bowling Green State University in Ohio with a B.S.B.A. in 1984 while simultaneously earning an honorable discharge from the enlisted ranks (combat arms) of the United States Marine Corps Reserve. He earned two Master of Arts degrees (both Cum Laude) from Ashland Theological Seminary: the first in Old Testament in 1993, and the second in New Testament in 1994. He also studied at the University of Durham in England in 1994/95 in the field of Old Testament theology, having eventually written a 95,000 word/242 page DTh thesis on the book of Jeremiah. Dr. Soza ultimately earned his DTh in Old Testament from the University of South Africa in 2005.

Dr. Soza was ordained to the ministry through the Ohio District Council of the Assemblies of God in 1994. He has served the Assemblies of God as a Senior Pastor, Associate/Assistant Pastor, Youth Pastor, Christian Education Pastor, pulpit supply preacher, short-term missionary worker, and evangelist. He also writes and leads worship songs, plays guitar, bass and harmonica. He has written, performed, recorded, and produced fourteen original worship songs, as well as released a single entitled, Your Perfect Rest.

Dr. Soza has published four academic articles for Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) reference works. A first article entitled ‘Jeremiah’, and a second entitled ‘Lamentations’ were written for the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology and were published in 2000. Two other articles were written for IVP’s Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) series. The first of these, published in 2003, was entitled ‘Repentance’, and went to market in the TDOT: Pentateuch volume. The second of these, ‘Jeroboam’, went to press in the TDOT: Historical Books volume in the fall of 2005. He contributed the devotional commentary notes on the Books of Jeremiah and Lamentations for the Abingdon’s Press Wesley Study Bible released in January of 2009. He also published through Wipf and Stock a trade book entitled Food and God: A Theological Approach to Eating, Diet, and Weight Control in May of 2009. The book is avaialble for purchase.   Dr. Soza is an active member in the Society of Biblical Literature and the Institute for Biblical Research.

Dr. Soza’s personal interests include: gardening, flight, physical fitness, especially running and track and field, and outdoor/recreational activities, music performance and recording, computers and technology, Spanish language, and general reading in a broad array of subjects. Dr. Soza and his wife Migdalia have been married since 1989, and are the parents of Joseph (born in 1993), and Shari (born in 2001). They presently reside in Louisville, Ohio.