James Payton

Payton joined the McMaster Divinity College faculty in 2021. He taught at Redeemer University College for 30 years, retiring in 2015. He spent eight years as a pastor before joining the Redeemer community. His classes at Redeemer built especially on Byzantine History, which lasted for more than 1100 years. Payton urged that this empire needs to be studied by western Christians because of the significant Christian influences which in many ways drove Byzantine history. He taught courses on Byzantine history, Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern European history, Patristics, and Church history. He has done extensive study and has written numerous articles in all these fields[citation needed].
Payton has written six books. "Light from the Christian East: An Introduction to the Orthodox Tradition" was published by InterVarsity Press in 2007. This won the Word Guild's First Place awards in the Leadershi…