He teaches courses in the history of Christianity, and his research is devoted to discovering how people in the ancient world interpreted their sacred books, especially the Bible. He is married to Melissa Phillips, who is trained as a middle and high school math teacher and they have a daughter Catriona and son Cameron. Fun family trivia: they were each born in a different country, spanning three continents and two hemisphere—Canada (Toronto), South Africa (Johannesburg), Scotland (Edinburgh), and America (Charlottesville).