Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry (SHERM Journal) is a biannual (not-for-profit) peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes the latest social-scientific, historiographic, and ecclesiastic research on religious institutions and their ministerial practices. SHERM is dedicated to the critical and scholarly inquiry of historical and contemporary religious phenomena, both from within particular religious traditions and across cultural boundaries, so as to inform the broader socio-historical analysis of religion and its related fields of study.

Zev Garber is Emeritus Professor and Chair of Jewish Studies and Philosophy at Los Angeles Valley College, and he has also served as Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California at Riverside, Visiting Rosenthal Professor of Judaic Studies at Case Western Reserve University, and as President of the National Association of Professors of Hebrew. As Emeritus Editor of Shofar and founding Editor of Shofat Supplements in Jewish Studies and Studies in the Shoah series, he has presented and/or written hundreds of articles and reviews (academic and popular) in the areas of Judaica, Shoah, Jewish Jesus, and interfaith dialogue. He has authored and edited 15 academic books, including, Mel Gibson's Passion: The Film, the Controversy, and Its Implications; The Jewish Jesus: Revelation, Reflection, Reclamation; Teaching the Historical Jesus; and Judaism and Jesus (co-author, Ken Hanson). Colleagues and scholars acknowledge his academic scholarship and leadership in The Maven in Blue Jeans: A Festschrift in Honor of Zev Garber (Purdue University Press, 2009).