Author Archives: WBS

Profile: Elizabeth Rice Achtemeier

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AchtemeierToday women biblical scholars can easily get lost in a crowd of male colleagues. How much more so in 1959 when Elizabeth Rice Achtemeier graduated with a Ph.D. in Old Testament from Columbia University? In her memoir Not Till I Have Done, she writes: “In one sense, the life of a woman in academia is a lonely calling. There are not many other women who share my theological journey and work” (116). But follow that calling she did, successfully teaching for thirty-seven years and publishing twenty books.

Achtemeier was fortunate to grow up in a household where her gender was not deemed a limitation. She grew up the only girl in a neighborhood of more than twenty boys and gladly participated in all their sports and games. From her father she learned she could accomplish anything she desired. From her mother she inherited an inquisitive mind. When Achtemeier attended seminary her mother borrowed and read all the textbooks. Not only did Achtemeier have an upbringing that supported her academic pursuits, but she also felt accepted in the male dominated world of the academy–for the most part:  More→

Web Round Up #3

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Web Round Up provides links to relevant news from around the Web, including job openings, new books, articles on women biblical scholars, etc.

1. Rebecca Raphael writes about pedagogy and use of textbooks for teaching religious studies courses.

2. New study shows Gender Differences in the Road to the Doctoral Degree. Women take longer on average, receive less institutional funding, and complete their degrees with a greater amount of debt.

3. Karen Stern on graffiti in the ancient Near East: “Graffiti–the ‘Selfies’ of the Ancient Near East?”

4. From the Onion, “New Archaeological Find Suggests Mary Magdalene Was Actually A Size 12.”

5. Through April 12, 2015, the National Museum of Women in the Arts has an exhibit on Mary: “Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea.”

6. UK Educational Development News

7. Funding: ACLS Public Fellows Competition for Recent Ph.D.s

8. Keep up on women in academia at the WIA Report

Love Sechrest on MLK Jr., Justice, and the Book of Revelation

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In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, enjoy this excellent lecture by Dr. Love Sechrest entitled: “King’s Movement for Economic Justice and the Book of Revelation.” Dr. Sechrest is associate professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Lynn Cohick on Women in the Roman World

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Dr. Lynn Cohick is Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. In the three short video segments below she discusses insights from her book Women in the World of the Earliest Christians: Illuminating Ancient Ways of Life.

Part 1:

Part 2

Part 3:

Web Round Up #2

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Web Round Up provides links to relevant news from around the Web, including job openings, new books, articles on women biblical scholars, etc.

1. Job opening at Grove City College in Biblical and Religious Studies.

2. Kristine Garroway on Children in the Ancient Near East

3. Ellen Muehlberger provides cumulative stats for Review of Biblical Literature for the last eighteen months. These show what percentage of the reviews feature women scholars:

4. New Book Reviews from Review of Biblical Literature:

Rosemary Canavan
Clothing the Body of Christ at Colossae: A Visual Construction of Identity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8759

Willa M. Johnson
The Holy Seed Has Been Defiled: The Interethnic Marriage Dilemma in Ezra 9–10
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8955

5. In April 2015, Dr. Catherine McDowell will speak at Wheaton theology conference “The Image of God in an Image Driven Age.”

Interview: Donyelle McCray

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DMcrayDr. Donyelle McCray is Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Director of the Office of Multicultural Ministries at Virginia Theological Seminary. McCray earned her B.A. from Spelman College, J.D. from Harvard Law School, M.Div. from VTS, and Th.D. from Duke University Divinity School.

How did you decide to become a biblical scholar? Share your autobiographical journey.

While I was in seminary my church history professor asked me if I had considered doing doctoral work.  At the time I felt overwhelmed and was just focused on getting through the semester but the thought lingered.  Then, during my senior year I went on a retreat at the Bon Secours Convent in Marriottsville, MD and felt the Holy Spirit inviting me to ‘pray about teaching preaching.’  It was an unusual phrase and I was struck by how odd it was. I had not considered teaching preaching prior to that moment.  The desire grew from that time.   More→

New Book: Ellen F. Davis on Biblical Prophecy

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The following is reprinted here with permission of Duke University Divinity school.

Ellen F. Davis, the Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School, has written a volume on biblical prophecy for Interpretation Resources, the companion series to the prestigious Interpretation Bible Commentaries for Teaching and Preaching, published by Westminster John Knox Press. More→

Web Round Up #1

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Web Round Up provides links to relevant news from around the Web, including job openings, new books, articles on women biblical scholars, etc. 

1. Job openings:

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary is looking for a Director of Field Education who will also teach in whatever specialty s/he holds a doctorate in.

Howard University School of Divinity invites applications for a position in Hebrew Bible at the rank of assistant professor beginning in July 2015.

2. Nijay Gupta has compiled a helpful “wiki” bibliography of women biblical scholars writing on the Gospels and Acts.

3. Lynn Cohick talks about The Double Edged Sword of Being a Female Bible Scholar.

4. Nyasha Junior on Top 5 Old Testament Texts Beloved by African-American Christians.

5. Sarah Flashing on Why the Church Needs More Christian Women Scholars

Celia Wolff on How to Read the Bible

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Celia Wolff is assistant professor of biblical studies at Northwest Nazarene University. She is a Th.D. Candidate in Christian Scripture and Ethics at Duke University Divinity School. This essay was first published on her blog The Spirit’s Witness.

Reading the Bible as Christian Scripture is both simple and complex. It is complex because—like any art, craft, or sport—it requires a range of tools and much practice in order to reach a level of significant competency. Mastery remains elusive, and not only because Scripture’s subject matter (God) escapes human comprehension. But reading Scripture is also simple. An ordinary reader can go far toward deep understanding, without special training or even a Bible study guide, because the most basic task of reading Scripture is paying close attention to words.  More→

Scholars in SBL Book Reviews

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SBL regularly updates its collection of book reviews. Members receive emails (Review of Biblical Literature) providing links to these specific reviews. Typically each e-mail has a list of approximately ten books. Of these an average of one or two are by women. Below is a sampling from RBL reviews between approximately 2013-2015. Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures scholarship is the most represented. It’s not clear if that is a coincidence or indicative of trends in research by women. Book reviews are submitted based on the interests of the scholars who write them and are not necessarily new releases.

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