Marianne Meye Thompson on Christ and Human Flourishing

Dr. Marianne Meye Thompson is George Eldon Ladd Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary. In this video, she discusses what the New Testament indicates about Jesus in relationship to human flourishing. The presentation is a project of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.

Web Round Up #9

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

Rebecca Raphael writes about team-teaching a course.

Seventeen Jewish female clergy and scholars describe their struggles and success.

Amy-Jill Levine writes about the difference between “Old Testament,” “Hebrew Bible,” and the Tanakh.

Interview with Eliska Havelkova, Th.D. student at Charles University in Prague.

Karen R. Keen writes Private Thoughts of a Biblical Scholar on Faith and Academia.

Julie Faith Parker on children in the Hebrew Bible.

 Ellen Muehlberger completes a two year project collecting stats on 70 issues of Review of Biblical Literature (April 2013-April 2015). Out of 1650 authors, editors, reviewers featured,  1385 were men and 265 women (16%). Read her thoughts here.

Lynn Huber’s recent book is now out in paperback: Thinking and Seeing with Women in Revelation

Check out the website for the journal on Dead Sea Scrolls, Revue de Quman.

New website for Sardis excavations.

Check out some of these history apps including for ancient Mesopotamia, as well as coins from the Graeco-Roman world

Interview: Barbara M. Leung Lai

LeungLai-Faculty New Oic. [2]Dr. Barbara M. Leung Lai is Professor of Old testament and Director of the Pastoral and Chinese Ministry Program at Tyndale Seminary. She earned a B.Th. from Alliance Bible Seminary, M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary, Th.M. from Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto, and Ph.D. from University of Sheffield. Dr. Leung Lai’s website can be found at: drleunglai.tumblr.com

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

I was first called to the Gospel Ministry in my 20s, so I enrolled at Fuller Seminary for my MDiv in the 70s. During my MDiv studies, I came to love the Hebrew Bible and was preparing myself for this academic path. As a Chinese woman studying MDiv in the mid 70s, I was the only Asian female graduating from Fuller (in 76, only the second year when Fuller had women MDiv graduates, and I was the only non-ordination track graduate among the 4 women grads). After my MDiv., I moved up to Canada, working towards my ThM with a modernist R. K. Harrison at Wycliffe College, U of T, and subsequently moved on to do the ThD with Harrison in the late 70s. When I graduated from Wycliffe, I was the only Asian woman graduating with a graduate degree at Wycliffe (in 79). I continued on my doctorate studies with Harrison (for 6 and a half years) till he became very ill and subsequently passed away in the mid 80s. During the years that I was raising a family, I was looking into starting another doctoral program all over again in the UK. In 1994, I started another PhD program at the University of Sheffield, under a postmodernist this time, Professor David J. A. Clines. As a more mature PhD student, I managed to complete my residence and my degree within 3 years (1997). There were a total of 16 years between the time when I almost completed my ThD dissertation with Harrison and finally gained my PhD from Sheffield under Clines. All because of the sustaining grace from above and the very determined spirit from within—guess, that’s what could be referred to as “a sense of the divine call.” More

Laura Nasrallah on the Letters of Paul

Laura Nasrallah, professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, gives a brief taste of a course she offers as she discusses the Apostle Paul’s letters and why she decided to study early Christianity.

Interview: Beth M. Stovell

BstovellDr. Beth M. Stovell is Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Ambrose University. She earned a B.A. from University of Texas, a M.C.S. from Regent College, and a Ph.D. from McMaster Divinity School. Stovell can be found at her academia.edu site, personal website at beth.stovell.info or on Twitter @BethStovell.

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

I never imagined I would be a biblical scholar. I started my undergrad planning to be a neurosurgeon and then became completely enamoured with Classics and English Literature while at University of Texas. I loved ancient languages and literature, but I had no idea what I would do with that. I got a job as a Latin high school and junior high teacher. I figured out I loved teaching, but I wanted to learn more. I went to Regent College for my Masters degree, thinking I might become a novelist. I was studying English Literature and Spiritual Theology when my amazing mentor Dr. Maxine Hancock said to me that I had the gifts of a professor. This combined my passion for writing, research, and teaching in a way that I never imagined could be joined. More

Web Round Up #8

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

1. Mary Ann Beavis writes about the book of Hebrews and its relationship to the wisdom tradition (reviewed by Larry Hurtado).

2. Jennifer Guo hosted February’s Biblical Carnival.

3. Nyasha Junior’s new book, An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation, is now available.

4. Cynthia Shafer-Elliott will be speaking on April 18th on the subject of ancient Israelite families at First Congregational Church of Auburn in California.

5. Congratulations to Krista N. Dalton and her crew on being awarded an AAJR grant for their work at Ancient Jew Review.

6. Leslie Baynes writes a post on The Heavenly Horses of C.S. Lewis.

7. Jennifer Guo writes a three part review on Studies in the Pauline Epistles: Essays in Honor of Douglas J. Moo.  See Part I, Part II, and Part III.

8. Candida Moss is consulted for CNN’s special Finding Jesus

9. Corrine Carvalho on The God that Gog Creates.

10. Abigail Ann Young writes Reflections on 1 Thessalonians

11. Alison Joseph’s book Portrait of the Kings: The Davidic Prototype in Deuteronomistic Poetics has been published and is now available.

12. RBL Book Reviews:

Angelika Berlejung and Michael P. Streck, eds.
Arameans, Chaldeans, and Arabs in Babylonia and Palestine in the First Millennium B.C.
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9425

Chantal Reynier
Pour lire la lettre de Saint Paul aux Romains
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8940

Katharine J. Dell
Interpreting Ecclesiastes: Readers Old and New
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9579

Sarah J. K. Pearce
The Words of Moses: Studies in the Reception of Deuteronomy in the Second Temple Period
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9476

13. Michigan’s Near Eastern Studies Dept needs a Hebrew Language Coordinator. Apply by March 31st deadline.

14. The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies is accepting applications for its 2015-2016 Graduate Student Research Fellowship.

15. Digital tools:

Interview: Elizabeth E. Shively

0.Shively_HeadShotElizabeth E. Shively is Lecturer of New Testament Studies at The University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland. She earned her B.A. from The University of the South (Sewanee), M.A. and Th.M. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. from Emory University. She can be reached at: ees3@st-andrews.ac.uk

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

I happened upon biblical studies by accident. I grew up in the Philadelphia area singing and playing the violin, and so it involved little thought for me to choose music as my college major. I wanted to serve God and his people through music and so after college I went to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary to pursue a church music degree. While there, I took advantage of the variety of courses on offer and got hooked on biblical studies. Specifically, it was summer Greek with Scott Hafemann (who is now my colleague!) that changed my life. I completed a M.Div. and Th.M. instead of a MA in church music, and, as a bonus, met and married my husband in the process. I planned to continue my pursuit of biblical studies at the doctoral level at that point, but God’s plans were different. An unexpected opportunity came my way to join the ministerial staff at Park Street Church, a large, urban congregation in the heart of Boston, and I couldn’t pass it up. There I developed a passion for preaching and for teaching in a church context. More

Olive Winchester: A Pioneering Female Biblical Scholar and Theologian

This post is republished by permission from the University of Glasgow.

winchester-olive-m-2857b-4Olive May Winchester, born on 22 November  1879 in Monson, Maine, USA, was the first woman to be admitted to study for and to graduate with a Bachelor of Divinity degree at the University of Glasgow from 1909-1912; she was also the first woman ordained by any Christian denomination in Scotland in 1912; and on her return to the USA, she became the first woman to complete a Doctor of Theology degree from the Divinity School of Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, in 1925.

A clearly outstanding student, Olive was awarded several prizes while at the University of Glasgow, including the ‘Jamieson Prize of £10 for examination in subjects BD’ in the session 1911-12 and also the Cleland and Rae-Wilson gold medal for Church History in the same year. At a time when Queen Margaret College was the institution responsible for the education of women within the University of Glasgow and women were educated in separate classes from men, Olive appears as the only female in Professor Henry Reid’s Divinity Class of 16 students . She was also the only female in the Church History class of 14 students.   More