Category Archives: Interviews, Profiles, Meet & Greet

Interview: Elizabeth E. Shively

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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

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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→

Interview: Brittany E. Wilson

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERADr. Brittany E. Wilson is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Duke University Divinity School. She earned a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin, a M.T.S. from Duke University Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Wilson can also be found at academia.edu.

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

I became a biblical scholar because I wanted to reconcile my faith with my curiosity about the Bible. My journey began when I was in college. Although I was very involved in my college ministry group, I found that many of my questions about the Bible were not being addressed or answered in my faith setting. Because of this gap between my faith and my intellectual inquisitiveness, or “my heart and my head,” I became a history and religious studies double major. I also started learning ancient Greek so that I could read the New Testament in its original language. I signed-up for as many Bible courses as I could, and I decided that I wanted to earn my Masters of Theological Studies (M.T.S.) at Duke Divinity School and eventually earn my Ph.D. After graduating from Duke, I did just that by going to Princeton Theological Seminary where I studied with Beverly Roberts Gaventa. Near the end of my program at Princeton, I had the opportunity to return to Duke as a visiting faculty member in New Testament. One year later, I graduated from Princeton, and one year after that, I became a regular rank, tenure-track faculty member at Duke. Since then, the rest—as they say—is history! More→

Interview: Lynn Cohick

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Wheaton College Bible Department Professors (Dr Lynn Cohick), July 19, 2010Dr. Lynn Cohick is Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. She earned a B.A. from Messiah College and a Ph.D. in New Testament and Christian Origins from the University of Pennsylvania.

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

I think I sort of fell into this line of work. I love to read, and I enjoy teaching. I was initially an elementary education major in college, but after my sophomore year, I realized I did not have the right temperament or skill set to work with young children. So I began thinking about teaching at the college level, and since I was always drawn to history, and loved reading the Bible, I decided to major in Religious Studies. I went straight to the PhD program after graduating from college, which felt like I jumped into the deep end of the pool without having first learned to swim. I had a few moments when I thought I’d not make it, but eventually, I learned to paddle around.  More→

Interview: Mitzi J. Smith

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MitziSmith (2)Rev. Dr. Mitzi J. Smith is Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary in Detroit. She earned her B.A. from Columbia Union College, M.A. from The Ohio State University, M.Div. from Howard University School of Divinity, and Ph.D. from Harvard University. She blogs at Womanist Biblical Scholar Reflections and can be reached at: mitzijsmith@gmail.com.

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

I decided to attempt to become a biblical scholar in my second year as a M.Div. student at Howard University Divinity School (HUSD). Initially, I had no idea what I would do after earning my M.Div. I was just compelled to complete my ministerial training, which I began in 1981 at Columbia Union College (CUC) where I earned a BA in Theology. When I enrolled at HUSD in 1995 I was working fulltime as a legal secretary in downtown DC. I knew then that I would likely leave the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA). It had never entered my mind that I could be a biblical scholar. Even though I had biblical scholars as instructors for my undergraduate in theology, the possibility was never presented to me as an option (all my professors were white males and I was the only female entering the theology program in that year). A white female had entered the program a year or so ahead of me and upon completion of her degree she was offered a secretarial position in a SDA conference office. I don’t know if she ever became a pastor (the SDA church does hire women now as pastors but still does not ordain them for pastoral ministry!). So, as a woman and particularly as a black woman, I was not supposed to be in that program at all. Black SDA churches had been even slower than their white counterparts at hiring female pastors. And most black SDAs went to Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. More than ten years later I enrolled at HUSD where I encountered my first African American biblical scholar and where I was encouraged and mentored to become a biblical scholar by Profs Cain Hope Felder, Michael Newheart and Gene Rice and others.  More→

Interview: Ruth Anne Reese

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R.A.ReeseDr. Ruth Anne Reese is Professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. She is also the Chair of the New Testament Department. Reese earned a B.A. from Biola University and a Ph.D. from Sheffield University.

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

I don’t remember a time when I decided to become a biblical scholar. Since I was a child, I loved the Bible. I read and memorized parts of it when I was young. Eventually, I went to an undergraduate institution where I double majored in English Literature and Bible.  My experience of being a double major raised a lot of questions for me about how we read and study the Bible as literature.  One of my profs told me about an MA in the Bible as Literature that was being offered at the University of Sheffield.  I had read a number of works by David Clines, and so I applied for the one year program. Eventually, I received a letter indicating that there were not enough students to offer the course but inviting me to come and do an M.Phil and offering me the opportunity to study with David Clines.  So, I set out for the University of Sheffield. While I was there, I met a number of female Ph.D. students along with several female lecturers.  The Ph.D. students were very encouraging and indicated that I had the capacity to do the Ph.D. My professors agreed and recommended me for the Ph.D. program.  There were, of course, other steps and hurdles along the way.  But I really didn’t set out to become a Bible scholar. At each step, I found that I had more questions that I wanted to answer, and I set about doing research in order to answer my own questions.  The very process of doing research to answer my own questions became the catalyst for becoming a biblical scholar.  More→

Interview: Kristine Garroway

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kristine-henriksen-garroway-phdDr. Kristine Garroway is Visiting Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at Hebrew Union College-Los Angeles. She earned her B.A. from Wheaton College, M.A. from Wheaton College, M.Phil. from Hebrew Union College, and Ph.D. from Hebrew Union College.

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

My answer to this question is always little embarrassing: Indiana Jones. As an incoming college freshman my interests included biology, history, Bible, forensics, and detective novels, so I decided to major in biblical archaeology and become the next Indiana Jones. Silly, right? But in all seriousness, my love for biblical archaeology and ancient Near Eastern history was sparked in the first class I took on biblical archaeology 20 years ago. During my undergrad I participated in a summer Holy Lands tour where I got to see the places I was studying first hand and participate in the Ashkelon excavations. After graduating I continued on for my MA in biblical archaeology, which required me to spend a summer digging at Tel Dor and a semester studying in Israel. I wrote my thesis on the use of architecture in the biblical text. I did my doctoral work at the Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Cincinnati. More→

Interview: Karen H. Jobes

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JobesPicDr. Karen H. Jobes is Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis at Wheaton College and Graduate School. She earned her B.A from Trenton State College, M.S. from Rutgers University, M.A.R. from Westminster Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. from Westminster Theological Seminary. Her website can be found at karenjobes.com

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

About twelve years after becoming a Christian in college, I was teaching adult Sunday School in my church.  At the time I was working in software engineering and computer systems management but discovered how much I enjoyed teaching the Bible.  And of course I also became aware of how much I didn’t know and understand about the Bible.  In the mid-1980s I discerned a strong calling to attend seminary, which was confusing since I didn’t want to pastor. When I discovered the MA in Biblical Studies at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, I enrolled with the intent of returning to my computer work after two years of study.  But during that time the calling to academic teaching developed, and with the affirmation of my professors, I continued on to a PhD in Biblical Hermeneutics. More→

On Being a Woman and A Bible Major

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Recently Sarah Schwartz asked her friend Julie Dykes to write a guest post putting “her experience as a female Biblical Studies major at a conservative evangelical university into words.” The post is a poignant reminder of the importance of mentoring young women who aspire to be biblical scholars especially if they are in contexts that discourage them from pursuing that possibility. We asked Dykes if we could republish her post here, and she graciously agreed.

“So, what’s your major?” they would ask for the millionth time, because that’s what college students do when they meet each other.

“Biblical and Theological studies,” I would reply with enthusiasm.

“Oh,” they would say, their eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “I never would’ve expected it. Well, what do you want to do with your major, then? Do you want to be a children’s pastor, or something?” More→

Interview: Jeannine K. Brown

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Brown PhotoDr. Jeannine K. Brown is Professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary. She earned a B.A.  from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, M.Div from Bethel Seminary, and Ph.D. from Luther Seminary. You can visit her website (soon to be updated)  at jeanninekbrown.com

 

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

I arrived at seminary (Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN) without any formal Bible training but with the goal of preparing for leading in a college student ministry in the years ahead. In my very first class at seminary, I fell in love with a deep study of the Bible and issues around biblical interpretation (hermeneutics). This study included original languages, a solid sense of context, and historical and cultural awareness.   More→