Ehrhardt Seminar

 

Biblical Studies. 3rd October 2024, Dr Richard Britton speaking on ‘A Time to Hate: The Bible and Religious Extremism’. 4pm in Uni Place 6.207

End of year report for Centre for Biblical Studies, 2024

SALC Centre for Biblical Studies, Reflections on a Year. Highlights for me (Peter Oakes, Co-Director) have been Karen King of Harvard, bringing everyone to the verge of tears recalling her life with the Gospel of Mary, Geoff Smith of University of Texas, enthusing over getting ancient Coptic text fragments out of envelopes in the Rylands (“It was like being in the nineteenth century!!” [this was meant very positively!]), and three outstanding Biblical Studies PhD completions. Sarah Parkhouse and Siobhán Jolley (back with us this September after two years postdoc at the National Gallery) organised a symposium on reception of the Gospel of Mary, ranging from academic consultants for TV and film to showing of Jo Blake’s innovative play (then live discussion with Jo and others) and to the moving contribution of the doyenne of Gospel of Mary scholars. This day followed another very good year of Ehrhardt Seminars, with speakers from Manchester to Leuven to Houston (albeit with handicaps of dropping from weekly to fortnightly and continuing limitations of audio equipment for hybrid meetings). Prof. Geoff Smith, Director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins at The University of Texas at Austin brought 5 students from Austin for a week in May, hosted by Jeremy Penner, to work on the Rylands still-unpublished/uncatalogued ‘Coptic Limbo’ papyri. Among the hundreds of fragments that still needed sorting, they worked on magical texts, a palimpsest and documentary works; they also discovered a previously unknown Coptic translation of a Gregory of Nazianzus text as well as an unusual/unique(?) alphabet commentary. This was the beginning of a collaborative project that will include a publication of the Coptic Limbo collection in digital format. The first of three extremely successful PhD examinations was Sherry Ashworth, ‘A Novel Approach to Reading Esther: An intertextual study of the Book of Esther with three nineteenth century novels.’ This was followed by Anna Budhi-Thornton, ‘Jesus the Model Man? A Comparison of Ancient Masculinities and the Jesus of the Johannine Passion Narrative’ and David Bell, ‘Children’s Lives and Deaths in 1 Thessalonians: The Significance of the Presence of Children for Interpreting Context and Text’. Between them, they were a great advert for the range and quality of Biblical Studies PhD work happening here. As in past years, a great learning experience for our postgrad students was participation in the 2024 Northern Universities Biblical and Patristic Postgraduate Day Conference, held this year at Durham (we alternate as hosts). It was especially good to have PhD alumna and now Assistant Professor of New Testament at University of Groningen, Kim Fowler, as the plenary speaker for the conference. Finally, we want to thank Lev Eakins warmly for three years of dedicated work as Administrator for the Centre for Biblical Studies. Lev stands down at the end of August, to be succeeded by Lynne Potts, who, after completing MA here is moving on to doctoral work on Septuagint.

Conference Papers

Biblical studies. At the 2024 British New Testament Society Conference hosted by the University of Glasgow, Siobhán Jolley and Rachel Miller co-presented a paper "Why Let the Truth Get in the Way of a Good Story? On Magdalenes, Jezebels, and Women of Ill-Repute"; Daniel J. Atkins (NTC) presented "Chosen in Messiah: Israel within God’s Messianic oikonomia in Ephesians"; Loveday Alexander responded to Monique Cuany's new book, "Proclaiming the Kerygma in Athens: the argument of Acts 17:16-34 in light of the Epicurean and Stoic debates about piety and divine images in early post-Hellenistic times" and Richard Burridge responded to Justin Strong’s "The Fables of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke: A New Foundation for the Study of Parables". Further information.

Sporting Medal

Student achievement. On behalf of the department, we congratulate Ms Rhea Howard and her team to winning the European Championship Bronze Medal in artistic swimming. Rhea is a final year MA student in R+T and managed to study at the same time as she was professionally training for the competition. In her own words she reports the event: "I competed at the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. The competition took place in June, we were away for 10 days training and competing. I was a member of the team representing GB, we swam two team routines a technical and a free and came away with the bronze medal for this. It was GB artistic swimming’s most successful Europeans ever – which was really fun!"

Book Award

Christian Theology. Jacob Lett, Dean of Nazarene Theological College, one of our partner institutions, has been recognised at the 2024 Catholic Media Association Book Awards. His book Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Theology of Representation: God, Drama, and Salvation (University of Notre Dame Press, 2023) has been awarded an honourable mention for first time author of theological subject matters.  Further information.

Conference Paper

Biblical studies. HRF Mary Mills presented a paper on "Emotion and the Prophet: Two Case Studies" at the 2024 European Association of Biblical Studies meeting, via zoom in the hybrid format. All the presenters at this session were also contributors to the upcoming T&T Clark Handbook of Bible and Emotion.

Summer School

Jewish studies. CJS HRF Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz taught a 3-part course on the book of Ruth at the Azara Summer School, which offers high-level study of classical Jewish texts, at Sadeh Farm, Orpington, Kent, 16–21 July. Further information.

New Publication

Biblical studies. Honorary Research Fellow Dr. David A. Lamb has published a chapter entitled "The Language of John: Idiolect, Sociolect, Antilanguage, and Textual community" in The Johannine Community in Contemporary Debate, ed. Christopher Seglenieks and Christopher W. Skinner (Lanham: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2024). This is part of the Interpreting Johannine Literature series. Further information.

Colloquium Success

Early Christianity. With thanks to a British Academy/Leverhulme small research grant, Sarah Parkhouse hosted an interdisciplinary colloquium on "Lived Religion in Late Antique Egypt: Places, Objects, Bodies" (31st July–2nd August), with scholars from the UK, the USA, Norway, Italy, and Germany in Ancient History, Egyptology, and Religious Studies. The colloquium also included a olfactory tour in the Egyptian collection of Manchester Museum and a funerary wreath making workshop. Further information.

Workshop Paper

Jewish studies. CJS HRF Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz attended and spoke on the Jewish community and refugees at an 'Encounter Workshop' at the Woolf Institute, University of Cambridge, 1-2 July.

Book Award

Jewish Studies. CJS Hon. Research Fellow Dr Jane Brooks recently published "Jewish Refugees and the British nursing profession" (Manchester University Press, 2024), which has won the Lavinia Dock award. The award is for "outstanding research and writing produced by an experienced scholar in nursing history who submits a book" from the American Association for the History of Nursing. This is a hugely prestigious award in the discipline. Congratulations! 

International Conference Papers

Biblical studies. Papers given at the International Society of Biblical Literature meeting, Amsterdam, 28 July - 1 August, include doctoral student Rachel Miller "Metaphors the Marginalised Live By? An Intersectional Metaphor Theory", incoming lecturer Siobhán Jolley, "Visualising The Magdalene: Old Masters and New Maestras?" and Samuel Hildebrandt (Nazarene Theological College) "Good to Be Alone: Positive Loneliness in Lamentations 3 and the Hebrew Bible".

Research Grant Award

Early Christian Studies. Professor Peter Oakes and a research team of Dr Sarah Parkhouse (postdoctoral research fellow in Coptic texts and Egyptian landscape), Dr Jeremy Penner (Rylands Library curator of Coptic manuscripts, among others) and Fr John Saleeb (PhD student, Coptic Orthodox Priest of Llandudno) have won a £5000 John Rylands Research Institute pilot grant for the project, "Exploring the Potential Benefits of Rylands Coptic Manuscripts for the Coptic Community in the UK and Internationally". The John Rylands Library has long held a world-class collection of early Coptic Christian manuscripts from Egypt but it is only in recent decades that a substantial Coptic Orthodox community has developed in the UK. The project aims to enable encounters this autumn between key figures in the UK Coptic community and Rylands Coptic manuscripts, with a view to exploring whether much wider such encounters would be beneficial and viable, both for the Coptic community and for wider public understanding of Coptic culture. Initial objectives will be to identify appropriate Rylands manuscripts, organise Coptic Orthodox visits to the Rylands to see and discuss manuscripts, then evaluate a suitable form and potential funding for an expected follow-on main project which, depending on the results of the pilot, might range from creation of an online resource to organising of a substantial exhibition, possibly including touring to reach some of the much larger Coptic Orthodox communities internationally. Image.