National Gallery Video

Bible and Arts. The National Gallery’s Picture of the Month for April is Savoldo’s Mary Magdalene, and they’ve released a short film where Siobhán Jolley explains how we can identify her in the work. Watch it here.

Buddhist Studies Keynote

Buddhist studies. Erica Baffelli will deliver a keynote for the annual conference of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies (UKABS) on June 28, 2025 (SOAS, University of London). Her keynote address will be titled: “Buddhism at the Margins: Crisis, Community, and Vulnerabilities”.

BBC Breakfast

Christian studies. Siobhán Jolley appeared on BBC Breakfast on 27 April to talk about Pope Francis' legacy and funeral.

Yom Hashoah Commemoration, Manchester

Jewish studies. PhD student Rob Kanter used aspects of his PhD research on Jewish-Muslim relations in Britain to write and present some of the programme at Manchester's Yom Hashoah commemoration which was attended by 900 people in Central Manchester on Wednesday 23 April. The theme of this year's event was 'Untold Stories'. Rob explored the under told experiences of Jewish communities in Iraq and Tunisia during the period of the Holocaust to broaden the audience's understanding on the 'long reach' of the Holocaust into the Middle East and North Africa. Further information.

New Publication

Biblical studies. Todd Klutz has published "Justinus’s Book of Baruch" in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol. 2, edited by James R. Davila and Richard Bauckham (Eerdmans). The work includes an article-length introduction, a new translation, bibliography, and scholarly annotations. Further information.

From the archive... TV documentary on Crucifixion

Easter treat. Andy Boakye has contributed to a TV documentary on the topic of 'The Crucifixion Mystery'. The episode was aired as part of the series Secrets on the Smithsonian Channel (US) at 8pm on 23 Dec 2019, and of the series on Channel 5 Select (UK) at 8pm on 11 April 2020. 

New Booklet Publication

Buddhist studies. The Jodoshu Research Institute has published a booklet on LGBTQ+ and Inclusion to be distributed in temples and Buddhist high schools. Erica Baffelli was part of their research group on sexuality and inclusion that developed the publication and she has contributed to the booklet with a short column. The booklet is available online here. 

International Symposium Paper

Biblical studies. On 2–3 April George Brooke took part in a symposium at KU Leuven in honour of Professor Eibert Tigchelaar on his retirement. Prof Brooke presented a paper on “Probing the Principles of Principal Editions.”

International Research Paper and Lectures

Biblical and Jewish studies. On the week of 7th April, Siobhán Jolley visited Radboud University in the Netherlands to give a research paper, "Apostle to the Church: Reimaging the Resurrection Magdalene", and visiting lectures on the New Testament and Visual Exegesis and Judaism and Visual Art.

Religion & Theology Research Seminar

 

Religion & Theology. 8th May, Ben Quash (King's College London), "What's Going On When Theology is Done with Visual Art?: First Steps Towards a Hermeneutic". 4-6pm, in University Place 5.205 and online. For online access, please email Siobhán Jolley or Scott Midson.

Conference Paper

Religion and disaster. On March 12 2025, Erica Baffelli participated on a panel on Religion and Spirituality in Times of Crisis as part of the two-day event The Art of Recovery: Legacies of the Fukushima Triple Disaster at the University of Bristol. Erica's paper title was “Whose Crisis? Response Networks, Calamities, and Enduring Precarities”. Further information.

British New Testament Society at Manchester

Biblical studies. The University of Manchester will host the British New Testament Society annual meeting 2025, Monday 1 September - Wednesday 3 September 2025. Andy Boakye chairs the "Paul" section and Siobhán Jolley is co-chairing a new session on "Reception, Critical Theory, and Interdisciplinary Studies". Please check the website for the call for papers of all groups, which closes on Monday 21 April 2025. Registration for the conference will open soon.

New Book Publication

Biblical studies. Siobhán Jolley has published Reimaging the Magdalene: Feminism, Art, and the Counter-Reformation with Bloomsbury. The book offers a new, intersectional feminist approach to utilising and interpreting the visual reception of Mary Magdalene. Through employment of Liberative Reception Criticism, which develops traditional reception theory in line with liberative hermeneutics, via the insights of intersectionality as critical theory, Siobhán Jolley provides a novel means of analysing how women, and particularly the Magdalene, are imaged in Christian tradition. It stems from a Manchester PhD supervised by Holly Morse and Peter Oakes. Further information.

Workshop presentation, Oxford

Religion and science. Daniel Langton presented on "Darwin in the Jewish Imagination" at a workshop of the Abrahamic Theistic Origins Project (ATOP) at Oxford, funded by the Templeton Religion Trust, which explores the question of how the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and the evolutionary sciences meet. 4 April 2025. Further information.

Sherman Community Lecture 2025

Jewish studies. The annual Sherman Lecture returns on the 20th May 2025 in the stunning Reading Room at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library. Professor Philip Alexander FBA is Emeritus Professor of Postbiblical Jewish Literature at the University of Manchester, and a founder and former director of its Centre for Jewish Studies. Many of his scholarly interests overlap with those of Gaster, and since 1992 he has worked intensively on the Gaster Collection of manuscripts at the John Rylands Library – the largest single collection of its kind in the world. He will critically survey Gaster’s vast range of interests and activities, and assess his scholarly legacy and his place in Jewish history. 5–6.30pm. Tickets and further information here.

New position - Lecturer in Biblical and Early Christian Studies

Biblical Studies. Applications are invited for the post of Lecturer in Biblical and Early Christian Studies (teaching and research), which is tenable from 1 September 2025. The post is fixed term (12 months). Deadline for application: 28 April 2025. See further information.

SALC Research Showcase: Healthier Futures

Social Responsibility. Wren Radford will be speaking on 'Caring Hurts: Everyday Embodiments, Inequality, and Activism' at the SALC Research Showcase 'Discovering Pasts, Creating Futures', in the session on Healthier Futures on 22 May 2025, Kanaris Theatre, Manchester Museum. Further information and tickets.

Active Bystanding Blog Post

Social responsibility. Biblical studies PhD student Rachel Miller has written a post for the university's Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion blog on the theme of active bystanding. The post can be found here.

Ehrhardt Seminar

 

Biblical studies.  George Brooke, "How Hellenistic is the Pentateuch? Reading Backwards from the Dead Sea Scrolls", 1st May, 4pm, University Place 5.205 and online. This will be a special celebration to celebrate Prof George Brooke winning the British Academy Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies. For further information and Zoom link, please email Lynne Potts.

Studying Judaism through Artefacts

Experiential Learning. A selection of religious material objects in the archives of the John Rylands Research Institute and Library was presented to students on RELT71152 Jews among Christians and Muslims and RELT20572 Interpreting Religion. The study visit was led by Centre for Jewish Studies Fellows Prof Philip Alexander and Dr Katja Stuerzenhofecker in collaboration with curators at the John Rylands, Dr Zsófia Buda and Dr Tereza Ward. The objects highlighted global migrations and inter-religious encounters, aesthetic forms and ritual functions, what counts as religious, and the ethics of curatorial practices.