Biblical Studies Seminar

The Academic Study of the Bible at the University of Glasgow draws on the wide-ranging expertise of an international staff in order to offer a unique and creative mixing of historical, comparative and interdisciplinary approaches.

We are strongly committed to a rigorous engagement with primary texts and contexts, and we are one of the few programs in the U.K. to facilitate the study of Hebrew and Greek at all levels of undergraduate study.

To the study of ancient materials we also bring sustained interest in cultural theory and an analysis of the modern and contemporary intellectual, cultural and political forces that continue to shape biblical interpretation. Glasgow University library has superb holdings in Biblical Studies and cognate disciplines.

Our program operates on the assumption that it is at the comparative interface of ancient and contemporary cultures that truly interesting questions are generated and lasting intellectual gains made within biblical studies. The methodologies and approaches that we use - including but not limited to gender theory, literary criticism, critical theory, continental philosophy, historical criticism, media theory and conflict theory - reinforce this assumption.

Our intention is to produce biblical scholarship and new biblical scholars in a way that contributes to large scale remapping and creative rethinking of religion, theology and politics in both ancient and contemporary contexts.

Biblical Studies at the University of Glasgow actively promotes interdisciplinary ties with other sub-specialities within Theology and Religious Studies (Practical Theology, Church History, Theology and Literature, and Comparative Religions), as well as with other subjects within the University (e.g., Anthropology, Archaeology, Classics, History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences).

We maintain strong collaborative links with other universities and research centres such as the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, the University of Oslo, the University of Chicago, the University of Sheffield, and Yale University.

News and annoucements:

Seminar Programme
Conference: Paul, Political Fidelity and the Philosophy of Alain Badiou: a Discussion of Incident at Antioch.

Our books include:

Representing the Irreparable: The Shoah, The Bible and the Art of Samuel Bak (Danna Nolan Fewell, Gary A. Phillips, and Yvonne Sherwood). Syracuse University Press/Pucker Gallery, 2008.

Coping with Prejudice: 1 Peter in Social Psychological Perspective (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament), Paul Holloway. Mohr Siebeck, 2009.

Jesus Beyond Nationalism: Constructing the Historical Jesus in a Period of Cultural Complexity (Halvor Moxnes, Ward Blanton, James Crossley). Continuum, 2009.

Bodies in Question: Gender, Religion, Text, (Ashgate, 2004), Darlene Bird and Yvonne Sherwood (eds.).

The Prostitute and the Prophet: Reading Hosea in the Late Twentieth Century (T&T Clark/Continuum, 2004; 2nd edition ), Yvonne Sherwood.

An Introduction to the Psalms (T&T Clark Approaches to Biblical Studies), Alastair Hunter. T&T Clark, 2008.

Displacing Christian Origins: Philosophy, Secularity, and the New Testament (Religion and Postmodernism Series), Ward Blanton. University of Chicago Press, 2007.

*Shortlisted for the 2008 American Academy of Religion Prize for Best First Book in the History of Religions*

Creation and Creativity: From Genesis to Genetics and Back, Alastair Hunter (ed., with Caroline Vander Stichele). Sheffield, 2006.

Wisdom Literature, Alastair Hunter. SCM Core Texts, 2006.

Derrida’s Bible, Yvonne Sherwood (ed.). Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Sanctified Aggression: Legacies of Biblical Post-biblical Vocabularies of Violence, Yvonne Sherwood and Jonneke Bekkenkamp (eds.). Continuum, 2004.

Derrida and Religion: Other Testaments, Yvonne Sherwood and Kevin Hart (eds.). Routledge, 2004.

Three Faces of Saul: An Intertextual Approach to Biblical Tragedy, Sarah Nicholson. Sheffield, 2002.

Sense and Sensitivity. Essays on Reading the Bible in Memory of Robert Carroll, Alastair Hunter (ed.). Sheffield, 2002.

Consolation in Philippians: Philosophical Sources and Rhetorical Strategies, Paul A. Holloway. Cambridge, 2001, 2007.

A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives: The Survival of Jonah in Western Culture, Yvonne Sherwood. Cambridge, 2000.

Psalms: Old Testament Readings, Alastair Hunter. Routledge, 1999.