Category Archives: Ethics

The Bible on the Move / La Biblia del Camino

27 Monday Jan 2020

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What does the Bible have to say about migration? Last weekend we hosted five international speakers to discuss the so-called ‘migration crisis’ and Christian responses to it. They were joined by four students, who offered reflections on the topic from their own varied perspectives. The entire event was conducted in both English and Spanish, with live translation undertaken by the amazing Sergio Zapata and Inés Velasquez-McBryde.

Look out for podcast recordings of the talks on Fuller Studio later this spring. In the meantime, the full programme —

Denise Flanders (Taylor University), on “Without Ruth”: The Transformative and Liberating Blessing of the Immigrant / “Sin Rut”: la bendición transformadora y liberadora del inmigrante

Juan Martínez Benavides (Fuller Theological Seminary)

Casey A. Strine (University of Sheffield), on Fear and Loathing in the Levant: King David as Asylum Seeker and Refugee / Miedo y asco en el Levante: el rey David como solicitante de asilo y refugiado

Jhohan Centeno (Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia)

Noemi Palomares (Boston College), on The Polyphonic Psalter: Migration in the Psalms / El salterio polifónico: migración en los Salmos

Jeffrey Bamaca (Fuller Theological Seminary)

Christopher M. Hays (Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia), on What is the Place of My Rest? On Being Migrant People(s) of the God of All the Earth / ¿Cuál será el lugar de mi descanso? Ser pueblo(s) migrantes del Dios de toda la tierra

Patricia Cogles (Fuller Theological Seminary)

Roberto Mata (Santa Clara University), on God’s Migrant Caravan: The Migration of the Church in the Book of Revelation /La caravana migrante de Dios: La migración de la Iglesia en el libro de Apocalipsis

God and Guns: The Bible and American Gun Culture

17 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by in Ethics, Theology, Warfare

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What does the Bible have to say about the use of violence? Can we connect ancient and modern in the case of guns and their prominence in U.S. society? What ethical and moral perspectives would it entail if we took the Bible seriously?

Six internationally-recognised biblical scholars gathered at Fuller Seminary this weekend for a fantastic public discussion and conference about the American crisis of gun violence.

Excerpts from the programme will be up on Fuller Studio sometime in May. In the meantime, the full programme —

 

Yolanda Norton, Assistant Professor of Old Testament and H. Eugene Farlough Chair of Black Church Studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary, on Embodied Testimony: The Signified Lament of Women

Brent A. Strawn, William Ragsdale Cannon Distinguished Professor of Old Testament ad the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, on Projecting (on/in/and) Joshua

Christopher B. Hays, D. Wilson Moore Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, on The Walls of Jerusalem and the Guns of America: A Theological Reading of Isaiah 22:8-11

Tracy M. Lemos, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Huron University and a member of the graduate school faculty at the University of Western Ontario, on Broken are the Bows of the Mighty: The Bow in Ancient Israel and the Gun in Contemporary America 

David Lincicum, Rev. John A. O’Brien Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, on Can a Christian Own a Gun? Interrogating the New Testament

Shelly Matthews, Professor of New Testament at the Brite Divinity School, on This Sword is Double-Edged: Reflections of a Feminist New Testament Scholar on the Bible and Gun Culture

Special issue on Jeremiah and migration now out!

05 Friday Oct 2018

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Pleased as punch at the arrival of this special issue of Political Theology on ‘Migration, Political Power and the Book of Jeremiah’, arising from the Centre for Bible, Ethics and Theology conference by the same name. Kudos to Steed Davidson, Casey Strine, Anna Rowlands and Susanna Snyder for their amazing work!

Contents

Migration, Political Power and the Book of Jeremiah
C. L. Crouch
The Imperial End: How Empire Overtakes Refugees in Jeremiah 
Steed Vernyl Davidson
Embracing Asylum Seekers and Refugees:
Jeremiah 29 as Foundation for a Christian Theology of Migration and Integration
C. A. Strine
The Art of Wounded Hope: Forced Migration, Prophecy and Aesth/Ethics
Susanna Snyder
Temporality, Dispossession and the Search for the Good:
Interpreting the Book of Jeremiah with the Jesuit Refugee Service
Anna Rowlands

Illness, Wellness and the Psalms

05 Friday Oct 2018

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My last event with the Nottingham Centre for Bible, Ethics and Theology will be its next ‘Thinking Theologically with the Bible’ conference on October 13, featuring contributions from biblical scholars Tarah Van De Wiele and Katherine Southwood and theologians Simeon Zahl and Susannah Ticciati.

Our starting point is the book of Psalms, which has held a particular and special place in liturgies for the ill, afflicted and the dying in Jewish and Christian worship for more than two millennia. In these poems and songs the psalmists express their distress at various forms of illness and their hope for restoration to wellness. Our speakers will be drawing on the Psalms to engage in a constructive biblical and theological dialogue about contemporary concepts of wellness and illness.

Further details and links to registration here.

Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics

22 Tuesday May 2018

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Delighted to report that I’ve been asked by CUP to edit a new Cambridge Companion to Hebrew Bible and Ethics, with publication slated for 2020. I’ll be bringing together 22 authors from around the world to write essays at the intersection of descriptive and normative ethics, addressing historical and literary concerns and developing their implications for contemporary ethical conversations. There will be essays on a wide variety of texts and topics, including justice in the Psalms, laws of talion, covenant, gender and the law, economics, poverty and social justice, migration and the environment. I’m absolutely delighted by the line-up of authors and essays and looking forward to the results already.

Forced Migration, Political Power and the Book of Jeremiah

24 Saturday Jun 2017

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I’m delighted to report that the papers from our conference on forced migration and political power, focussed on and using the book of Jeremiah as a springboard, are going to be published as a special issue of the journal Political Theology in 2018. The conference itself was fantastic testament to the effectiveness of bringing together biblical scholars and systematic theologians for sustained conversation—thanks and kudos to Casey Strine, Steed Davidson, Michelle Fletcher, Claire Carroll, Anna Rowlands, and Susie Snyder for being willing to venture outside their disciplinary comfort zones. I’m really looking forward to bringing the results of these conversations to a wider audience.

Why Does the Bible Matter?

14 Sunday Aug 2016

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Several of my colleagues at Nottingham and I have produced a glossy-mag style response to the question ‘Why does the Bible matter?’, tackling the question from the perspectives of biblical studies, the eastern and western Christian traditions, the arts, and other faiths. You can download the whole volume for free here.