CBS Semester 2 publishing roundup

Professor Peter Oakes and Dr Andrew K. Boakye published their co-authored work, Rethinking Galatians Paul’s Vision of Oneness in the Living Christ (London: Bloomsbury, 2021). Across six chapters, they rethink the text as a vision for the lives of its hearers. They show how, in tackling the difficulties that he faces in Galatia, Paul offers a vision of what the Galatians are in their relationship with the living Christ. This offers a new understanding of the concept of unity in diversity expressed in Galatians 3:28.

Meanwhile, Dr Stephen C. Barton, an honorary research fellow, has coedited the second edition of The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels (Cambridge: CUP, 2021) with Todd Brewer. Authors in this volume, including Dr Barton, take account of new directions in gospels research, notably: the milieu in which the gospels were read, copied, and circulated alongside non-canonical gospels; renewed debates about the sources of the gospels and their interrelations; how central gospel themes are illuminated by a variety of critical approaches and theological readings; the reception of the gospels over time and in various media; and how the gospels give insight into the human condition.

Two other honorary research fellows, Dr Helen R. Jacobus and Dr Kirsi Cobb have also contributed to edited volumes. Dr Jacobus’ essay ‘Aramaic Calendars and the Question of Divination’ was published in Unveiling the Hidden--Anticipating the Future. Divinatory Practices Among Jews Between Qumran and the Modern Period, ed. Josefina Rodríquez-Arribas and Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum. Prognostication in History 5. (Leiden: Brill, 2021) 46-100. Dr Cobb contributed ‘Reading Gomer with Questions: A Trauma-Informed Feminist Study of How the Experience of Intimate Partner Violence and the Presence of Religious Belief Shape the Reading of Hosea 2:2-23,’ to Karen O’Donnell and Katie Cross (eds.), Feminist Trauma Theologies: Body, Scripture & Church in Critical Perspective (London: SCM Press, 2020), pp.112-133.

Dr Cobb has also published ‘Look at what they’ve turned us into’: reading the story of Lot’s daughters with trauma theory and The Handmaid’s Tale’ in Open Theology: Special Issue on Women and Gender in the Bible and the Biblical World II 7 (2021) 208–223. This article is open access and available to read online. Other journal publications include Dr Walter J. Houston published 'Work in God's World: Reception and Theology of the Sabbath Commandment in the Decalogue' in Journal of Theological Interpretation 15.1 (2021), 157-180. Dr Houston also made his essay 'The Political Economy of Peasant Poverty: Response to Marvin Chaney' available via academia.edu. Finally, Dr Mary Mills, with Janet Speake, published 'Spaces of Affectivity: Innovating Interdisciplinary Discourse in Open "Free" Space' in Kritika Kultura 36/1 (2021).

The research of the Centre continues to go from strength to strength!