Dr Thea Gomelauri
Dr Thea Gomelauri is Inaugural Director of the Oxford Interfaith Forum, and Associate Faculty Member of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford.
Thea has a vast experience of research, teaching, management, and consultancy in different international, and intercultural contexts. She is a recipient of multiple research and teaching grants, including the Robert S. McNamara Fellowship at the World Bank Institute, the International OSI Policy Fellowship at the Open Society Institute, the Curriculum Development Fellowship at Central European University, and the European Commission Tempus Program. At different times, she worked on research and consultancy assignments with the EBRD, UNDP, and UNHCR in troubled and war-torn regions of the world. She is an International Fellow of The King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), and has received the Interfaith America (formerly the Interfaith Youth Core) Award for Interfaith Leadership in Multifaith World.
Thea has presented papers at the British and Irish Association of Jewish Studies, the International Conference of Patristic Studies, and the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include: Biblical Exegesis, Reception History of the Bible, and Biblical Manuscripts. She is a member of Jewish-Muslim Research Network, Bible and Religions of the Ancient Near East Collective, and the British and Irish Association of Jewish Studies.
Thea’s recent book The Lailashi Codex: The Crown of Georgian Jewry is out now.
PUBLICATIONS:
Gomelauri, T. David’s Children in the Arts, in The Oxford Handbook on King David, (eds), Tiemeyer, L., and Shepherd, D. Oxford University Press. Forthcoming.
Gomelauri, T. (2021). Satan between the Sages and the Fathers. In M. VINZENT (Ed.), Studia Patristica. Vol. CXXIII – Papers presented at the Eighteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2019: Volume 20: Biblica; Judaica; Philosophica, Theologica, Ethica (Vol. 123, pp. 385–398). Leuven: Peeters Publishers. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv27vt545.30
Gomelauri, T. (2021) Women in the Bible, Jaime Clark-Soles. Westminster John Knox Press, 2020 (ISBN 978-0-66-423401-0). Reviews in Religions and Theology, 28:3, 263-65. https://doi.org/10.1111/rirt.14015
Gomelauri, T. (2020) The Land and Its People: 1-2 Kings, Johanna W.H.Van Wijk-Bos. William B Eerdmans Publishing Company. Reviews in Religions and Theology, 28:2, 231-33. https://doi/10.1111/rirt.14001
Gomelauri, T. (2021) David in Distress: His Portrait Through the Historical Psalms. Vivian L. Johnson, Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2020 (ISBN 978-0-5676-9205-4), Reviews in Religions and Theology, 28:1, 69-71. https://doi.org/10.1111/rirt.13943
Gomelauri, T. (2020) The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar, Eitan P. Fishbane. Oxford University Press, 2018. (ISBN 978-0-19-994863-5), Reviews in Religions and Theology, 27:4, 518-520. https://doi.org/10.1111/rirt.13896
ONLINE PUBLICATIONS:
The Lailashi Codex
Theological Anti-Semitism
Scottish Episcopal Church and the G-d of Israel
CONFERENCE PAPERS:
King David Code: Mystery of Psalm 30. LOGOS Fellows webinar, Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford (SCIO). 13 April, 2022.
Job in Crisis. The Annual Conference of the British Association for Jewish Studies on World in Crisis: Reflections and Responses from Antiquity to the Present. University of Southampton and the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations. 5-7 July, 2021.
The Book of Job: Enigma. The Oxford Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews. 26 October, 2020.
Responsible Reading of Sacred Scriptures of the Religious Other. Conference of the Inter Faith Theological Advisory Group of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland on Crossing Boundaries of Faith – towards a Christian Theological Understanding of Inter-religious Ritual Participation: Challenges, Risks and Opportunities. Glasgow, Scotland. 3-5 March, 2020.
Exegetical (Ex)change: Jewish ‘Satan’ vs. Christian ‘Demon’. XVIII Quadrennial International Conference on Patristic Studies. University of Oxford. 19-24 August, 2019.
When Commentary is Not Commentary: the Reception Commentary of 1 Kings 1-2. The Annual Conference of British Association of Jewish Studies on What is commentary? The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, the University of Oxford. 22-24 July, 2019.
Reading Job through the Lens of Moses. The Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion Annual Conference on Compassion and Theodicy: Practice, Thought, and Tradition. The University of Oxford. 19-20 July, 2019.
What Would You Do on the Worst Day of Your Life? The Pointers by King David. The Oxford Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews. Pusey House. 23 January, 2019.
Moses about Moses: Unusual Letters of the Torah. The Oxford Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews. 22 November, 2018.
King David in the Great Scriptures v. Modern Biblical Scholarship. Study Day on The Great Scriptures: 500 years since the publishing of the Great Scriptures – Mikraot Gadolot. The Oxford University Chabad Society. 18 November, 2018.
The Puzzle of Psalm 30. The Oxford Psalms Network. The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) at the University of Oxford. Pusey House. 12 June, 2018