21 November, 2022
We are deeply honoured to welcome Professor Mary Boys, Skinner & McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary, USA, to lead a session of the Sacred Literature in Interfaith Contexts Reading Group.
Here are the details of this fascinating session.
Topic: Reorienting Christian Understandings of Judaism: Insights from Biblical Scholarship
Abstract: Biblical scholarship involves seeking understanding of venerable documents by exploring their literary, socio-cultural and historical contexts in order to understand their meanings in the past and for the present. This presentation explores what it might mean for Christians to draw upon the resources of recent biblical scholarship as a catalyst for reorienting their understanding of Jewish life, past and present, in relation to their own faith. It will unfold in four sections:
* Key developments in biblical scholarship: an argument for recalibrating how Christians have understood Judaism
* Recent scholarly perspectives on the Pharisees: a case in point
* Peering behind and beyond the scholars’ methods: new perspectives on “old” texts
* Church life and biblical scholarship: becoming “religious-critical” interpreters of Scripture
Speaker: Professor Mary Boys, Skinner & McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary, USA.
Speaker’s biography: Professor Mary C. Boys is the Skinner and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, as well as its former Academic Vice-President and Dean. Having previously served as a professor at Boston College, she is the author of six books, including Redeeming our Sacred Story: The Death of Jesus and Relations between Jews and Christians; she is also editor or co-editor of four other books as well as numerous articles and reviews. Boys is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, The Catholic Theological Union, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Gratz College. She has been a vowed member since 1968 of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, a congregation of Roman Catholic women.
Professor Boys received her master’s and doctoral degrees from Columbia University in 1978 in a joint program with Union Theological Seminary. She has done advanced study at the Ecumenical Institute for Theological Research in Jerusalem, Israel, and is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Hebrew College-Jewish Institute of Religion (2004), The Catholic Theological Union (2007), The Jewish Theological Seminary of America (2011) and Gratz College (2012).
Prof. Boys is the author of six books: Biblical Interpretation in Religious Education (1980), Educating in Faith: Maps and Visions (1989), Jewish-Christian Dialogue: One Woman’s Experience (1997), Has God Only One Blessing? Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding (2000), Christians and Jews in Dialogue: Learning in the Presence of the Other (2006), co-authored with Sara S. Lee; and Redeeming our Sacred Story: The Death of Jesus and Relations between Jews and Christians (2013). Among her edited books are Seeing Judaism Anew: A Sacred Obligation of Christians (2005) and the co-edited volume Christ Jesus and the Jewish People Today (2011).
She has also published numerous in books and journals such as Concilium, Horizons, Religious Education, Biblical Theology Bulletin, Cross Currents, SIDIC, the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Midstream, the Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations, and the Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America.
A Seattle native, she has been a member since 1965 of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, a congregation of Roman Catholic women.
See also https://utsnyc.edu/academics/faculty/mary-c-boys-75-78/
Chair: Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris, Principal of Leo Baeck College, London, UK.
Time: 18:00-19:00 GMT| 19:00-20:00 CET | 10:00-11:00 PT | 13:00-14:00 ET
Venue: Online
After registering, you will receive the Zoom email containing information about joining the meeting. If you do not see the zoom email in your inbox, please, check your spam folder.
If you would like to join the Sacred Literature in Interfaith Contexts Reading Group, please sign up here.
Related Sessions
- Why The Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins
- The Talmud among Victorian Christians: Polemics and Humanism in Interfaith Encounters
- Seventy Languages (and Translations) for Seventy Nations
- Where does One Encounter the Divine? Dialogue Between the Sexes in the Talmud
- From the People of the Book to the Books of the People: Christian Literature and the 19th Century Ottoman Turkish Literary World
- How Christians Can Learn from the Devotional Poetry of Hindu South India
- Literary Form and Meaning in the Hebrew Bible
- Reorienting Christian Understandings of Judaism: Insights from Biblical Scholarship
- The Revelation at Sinai in Early Synagogue Poetry
- The Book of Isaiah and the Christian Quest for Revelation
- The Qur’an and Kafka: The Trial of Jesus and Josef K
- Conceptions of Revelation in Interfaith Contexts
