2021 Major Presentations

SAT SUN MON TUE 

  EVENT DETAILS  

Saturday, July 31

12:30

 PM

 –

1:30 PM EDT

SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS

 Old Testament:
“‘Unless You Have Utterly Rejected Us’:
Male Sexual Trauma and Theology in Israelite Exilic Literature”

Presenter: Corrine Carvalho, University of St. Thomas - Minnesota

Awareness of sexual violence surrounds us, from the #metoo movement to the communal trauma of priestly sexual abuse. This awareness has reinvigorated discussions of the ways in which biblical texts have contributed to both a rape culture and toxic masculinity. With a few exceptions, many of these studies, however, have explicitly or implicitly assumed the gender binary of male perpetrator and female victim. This paper seeks to destabilize this assumption by looking at select prophetic texts as reflecting male experience of rape either as direct victim or as emasculated head of household.

Corrine Carvalho is Professor of Theology and Interim Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. She has published extensively on Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Exilic literature for Paulist, Fortress, CBQ, Anselm Academic, and more.

 New Testament:
“A New Look at Herme’s Book of Revelation”

Presenter: Angela Kim Harkins, Boston College School of Theology
and Ministry

The Shepherd of Hermas was enormously popular during the early centuries as a catechetical text. This paper investigates Hermas’s encounter with the beast in Vision 4 and considers how the experiential details in this scene can be understood within the work’s larger aim of moral formation.

Angela Kim Harkins is Associate Professor of New Testament at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. Much of her scholarship has focused on the Qumran prayer collection, Hodayot. Harkins is the co-editor of Selected Studies on Deuterocanonical Prayers (Peeters, 2021). Her recent monograph project is on the visions in the early Christian text known as the Shepherd of Hermas.

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Saturday, July 31

3:30

 PM

 –

4:45 PM EDT

GENERAL SESSION

 Presidential Address:
“Woman Zion’s Destiny as Theological Disclosure:
A Feminist Mapping of a Metaphor across Isaiah”

Gina Hens-Piazza, Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University

The unity movement in Isaiah scholarship (a term coined by Melugin, 2008) continues to explore a variety of ways to read and interpret Isaiah as a composite whole.  Prompted by such a challenge, this study takes up the evolving metaphoric depiction of Zion as woman in her various characterizations (prostitute, mother, barren one, wife, etc.) as arguably one of the most pervasive literary constructs across Isaiah. A feminist reading will explore how woman as root of this metaphor not only bears revelatory significance but may even serve as a potential theological linchpin for a more holistic reading of this book.

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Sunday, August 1

1:30

 PM

 –

2:30 PM EDT

SIMULTANEOUS SESSIONS

 Old Testament:
“The Covenant of Levi as Rebuttal to the Pentateuchal Redaction”

Presenter: Richard Bautch, St. Edward’s University

This study of the Covenant of Levi in Mal 2:4-9 breaks new ground by demonstrating how the text (1) advances the leitmotif of Malachi, which is focused on fearing and glorifying the name of God; (2) aligns with the allusions, puns and stinging reversals in Malachi that critique those Aaronide priests with a controlling interest in the formation of the Pentateuch (the Torah of Moses); (3) serves as the manifesto of a Levitical group seeking separation from dominant priestly cohorts such as the Aaronides in Yehud at this time. What one sees, in the end, is how inconspicuous covenants such as the Covenant of Levi function as part of an oppositional wave in the priestly politics of the Second Temple Period. 

Richard Bautch is Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. He has published extensively on post-exilic texts and serves as an associate editor of CBQ and the general editor of CBQMS. He recently held the Gregorian Foundation Chair as Invited Professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

 New Testament:
“Women in the Bible: The State of the Question”

Presenter: Jaime Clark-Soles, Perkins School of Theology

University campuses, bookstores, and academic conferences alike tout classes, books, and sessions on the topic of “Women in the Bible.” What or who properly constitutes the subject matter? For example, there are named and unnamed women, symbolic women, and feminized symbols. God, Jesus, Paul, and the disciples are identified in ways that cross gender boundaries. This talk examines the nature of the evidence currently at our disposal and canvasses tools and methods that are yielding new knowledge and reshaping the old.

Jaime Clark-Soles is Professor of New Testament, Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.

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Monday, August 2

3:30

 PM

 –

5:00 PM EDT

GENERAL SESSION

 Panel Discusssion:
“The Art and Challenge of Translation: Revising the NAB New Testament”

Moderator: Sherri Brown, Creighton University

Panelists:

• Harold Attridge, Yale University

• Christopher Ciccarino, Seton Hall University

• Mary Healy, Sacred Heart Major Seminary

• Felix Just, S.J., Loyola House Jesuit Community

• Edward Mazich, St. Vincent College 

• Mary Sperry, USCCB

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Tuesday, August 3

2:30

 PM

 –

3:30 PM EDT

GENERAL SESSION

“Michal Reframed: A Feminist Approach to Reading the Woman at the Window Motif in 2 Samuel 6:16-23”

Presenter: Sarah Kohles, O.S.F., Loras College and

Wartburg Theological Seminary

The stories of women in the biblical text are often incomplete and fragmented. Michal, the daughter of Saul and wife of David, appears in the Scriptures as part of men’s stories. Yet, Michal is briefly featured and framed at the window as she observes and despises David dancing below (2 Sam 6:16). A close feminist reading of 2 Samuel 6:16-23 demonstrates that the Hebrew text invites readers to pause and consider the narrative from Michal’s perspective and even hints that Michal’s view of David may align with Yahweh’s.

Sarah Kohles, O.S.F., is Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies at Loras College and Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. She co-edited In Our Own Words: Religious Life in a Changing World and is preparing her recent dissertation from Graduate Theological Union for publication. Her next project is titled “Creating Spaces for Women in the Catholic Church.”

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