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Saturday, July 18

Panel Discussion: “The Bible and AI”

Presenter(s): TBA

Sunday, July 19

Borderlands studies have flourished in many disciplines including Biblical research ever since Gloria Anzaldúa’s seminal work “Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza” (1987). In Pentateuch studies, however, its empowering merits as well as its explanatory potential are still waiting to get explored. Especially for the book of Numbers, Borderlands theory allows for a deeper and critical understanding of the narrative and redaction critical peculiarities in ch. 21–36. The paper will present an introduction into Num 25 as a Borderlands text in the context of Num 21–36. The first part of the paper will map “Borderlands” as the narrative setting in Num 21-36 from the perspective of Borderlands theory. The second part of the paper focus on the narrative and linguistic Borderlands features in Num 25. It will argue that this perspective helps not only better understanding the challenging narrative structure and the precarious theological claims in this chapter, but also enables us to critically deal with them as readers.

Presenter: Kirsten M. Schäfers

Kirsten M. Schäfers, Dr. Theol. 2021 Ruhr-University of Bochum, Germany, serves as an acting professor for Old Testament Studies at the Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Bonn. In her research, she specializes in Pentateuch Studies, Textual Criticism, Hosea, and Dependency Studies. She is the author of “Textentstehung und Texttradition im Numeribuch” (THBS 9, Leiden: Brill, 2025) and co-editor of “Vom Text zum Entstehungsmodell in der Pentateuchkritik” (FAT 186, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2025).

Why was 1 John written? For decades, scholars have attempted to find answers in the few verses of the epistle that seem to speak to an external conflict, one involving the mysterious “antichrists.” In this presentation, however, Méndez argues that this approach has caused scholars to miss the essential message of the epistle of 1 John, the message that structures its opening and closing verses and that is reinforced repeatedly in the epistle. That message is that a person who is “born of God” and enjoys the divine indwelling “does not sin” and “cannot sin”— that is, that the new birth transforms a person's nature into one that is sinless and impeccable. As he develops this new reading of 1 John, Méndez situates the author’s argument within Jewish and Pauline backgrounds and revisits several passages confusing and misunderstood passages of the epistle.

Presenter: Hugo Méndez

Hugo Méndez is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he specializes in the New Testament and its early reception. His recent books include The Gospel of John: A New History (Oxford, 2025) and The Epistles of John: Origins, Authorship, Purpose (Cambridge, 2026).

Sunday, July 19

TBA

Richard J. Bautch, St. Edwards University

Monday, July 20

The nature of prophetic speech has typically been described in terms of the prophets' role as a divine messenger. Prophets are spokespersons for God; their word is a message from God and is understood to be primarily pedagogical. While there is much to commend this account, it does not fully account for how the biblical texts construe the words of the prophets as powerful in their own right. This paper will examine texts from the prophetic corpus that depict prophets not merely in the role of spokespeople, but as speakers of power words that bring about the realities of which they speak. 

Presenter: Nathan Mastnjak

Nathan Mastnjak joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame in 2025 as Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. His research and writing focus on the prophetic literature of the Old Testament. His most recent book, Before the Scrolls: A Material Approach to Israel’s Prophetic Library (OUP, 2023) explores the materiality of prophetic literature and argues that the earliest forms of prophetic literature should be understood on the model of a collection or archive rather than a book.

Jesus’ puzzling dialogue with the Jews in John 8 ranges over subjects from sonship to slavery and is deeply enmeshed in a wide range of ancient Jewish discourses and discussions: haggadic, mishnaic, apocalyptic, allegorical, physiognomic/divinatory, and, of course, scriptural.  At the same time, the influence of wider Greco-Roman traditions, notably jurisprudential and moral, is also importantly present.  This paper explores the web of these topical connections to expose John’s unique notion of the “works of Abraham” (John 8:39).

Presenter: Anthony Giambrone, O.P.

Anthony Giambrone, O.P., is Vice Director and Ordinary Professor of New Testament at the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, as well as Honorarprofessor für Topographie und materiale Kultur der biblischen Welt at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich.  His most recent book is The Science of Scripture: Aquinas as Exegete and the Reordering of Theology (Emmaus Academic, 2026).

Monday, July 20

“Honoring the Beloved Disciple”

Presenter(s): TBA

Tuesday, July 21

“Paul, Judaism, and 1 Thessalonians”

Regarding Paul’s relationship to Judaism, a new approach to Paul is emerging. Several recent interpreters continue to affirm Paul’s Jewishness, but question how representative he should be for constructing broader ancient Jewish thought and how harmful his ideas were for ancient and modern Jews. This paper will offer a brief survey of Pauline scholarship with a special emphasis on readings of Paul that complicate the “Paul within Judaism” approach by highlighting aspects of his thought that are “ethnonationalist” (Emanuel 2025) or even “supersessionist” (Schwartz 2026). I will then reconsider one of the most difficult passages from Paul’s letters: his statement in 1 Thess 2:14–15 that there were Jews (or Judeans) who killed Jesus and the prophets, who displease God and oppose everyone. The paper will conclude with some ethical reflection on this text from my own location as a Protestant New Testament scholar, in conversation with Nostre Aetate.

Presenter: Olivia Stewart Lester

Dr. Olivia Stewart Lester is an Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity and Graduate Program Director at Loyola University Chicago. She is the author of Prophetic Rivalry, Gender, and Economics: A Study in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4­–5 (Mohr Siebeck, 2018), and an editor of “Listen to the Sibyl”: The History, Poetics, and Reception of the Sibylline Oracles (Brill, 2026).