Free, online: Popular Visual Media and the Bible Conference

March 26, 2020 Deane Anti-Semitism, Arts, Film, Media, Reception History, Video Bea Fones, David Tollerton, Holly Morse, Laura Carlson Hasler, Mat Collins, Popular Visual Media and the Bible Conference, Rebekah Welton, Siobhan Jolley, Stephanie O’Connor, Tim Hutchings, Tom de Bruin, University of Exeter, Zanne Domoney-Lyttle

The Popular Visual Media and the Bible Conference, hosted by the University of Exeter, will now be run as an online/digital conference, on Mon April 6, 2020, 09:00 – 17:30 BST. Enrol here to view the conference online (no charge).

We will explore the varied relationships between the Bible and contemporary popular visual media (including TV, video games and fantasy literature)

Our conference schedule is as follows (subject to change):

9:30 – welcome

9:40 – 10:30 Panel 1

Siobhan Jolley (University of Manchester)– “I can’t be physical with you” – Reimaging John 20:17 through Fleabag (S2)

Laura Carlson Hasler (Indiana University) – The “Good” Book?: Protestant Television Without the Bible

10:30 – 10:45 Break

10:45 – 12:00 Panel 2

Bea Fones (Durham University) – Daddy Issues: Angelic(Mis)Conceptions and Gender Binaries in the CW’s Supernatural

Mat Collins (University of Chester) – Subversive Screenings: Rethinking Genesis 22 in Popular Visual Media

Rebekah Welton (University of Exeter)- Sibling rivalries and reconciliation in Supernatural: God, the Darkness and Genesis 1:1-5

12-1 Lunch

1:00 – 2:15 Panel 3

Tom de Bruin (Newbold College) – Reception of the Bible in My Little Pony and Christian Apocrypha

Stephanie O’Connor (Dublin City University)– The Batman and the Bible

Zanne Domoney-Lyttle (University of Glasgow)– Wrestling with the Bible: “The Monday Night Messiah”, a “David and Goliath Battle”, and other ways the Bible influences pro-wrestling

2:15 – 2:30 Break

2:30 – 3:30 Panel 4

Tim Hutchings (University of Nottingham)– “My Jesus Would Be Chunky” Visualising Virtue and Vice in a Christian Videogame

David Tollerton (University of Exeter)– Anti-Judaism in English History and the strange moment when Doctor Who appeared to propagate biblical supersessionism

3:30 – 4:30 Keynote

Holly Morse (University of Manchester)– Serpentine Saviours and Woke Women: Twenty-First Century Television Goes Back to the Beginning

Maggi Dawn on The Bible and Western Culture

January 5, 2018 Deane Arts, Literature, Reception History, Video Maggi Dawn, Radbound University, Western culture

Professor Maggi Dawn (Yale University) summarises some of the influences of the Bible on Western culture, in a talk at Radbound University on May 11, 2017.

David Jeffrey – Interpreting the Bible in Art: Rembrandt’s Bathsheba

January 5, 2018 Deane Arts, Biblical Literature, History and Stories, Reception History, Samuel, Video Bathsheba, David Jeffrey, Lanier Theological Library, Rembrandt

Professor David Jeffrey (Baylor University) discusses Rembrandt’s Bathsheba, in a lecture delivered at the Lanier Theological Library on October 7, 2017.

The tradition of biblical commentary in the West is venerable and rich. From the outset, theology was essentially commentary on the biblical text exclusively. What is less well recognized today is the extensive role both literary and visual artists played in shaping the way people understood and applied biblical texts. In this lecture, David Jeffrey looks at some of the ways both late medieval and Reformation commentary dealt with one of the most awkward passages in biblical history, the relationship between King David and Bathsheba. Because of David’s key role in the lineage and typology of the Messiah, the story in 2 Samuel 11 produced a range of fascinating responses from both verbal and visual commentators, but perhaps none more profound than that of Rembrandt in his 1654 Bathsheba.

Choon-Leong Seow Lectures on Job: The 2016 Thomas Burns Memorial Lectures

October 8, 2016October 8, 2016 Deane Arts, Biblical Literature, Job, Literature, Reception History, Video, Wisdom A Contested Classic, Choon-Leong Seow, The Story of Job, Thomas Burns Memorial Lecture Series, University of Otago

Professor Choon-Leong Seow (Vanderbilt Divinity School) delivers the 2016 Thomas Burns Memorial Lecture Series at the University of Otago, on “The Story of Job: A Contested Classic”

Tuesday 26 July: Job in the Cradle of World Literature [video] [audio]

Wednesday 27 July: The Artistry of the (Hebrew) Book of Job [video] [audio]

Thursday 28 July: Theological Conversations in Job [video] [audio]

Tuesday 2 August: Job as a Contested Classic [video] [audio]

Wednesday 3 August: Job Through the Eyes of Artists [video] [audio]

Thursday 4 August: Job in Modern Literature [video] [audio]

Choon-Leong Seow is the author of Job 1-21: Interpretation and Commentary (Eerdmans, 2013), the first in the Illuminations series, which examines “the reception history of Job, including Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Western secular interpretations as expressed in theological, philosophical, and literary writings and in the visual and performing arts.”

BSO7a-b Interview with Kaya Mar

May 3, 2016May 19, 2016 James Arts, Audio, Culture, Imperialism, Politics, Reception History, Violence War Biblical Studies Online Podcast, Kaya Mar

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The latest BSO podcast is James Crossley interviewing the artist and political satirist Kaya Mar which took place on 3 May, 2016. Due to some minor technical hitches, the interview is in two parts. The first short part (BSO7a) is effectively the intro while the second part (BSO7b) is the bulk of the interview. The interview covers the biblical topics such as Jesus-Corbyn comparisons, a number of political paintings with biblical themes listed below, and José Saramago’s novels on Christian origins, as well as other issues such as the political functions of the artist. The interviews can be streamed or downloaded here and should be available on iTunes shortly:

BSO7a Interview with Kaya Mar (Intro; 2:47)

BSO7b Interview with Kaya Mar (Main; 35:05)

Kaya Mar’s work features on the front of a recently updated version of a book on the Bible in English political discourse since 1968:

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Mar’s work ranges from landscapes through portraits to political satire. The Bible and religion feature regularly as plenty of examples from Mar’s website show (including those mentioned in the podcast). Readers might want to look at ‘The Birth of Gideon’, ‘Jeremy Corbyn: Labour’s Unwanted Child’, ‘Crucifying the NHS’, ‘Saint Kate’, ‘Madman Martyred to Imperialism’, ‘Attending King David on His Throne’, ‘The Occupy Tent City at St Paul’s Cathedral’, and ‘The Massacre of the Kurds’ (and many, many more).

Here is some more information on Kaya Mar:

Salomé in Reception History: “The Veils of Salomé”

January 2, 2015January 2, 2015 Deane Arts, Biblical Literature, Josephus, Literature, Music, Reception History, Secondary, Theatre, Video Aaron Hughes, Anne Merideth, Emil Homerin, Jean Pedersen, Jonathan Baldo, Michael Anderson, Salomé, University of Rochester, Veils of Salomé

On October 9-10, 2014, the University of Rochester hosted a two-day symposium examining the reception history of Salomé.

A number of the presentations at the symposium have been made available on YouTube.

October 9, 2014:

9:00-9:30 am

“Josephus on Salomé and Her Times”

Aaron Hughes

9:30-10:00 am

“Salomé in the New Testament and Later Christianity”

Anne Merideth

10:00-11:00 am

“From Dancing Daughter to Femme Fatale: Salome in Western Art”

Grace Seiberling

11:00 am-Noon

“Late-Medieval Music for John the Baptist and the Dancing Girl.”

Michael Anderson

Matthew Brown

1:00-1:30 pm

“A Heady History: Salomé and John the Baptist in English Literature”

Jonathan Baldo

1:30-2:30 pm

“Writing Salomé’s Dance: Mallarmé, Flaubert, Huysmans, and Wilde.”

Francoise Meltzer

2:30-3:00 pm

“Salome at the Theatre: Oscar Wilde in Paris and London”

Jean Pedersen

3:00-3:30 pm

“Staging Scandal with Salomé”

Joy Calico

3:45-4:30 pm

“P. Craig Russell and a recent interpretation of Salomé”

Emil Homerin

October 10, 2014:

“The Dance of Seduction”

Deirdre Towers

“Twisted, Tangled, and Tied Up in Knots: Finding Salomé’s Motivation to Dance Beneath the Mystique, Double Standards, and a Pile of Fabric”

Betty Jenkins and Leanne Rinelli

Biblical Studies Online on iTunes

March 14, 2014 James Academics - interviews, Arts, Audio, Biblical Studies - Disciplinary History, Christian Politics, Culture, History, Music, Politics, Reception History, Secondary, Universities / Academia Biblical Studies Online Podcast, Deane Galbraith, James Crossley, Tony Benn

Our very own brand of Biblical Studies Online podcast are available on iTunes. Biblical Studies Online podcasts will be a fairly regular (hopefully 1-2 every month), about 10 minutes long, and will cover a wide range of topics in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, early Judaism, New Testament, historical criticism, reception, and more. One notable feature will be interviews with scholars in the field and the first interviews should be uploaded in the next couple of weeks. It has genuine Biblical Studies Online artwork but there is no introductory jingle as you may have heard with other leading biblical studies podcasters.

The first podcast is on reception history and biblical studies.

In this podcast, James Crossley (University of Sheffield) introduces Biblical Studies Online podcasts and the general aims. It looks at issues of historical criticism and reception history and whether there should even be a distinction between the two.

The second podcast will be available on iTunes in the next 24 hours. It is currently available here and is on the late Tony Benn and his understanding of the Bible and religion. It ‘looks at the former Labour MP Tony Benn and his views on religion and the Bible. In particular, it looks at how Benn understood the Bible as part of a British and English socialist tradition.’

Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan on “African American Spirituals Engaging Scripture”

February 11, 2014 Deane Biblical Literature, Music, Reception History, Secondary, Video African American Spirituals, antebellum, Boston College, Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Civil Rights, Is the Pen or Collective Song more Powerful than the Sword?

Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, professor of theology and women’s studies, Shaw University Divinity School, presents a lecture entitled, “Is the Pen or Collective Song more Powerful than the Sword? African American Spirituals Engaging Scripture” at Boston College, March 20, 2012.

This presentation provides an overview of African American spirituals, their connection with Scripture, and how the living and performance of these “chants of collective exorcism” served as transformative bolsters of courage and faith during the antebellum and 1960s Civil Rights Eras. Parallels are also drawn between the spirituals and selected hip hop music.

Art and the Bible

February 8, 2014February 8, 2014 James Arts, Reception History Abraham Bloemaert, Adriaen van Stalbemt, Albert P.Ryder, Albrecht Dürer, Alexander Ivanov, Andrea del Verrocchio, Andrea Mantegna, Anonymous, Anthony van Dyck, Antonio Bellucci, Arent De Gelder, Artemisia Gentileschi, Azor masters, Édouard Manet, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Benjamin Cuyp, Bernardo Strozzi, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Cimabue, Cornelis Anthonisz, Cosimo Rosselli, Derick Baegert, Diego Velázquez, Duccio, Edward Burne-Jones, El Greco, Eugène Burnand, Eugène Delacroix, Eustache Le Sueur, Ferdinand Bol, Ferdinand Hodler, Filippino Lippi, Fra Angelico, Francisco Collantes, Frans Hals, Fritz von Uhde, Geertgen, Georges de La Tour, Gerard Seghers, Gerard van Honthorst, Ghirlandaio, Giambattista Tiepolo, Giorgione, Giotto, Giovanni Bellini, Giovanni Lanfranco, Giovanni Serodine, Gortzius Geldorp, Govert Flinck, Gustav Klimt, Gustave Doré, Han van Meegeren, Hans Holbein, Hans Memling, Heronimus Bosch, Hubert van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Il Guercino, Il Tintoretto, Ilya Repin, J.H.Schönfeld, J.M.W. Turner, Jacob De Wit, Jacob van Oostsanen, Jacopo Guarana, Jacques De Létin, James Tissot, Jan De Bray, Jan Lievens, Jan Steen, Jan the Elder Brueghel, Jan van Eyck, Jan van Scorel, Jan Vermeer, Jan Vermeyen, Jean de Beaumetz, Jean Fouquet, Juan de Flandes, Juan De Juanes, Kamal ud-din Behzad, Leonardo da Vinci, Luca Della Robbia, Luca Signorelli, Lucas Cranach, Lucas van Leyden, Lucas van Valkenborch, Ludolf Backhuysen, Martin Schongauer, Masaccio, Masolino, Master Bertram, Master of the Munich Golden Legend, Matthias Grünewald, Michelangelo, Michiel Coxcie, Nicolas Poussin, Orazio Borgianni, Paolo Veronese, Paul Gauguin, Peter Paul Rubens, Pieter Aertsen, Pieter Lastman, Pieter the Elder Bruegel, Pietro Lorenzetti, Pietro Perugino, Quentin Varin, Raphael, Rembrandt, Robert Campin, Rogier van der Weyden, Salomon De Bray, Sebastiano Ricci, Simone Martini, Titian, Van Limburg brothers, Vasily Polenov, Vincent van Gogh, Willem De Raet, William Blake

The Art and the Bible website has collected a number of classic paintings depicting biblical characters and scenes. There is also an accompanying ArtBible app (not free). A list of artists who have depicted biblical characters and scenes can be found on the website and they include:

There are also links to a series of ‘specials’ which are most useful for being a collection of favoured artistic topics or particularly famous works. Topics include:

The Adoration of the Magi
The Fall
The Isenheim Altar (altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald)
The Lamb of God (Ghent Altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers)
The Last Supper
The Way of the Cross
Off with his head! (decapitations in biblical art)
The Sistine Chapel
The Tower of Babel
Rembrandt’s Biblical Art

Beyond Belief: Eve

January 23, 2014January 30, 2014 James Arts, Audio, Culture, Feminist Gender Queer, Feminist, Gender, Queer Criticisms, Genesis, Methods and Approaches in Biblical Studies, Reception History, Secondary, Theodicy, Theology BBC Radio 4, Beyond Belief, Ernie Rea, Eve, Katie Edwards, Lilith, Maureen Kendler

This edition of BBC Radio 4’s Beyond Belief looks at the presentation of Eve in both the Bible and its reception featuring Katie Edwards and Maureen Kendler. They are also joined by the apologist Amy Orr Ewing.

In the trailer for the final run of Desperate Housewives, viewers are seduced into watching the series with a variety of tantalising images. Four beautiful women in provocative poses, attracting the longing gazes of their easily led men. Snake like belts draped sinuously around their waists are provocatively removed or loosened. And there’s an apple, red and luscious, newly plucked from a tree. A 21st century television hit makes its appeal by drawing on an ancient biblical character which it assumes will resonate with the viewer.

Joining Ernie Rea to discuss the Biblical figure Eve, and what has been made of her down the centuries are Katie Edwards, lecturer in Biblical Studies at Sheffield University; Amy Orr Ewing, Director of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics; and Maureen Kendler, head of Educational Programming at the London School of Jewish Studies.

Katie Edwards offers the angle from the perspective of critical biblical scholarship, including the use of Eve in advertising. Maureen Kendler looks at close readings of the biblical texts and provides ancient contextualisation, including how Eve compares and contrasts with Lilith.

Ernie Rea: If Eve, the original Eve, were to come into this room now, what would you say to her?

Edwards: “Blimey”, because I don’t think she ever existed in the first place

Rea: I suppose, “Put some clothes on”

The Bible in the Public Square Conference – Duke University

January 20, 2014 Deane Arts, Christian Politics, Culture, Education, Politics, Reception History, Secondary, Video, Zionism and Modern Israel Adele Reinhartz, Bible and America’s Founding Era, Bible and Middle East Policy, Bible and Popular Culture, Bible and Public Schools, Bible in Presidential Politics, Carol Meyers, Charles Haynes, David Morgan, David Stowe, Eric Meyers, Jacques Berlinerblau, John Fea, Mark Chancey, Melissa Rogers, Mordecai Inbari, Rubén Dupertuis, Shalom Goldman, Yaakov Ariel

The Bible in the Public Square Conference took place at Duke University, September 9-10, 2012. Presenters considered the influence of the Bible in spheres such as U.S. politics and culture, the U.S. founding era, public schools, and Middle East policy.

Videos of the presentations are available both on the Duke University website and on YouTube (see below).

Session 1: The Bible in Presidential Politics

Jacques Berlinerblau (Georgetown University), “The Bible in the Presidential Elections of 2012, 2008, 2004 and the Collapse of American Secularism”

Session 2: The Bible and Popular Culture

Chair: Mark Chancey (Southern Methodist University)
Adele Reinhartz (University of Ottawa), “Then as Now: Old Testament Epics and American Identity”
David W. Stowe (Michigan State University), “Babylon Revisited: Psalm 137 as America’s First Protest Song”

Session 2, continued

David Morgan (Duke University), “The Bible as Image in American Visual Culture”
Rubén R. Dupertuis (Trinity University), “Translating the Bible into Pictures: Comic-Book Bibles and the Politics of Interpretation”

Session 3: The Bible and America’s Founding Era

Chair: Carol Meyers (Duke University)
John Fea (Messiah College), “Does America Have a Biblical Heritage?”
Shalom Goldman (Duke University), “God’s American Israel: Hebrew, the Bible and the American Imagination”

Session 4: The Bible and Middle East Policy

Chair: Eric Meyers (Duke University)
Yaakov Ariel (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), “Biblical Imagery and Political Action: the Roots of Christian Support for Zionism and Israel”
Mordecai Inbari (University of North Carolina, Pembroke), “Zionism, Bible, and the Messianic Crisis of the West Bank Settlements”

Session 5: The Bible and Public Schools

Chair: Shalom Goldman (Duke University)
Charles Haynes (First Amendment Center), “Battling over the Bible in Public Schools: Is Common Ground Possible?”
Melissa Rogers (Wake Forest Center for Religion & Public Affairs), “‘Rightly Dividing the First Amendment? An Evaluation of Recent Decisions regarding the Bible and Public Schools”
Mark Chancey (Southern Methodist University), “The Good Book as Textbook in Historical Perspective”

Christopher Rowland on William Blake, Shaffer Lectures 2008

January 12, 2014 James Anthropology (the human), Arts, Biblical Studies Topics, Culture, Development of Christology, Economic, Marxist Criticism, Historical Jesus, Ideological Criticisms, Jesus, Jesus and the Law, Life Teachings Acts, Methods and Approaches in Biblical Studies, Politics, Reader Response Criticism, Reception History, Secondary, Sin, Video Christopher Rowland, Shaffer Lectures, William Blake, Yale Divinity School

Christopher Rowland’s Shaffer Lectures on William Blake (‘”From Impulse Not from Rules”: the Life, Character and Teaching of Jesus in Light of the Prophecy, Poetry and Art of William Blake’) at Yale Divinity School are available on YouTube.

Lecture 1 (October 14, 2008): William Blake on the Life and Teaching of Jesus

Lecture 2 (October 15, 2008): Seeing the Christ: Imagining the Life and Teaching of Jesus in Images

Lecture 3 (October 16, 2008): Antinomiansm and Forgiveness of Sins: Perspectives on Neglected Themes in the Gospels and the New Testament

In Our Time: Online and Podcasts (BBC Radio 4)

January 12, 2014January 16, 2014 James Ancient Israel and Judea, Ancient Mediterranean, Ancient Near East, Apocalyptic, Apocalyptic, Archaeology, Arts, Audio, Biblical Literature, Biblical Studies Topics, Body, Soul, Spirit, Cultural Memory, Culture, David Solomon Monarchy, Death, Afterlife, Eschatology, Death, Afterlife, Netherworld, Divine mediators (angels demons etc), Gnostic texts, Greek and Roman, Historical and Literary Contexts, History, Israel and Judah, Judgment, Languages, Literature, Maccabees, Methods and Approaches in Biblical Studies, Paul, Philosophy, Race Postcolonial, Reception History, Secondary, Theology, Universities / Academia, Webzines BBC Radio 4, In Our Time, Melvin Bragg

In Our Time is a BBC Radio 4 programme on the history of ideas and is presented by Melvyn Bragg. Its range of episodes are classified under the headings ‘Religion’, ‘History’, ‘Culture’, ‘Philosophy’, and ‘Science’. The format consists of Bragg asking questions to, and leading a discussion with, a panel of academics. There are over 600 episodes – either for listening online and/or download – and the full archive is available here. There are numerous episodes covering topics in biblical studies and relevant areas:

Prophecy (13 June, 2013)

Gnosticism (2 May, 2013)

King Solomon (7 June, 2012)

Judas Maccabeus (24 November, 2011)

The Dawn of the Iron Age (24 March, 2011)

The City [Part 1] (25 March 2010)

The Augustan Age (11 June 2009)

St Paul (28 May, 2009)

Miracles (25 September, 2008)

The Greek Myths (13 March, 2008)

Hell (21 December, 2006)

Heaven (22 December, 2005)

Archaeology and Imperialism (14 April 2005)

Angels (24 March, 2005)

Zoroastrianism (11 November, 2004)

Babylon (3 June 2004)

The Fall (8 April, 2004)

The Alphabet (18 December, 2003)

The Devil (11 December, 2003)

The Apocalypse (17 July, 2003)

The Lindisfarne Gospels (20 February, 2003)

The Soul (6 June 2002)

In addition to the episodes listed above, there are episodes on a range of topics and individuals which will be directly relevant to certain areas of biblical studies research (e.g. Plato, Pliny, Roman satire, Wyclif, Erasmus, Milton, historiography, cultural memory).