Centre for Religion and Public Life

• Mikel Burley, Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy
• Caroline Fielder, Lecturer in Chinese Studies
• Alistair McFadyen, Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology
• Seán McLoughlin, Professor of the Anthropology of Islam (Muslim Diasporas)
• Tasia Scrutton, Associate Professor in Philosophy and Religion
• Mustapha Sheikh, Lecturer in Islamic Studies; Co-Director of the Iqbal Centre for the Study of Contemporary Islam
• Jasjit Singh,  Associate Professor of Religion
• Stefan Skrimshire, Associate Professor in Theology and Religious Studies
• Caroline Starkey,  Associate Professor of Religion and Society
• Johanna Stiebert, Professor of Hebrew Bible
• Aled Thomas, Teaching Fellow
• Emma Tomalin, Professor of Religion and Public Life
• Adriaan van Klinken, Professor of Religion and African Studies
• Robert Vanderbeck, Professor of Human Geography and Head of School

 

Centuries of Jewish and Christian exegetes have made strenuous efforts to redeem, justify, and explain away the difficult, even violent god of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles. Biblical scholars have often supported this effort. This is not only true for the cisgender, heterosexual, and male scholars of the global North who have dominated the field. Feminist scholars, Queer Scholars, and scholars of masculinity have also -- often with the best of intentions -- worked to mitigate and ameliorate the deity’s character, nature, and doings.

The outcome, however, has been harmful, particularly for children, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and persons of colour. In this presentation, Barbara Thiede asks whether religious leaders and scholars can help change practice, teaching, and real-world conditions for the better if they abandon any attempt to “fix” the biblical god. How would such an approach affect religion, religious practice, and learning in classrooms across the globe? And what God is left to us when we acknowledge the divine character and life we find in biblical texts?