Dr. David M. Gunn will be visiting Edmonton for the next couple weeks through a grant from the University of Alberta’s EFF Distinguished Visitor Fund. The Program in Religious Studies at the University of Alberta is hosting a series of lectures with Dr. Gunn. In addition, the Religion & Theology Department at Taylor University College is fortunante enough to be hosting one of the lectures on our campus.

Professor David M. Gunn (Ph.D., Newcastle-Upon-Tyne) is the A. A. Bradford Chair in Religion at Texas Christian University. The author or co-author of six monographs and close to four dozen substantive articles, as well as the editor or co-editor of six volumes of collected essays and translated works, and the general editor of 77 more, Dr. Gunn has been described as a prolific and diverse scholar. Originally a classicist, Dr. Gunn became interested in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible. Significant results of that interest include the births of the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament and the JSOT Supplement Series, known today as the Library for Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies. This astounding legacy helped make possible the methodological transformation of the discipline of biblical studies that occurred in the 1980s as scholars moved from a modernist historical-critical paradigm toward theories of reception history. Dr. Gunn currently serves as an editor for the Blackwell Bible Commentary Series, in which he wrote the volume on Judges (2005).

The theme of the free lectures is “Used and Re-Used: Episodes from the History of the Bible’s Reception.” The lectures are as follows (I have bolded the lecture at Taylor):

• “‘Lawless Riot and Intestine Division’: The Bible and Civil War in England and North Americaâ€? (Monday 18 September, 4:00 pm at the University of Alberta, CAB 249 – reception to follow lecture).
• “Bible, Violence, and Colonialism: A Tale from the Frontierâ€? (Wednesday 20 September, 3 pm at University of Alberta, CAB 239).
• “Covering David: Michelangelo’s David from the Piazza della Signoria to My Refrigerator Doorâ€? (Thursday 21 September, 7:30 pm at the Art Gallery of Alberta, 2 Sir Winston Churchill Square).
• “The Stuff of Biblical Story: Reading the Things of Judges through the Centuries” (Friday 22 September, 2:00 pm at Taylor University College, Classroom S2 Seminary building).
• “Biblical Women and Subjectivity: From Peter Abelard to Harriet Beecher Stoweâ€? (Tuesday 26 September, 3:30 pm at the University of Alberta, CAB 243).
• “Bathsheba Bathing: An Illustrated History of a Biblical Womanâ€? (Thursday 28 September, 3:30 pm at the University of Alberta, CAB 265).

The lecture that Dr. Gunn will be delivering at Taylor University College will be drawing on the reception history of the book of Judges to illustrate responses through the centuries, by clerics, commentators, educators, artists, and archaeologists, to the material world of the Bible, particularly to problems raised by material objects and their use. He promises a mixture of the serious and whimsical, with some visual illustrations to temper the talking. One of the illustrations he sent me for a poster I was working on was from a comic based on the Jael-Sisera episode in Judges 4. I thought it was a hoot, so here it is:

This looks to be a great lecture series. If you are in the Edmonton area, I encourage you to attend.