AISG
Soci
Deborah Frances Sawyer
Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, Lancaster
University.
Dipartimento di
Linguistica, Universitŕ di Firenze.
e-mail: d.sawyer@lancaster.ac.uk
TEMI DI
RICERCA
Midrash, Women and Religion,
Feminist Theology.
PUBBLICAZIONI
Books
Books Authored
Midrash Aleph Beth,
Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1993, pp.i-344
Women and Religion in the First Christian Centuries, London/New York: Routledge, 1996, pp.i-186
God, Gender and the Bible,
London/New York: Routledge, 2002, pp.i - 178
Books Edited
A Walk in the Garden: Biblical, Iconographical and
Literary lmages of ’Eden, co-edited with Paul Morris, Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, 1992,
pp.i-327.
Is There a Future for Feminist Theology? co-edited with Diane M. Collier, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,
1999, pp.i-210.
Series Co-Editor: Religion in the First Christian
Centuries, London/New York: Routledge 1996-
(Interdisciplinary series with volumes commissioned
from scholars in the USA, UK and Australia)
Series titles published to date:
1996 Women and
Religion in the First Christian Centuries, Deborah F. Sawyer
1998 The
Crucible of Christian Morality, J. Ian H. McDonald
1999 Sacred
Languages and Sacred Texts, John F. A. Sawyer
1999 Death,
Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity, Jon Davies
2000 Teachers
and Texts in the Ancient World: Philosophers, Jews and Christians, H.
Gregory Snyder
2001 Magic
and Religion in the Roman World: Pagans, Jews and Christians, Naomi Janowitz
2001 Holiness:
Rabbinic Judaism and the Greco-Roman World, Hannah Harrington
Commissioned
Conversion in the First Christian Centuries , David Sim
Articles and Chapters in Books
‘God As Mother: A Necessary Debate’, New Blackfriars, Vol.65, Nos
769/770 (July/August, 1984), pp. 319-322.
'Whence the Feet?' Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol.XXXVI, No.1 (Spring 1985), pp.61-69.
‘The Reign of God’, Guidelines to the Bible, Vol.5,
part 3, edited by J. Rogerson and C. Rowland, London, September-December 1989,
pp.74-98.
‘The Story of Mary: Luke’s Version’, New Blackfriars, Vol.70, No.833 (December, 1989),
pp.555-564.
‘Feminist Interpretation’, A Dictionary of Biblical
Interpretation, edited by R.J.Coggins and J.L. Houlden, SCM Press, London, l990, pp.231-234.
‘Heterodoxy and Censorship: Some Critical Remarks on
Wertheimer’s Edition of Midrash Aleph Beth’, Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol.
XLII, No.1 (Spring 1991), pp.115-121.
‘The New Adam in the Theology of St Paul’, A Walk
in the Garden: Biblical, Iconographical and Literary Images of Eden, Paul.
M. Morris and Deborah F. Sawyer (eds), Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1992, pp.105-116.
‘Resurrecting Eve? Feminist Critique of the Garden of
Eden’, A Walk in the Garden: Biblical, Iconographical and Literary Images of
Eden, Paul. M. Morris and Deborah F. Sawyer (eds),
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992, pp.273-289.
‘Identity and the ‘Other’: The Emergence of
Christianity’, New Blackfriars, January, 1994,
pp.39-51.
‘Water and Blood: Birthing Images in John’s Gospel’, Words
Remembered, Texts Renewed.
Essays in Honour of John
F.A. Sawyer, J. Davies, G. Harvey and W. Watson (eds), Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995,
pp.300-309.
‘The Church: Egality or
Patriarchy?', Women, Power and Resistance. An lntroduction
to Women’s Studies, T. Cosslett et al (eds), Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1995,
pp.58-68.
‘Gender Play and the Bible: The Many Faces of Judith’,
Essen: University-GH Essen, LAUD papers, series A, no.480, 1999, pp.1-14.
‘Gender Play and Sacred Text: A Scene from Jeremiah’, Journal
for the Study of the Old Testament, issue 83 (1999), pp.99-111.
'Disputed Questions in Biblical Studies: A Male
Bible?', Expository Times Vol.112 No.11 (August 2001), pp.366-69.
'Gender Strategies in Antiquity: Judith's
Performance', Journal of Feminist Theology 28 (September 2001), pp.9-26.
'Feminism', in J.F.A. Sawyer and J.M.Y. Simpson (eds), Concise Encyclopedia of Language and Religion,
Oxford: Elsevier Science, 2001, 248-49.
'Mary Daly', in J.F.A. Sawyer and J.M.Y. Simpson (eds), Concise Encyclopedia of Language and Religion,
Oxford: Elsevier Science, 2001, pp.418-19.
'Dressing up/Dressing Down: Power, Performance and
Identity in the Book of Judith', Theology and Sexuality, No.15
(September 2001), pp.23-31.
In press
'John 19.34: From Crucifixion to Birth, or Creation?',
in Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings:
Johannine Literature, ed. Amy-Jill
Levine, London/New York: Continuum, 2002.
'Biblical Gender Strategies: The Case of Abraham', in New
Perspectives on Gender and Religion, eds Ursula
King and Tina Beattie, New York/London: Routledge, 2002.
In preparation
'Pauline Use of Familial Imagery', in The Feminist
Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings: Pauline
Literature, ed. Amy-Jill Levine, London/New York: Continuum, 2002.
Selected Conference and Seminar Papers
1985 World
Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, Jewish Mysticism seminar paper.
1984 British New Testament Society, paper:
‘Characterization in Luke’s Infancy Narratives’
1987 International
Organization for Old Testament Studies, Leuven, Hebrew Bible, seminar paper
1989 British
Association of Jewish Studies, Cambridge, plenary paper: ‘Censorship in Jewish
texts: Wertheimer’s edition of Midrash Aleph Beth’
1990 British Association of Jewish Studies, Edinburgh,
plenary paper, ‘Matriarchy and Oppression in Judaism: attitudes to women in
Midrash Aleph Beth’
1990 nternational History of
Religion, Rome, seminar participant Women and Religion section
1993 Catholic Theological Association, Leeds, invited
plenary paper, ‘Identity and the Other: the Emergence of Christianity’
1996 Religion and
Gender Colloquium, University of Bristol, plenary paper: Virgins, Wives and
Eunuchs: Gender Paradigms in Antiquity'.
1997 Department
of Religions and Theology, University of Manchester Research seminar: ‘Gender
as Performance: A Paradigm from Jeremiah’
1999 Invited participant) Duisberg,
Germany: Linguistic Agency of the University of Duisberg,
plenary paper: ‘The Many Faces of Judith’
2000 Invited participant: Consultation on the Future
of the Study of Theology and Religions, Cambridge, UK
2001 Invited to
participate in the international colloquium,: 'Breaking New Ground -
Methodological Innovations in the Study of Religion', Institute of Advanced
Studies, University of Bristol, paper: 'Exploring gender bending as a
theological strategy - some biblical examples'
2002 Invited participant: Religion and Law colloquium
- in memory of David Daube, University of California, Berkeley, paper: 'A
Critique of Daube's exposition of Women in Biblical Law and Narrative'.
2002 'Gender as a
Biblical Strategy', Erhardt Seminar, University of
Manchester.
American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical
Literature - Joint Annual Meetings
1996 San Francisco:Women in
the Biblical World section: ‘Gender and Meaning in Sacred Texts’
1998 Orlando: 2
papers
History of Christianity Section ‘Divine Parenting and
Infantile Believers’
Women in the Biblical World section ‘The Figure of
Judith and Counter-cultural Gender Play’
1999 Boston,
Mass.: 2 papers
Bible and Cultural Studies section ‘The Deconstructed
Male: A Biblical Theme’
Pauline Epistles section ‘Forever Young - Children,
Fathers and Bodies in the Pauline Epistles’
2000 Nashville,
Tennessee:
Reading, Theory and the Bible section: 'Dressing Up/
Dressing Down - Power, Performance and identity in the Book of Judith.'
Future Research
Particular projects
1.Commentary on Judith for Blackwell's Bible
Commentary Series.
3. Further contributions to the The
Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings Series.
2. En-visioning Gender in
the Ancient World - a volume exploring gender constructs in antiquity and
applying contemporary gender theory to explain modernity's problematic
transposition of fluid gender concepts into fixed polarities. A number of
publishers have expressed enthusiasm about publishing such a volume.
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AISG