Academic Conferences
The Psalter and Abraham’s Prayers
This month’s Oxford Interfaith Forum Monthly Interfaith Psalm Reading & Discussion, hosted by the Oxford Interfaith Forum, was led by Ustadha Yomna Helmy, Centre of Islamic Studies, the University of Cambridge on a Comparative Reading of the Hebrew Bible Psalter and Abraham’s Prayers in the Quran. Two Prayer Texts Dr. Helmy brought us along on…
Read MoreA Festival of Light
The final 2021 meeting of the Oxford Interfaith Forum Discussion Series featured a discussion about The Festival of Light. We opened our program with recognition of Senior Scholar Rvd. Dr. John Goldingay, who, along with his wife, Kathleen Scott Goldingay, suffered a significant loss this year when Kathleen’s daughter died tragically in an automobile crash.…
Read MoreThe Torah-Person & Trees in Psalm 1
Read or Listen Oxford Interfaith Forum launched a Psalms reading group to explore the Psalter from multifaith and multidisciplinary perspectives. Rev. Dr. John Goldingay, David Allen Hubbard Professor Emeritus at Fuller Theological Seminary, opened the inaugural session with a commentary on Psalm 1. Introduction to Psalm 1 Psalm 1 introduces the Psalter with a reminder…
Read MoreOxford Interfaith Forum: Interfaith Discussion Series 2021
Oxford Interfaith Forum presents a series of discussions on biblical topics from multifaith and multidisciplinary approaches. This series is organized by the Oxford Interfaith Forum, co-hosted by the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies: The Creation Story – 14 September 2021, 7:30pm (BST) Welcome address: Lord Alderdice, Patron of Oxford Interfaith Forum.Chair: Revd Nevsky Everett, Chaplain of Keble College,…
Read MoreChristianity & Science Fiction: A conference for fans of religion in sci-fi
This month, I attended a virtual conference on Christianity & Science Fiction. The conference featured academic presentations on religious connections in science fiction literature. The two-session forum was hosted by the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies in partnership with the Department of Middle East Studies (University of Michigan). Religion in science fiction is a…
Read MoreInterfaith Discussion about Abraham and His Family
Read or Listen Introduction to the Seminar Oxford Interfaith Forum presents Interfaith Discussion Series intended to promote interreligious dialogue between scholars of different faiths that draw from similar scripture traditions. This session, entitled “Discussions on Abraham and His Children,” is meant to focus on shared narratives of tradition about the Religious Patriarch Abraham. The session…
Read MoreANELC eLecture Series 2021: Aramaic Letters from Bactria
The ANELC 2021 eLecture series concluded today with a presentation by Margaretha Folmer (Leiden University/Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). She offers a look at linguistic markers in Aramaic letters from a non-Semitic region, Bactria, a region that is heavily contested today and the subject of global news—Northern Afghanistan. Folmer wishes her research be received to contribute to…
Read MoreANELC eLecture Series 2021: Egyptian Influences in Biblical Hebrew
Letizia Cerqueglini (Tel Aviv University) presented on the spread of Egyptian language found in ancient Hebrew. Her presentation focused on linguistic and cognitive distinctions in the etymology of Afroasiatic languages. She begins by asking how we can separate Afroasiatic linguistic heritage from direct loanwords in antiquity. Her presentation considers many aspects of the connection between…
Read MoreANELC eLecture Series 2021: The Tiberian Tradition Reading of Hebrew Bible
ANELC21 featured Geoffrey Khan (University of Cambridge) in the second of four eLectures on connections between ancient Near Eastern languages. Khan spoke about the tradition of Tiberian reading or pronunciation of Hebrew Bible texts. The Tiberian tradition of pronunciation for the reading of Hebrew was passed down by oral tradition and received by the Masoretic…
Read MoreANELC eLecture Series 2021: The Canaanite Language Melting Pot
To begin the 2021 conference on Ancient Near Eastern Languages in Contact, Ohad Cohen (University of Haifa) shared a presentation entitled The Canaanite Melting Pot – the Theoretical Implications of ‘Languages in Contact’ to the Understanding of Late Biblical Hebrew. If you are interested in reading more on Canaanite Language or Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH)…
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