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Carolyn Pressler
Harry C. Piper Jr. Professor of Biblical Interpretation
Ordained minister in the United Church of Christ
Appointed 1990

Education

B.A.	Kalamazoo College
M.Div.	Wesley Theological Seminary
Ph.D.	Princeton Theological Seminary

Teaching and Research

•	Hebrew Bible
•	feminist and liberationist biblical interpretation
•	gender and biblical law
•	Hebrew

Listen to an interview with Carolyn Pressler

Carolyn Pressler will be on study leave and sabbatical for winter, spring, and summer terms 2011-2012.

Courses Offered in the 2011-2012 Academic Year
CH161-01		Orientation to the Older Testament: Pentateuch and Former Prophets
		course description\|syllabus -01
CH161ON		Orientation to the Older Testament: Pentateuch and Former Prophets Online hybrid course
		course description\|on-line course syllabus -02

Other Courses Offered
CH111		Access to Biblical Hebrew
		course description\|syllabus
CH122		In the Wilderness with God: Teaching and Preaching the Book of Numbers
		course description\|syllabus
CH125		Love Song to Lament (with Pam Wynn)
		course description l syllabus

CH128		Social & Political Ideals of Ancient Israel
		course description\|syllabus
CH140		Feminist Biblical Interpretation
		course description\|syllabus
CH162		The Older Testament in the Life of the Church: Selected Prophets & Writings
		course description\|syllabus
IS152		Integration of Ministry & Local Theologies (with Richard Bohannon II)
		course description\|syllabus

Publications

Books

Engaging the Bible in a Gendered World
Co-edited with Linda Day. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006

Joshua, Judges, and Ruth
Westminster Bible Companion. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002

Articles

Contributor. Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics, edited by Joel Green, Jacqueline Lapsley, Rebekah Miles, and Allen Verhey. Baker Academics, forthcoming. “Equality,” “Virginity,” “Incest.”

“Mapping an Expanding Terrain: the Study of Gender and Biblical Law” in Biblical Law, Gender, and Feminist Hermeneutic, edited by Rachel Magdalene and Athalya Brenner. Sheffield Phoenix, forthcoming.

“Joshua” in The New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 3, edited by Katharine Doob Sakenfeld. Nashville: Abingdon, 2008, 406-413.

Reviews

“Women in the Sex Texts of Leviticus and Deuteronomy: A Comparative Conceptual Analysis,” by Deborah Ellens. Review of Biblical Literature, 2010.

“The Prestige of the Pagan Prophet Balaam in Judaism, Early Christianity and Islam,” edited by George H. van Kooten and Jacques van Ruiten. Biblical Interpretation, 2010.

“Judges and Ruth,” by Victor Matthews. Interpretation, 2006.

Academic Papers or Forthcoming Articles in Progress

With Patrick Miller and Guenter Stemberger, Biblical Law and Ethics. Projected completion date: 2014.

Numbers (Abingdon Old Testament Commentary Series). Nashville: Abingdon, anticipated: 2011.

Women as Legal Subjects,” a paper delivered to the biblical colloquium in October 2008.“The ‘Biblical View’ of Marriage?” in Engaging the Bible in a Gendered World.

“Wonderful/Difficult: Ambiguity, Poetics, and the Knowledge of God in Psalm 139.” In A God So Near, edited by Breht Strawn and Nancy Bowen. Winona, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2002.

“To Heal and Transform: Women’s Biblical Studies.” In The International Bible Commentary, edited by William Farmer. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998.

“Wives and Daughters, Bound and Free: Women in the Slave Laws of Exodus 21:2-11.” In Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East, edited by Victor H. Matthews, Bernard M. Levinson, Tikva Frymer-Kensky. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.

“The Shema: A Protestant Feminist Reading.” In Escaping Eden: New Feminist Perspectives on the Bible, edited by Harold C. Washington, Susan Lochrie Graham, Pamela Thimmes. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998.

The View of Women Found in Deuteronomic Family Laws. BZAW, 216. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1993.

Regular Topics for Presentation

Upcoming Presentations

Contact Carolyn at 651.255.6132.

During my leisure time I like taking walks, driving through the countryside, going to concerts and plays, doting on my nieces and nephews, reading novels, and spending time with friends.

* * *

“I love watching students begin to recognize the Older Testament as their story - the story of God working in and through their spiritual ancestors: Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. The Older Testament is the book of a particular people, Israel, to be sure, and we stand at a great distance from that people, but there is a dimension of human experience, especially of the human experience of God, that is deeper than historical or cultural circumstances and that allows the Older Testament to speak to us in the midst of our own doubts, pain, and questions. The word that speaks is one of hope, one of “God with us,” one of justice and mercy and walking humbly. Together with the Newer Testament, the Older Testament has proved itself for millennia - and in my own life - as the best clue to who God is, who we are, and who we are called to be. I love watching students who come in suspicious, indifferent, or even hostile to these ancient stories discover their surprising relevancy.”

* * *

“Preparing future ministers to use the Hebrew scriptures in the life of the Church, especially in relationship to the Church’s pastoral and social justice ministries, is the central focus of my teaching. As a feminist teacher, I am concerned about teaching methods that attend to a range of voices, male and female, from different cultures and theological perspectives, and about building a classroom ethos that is anti-racist, anti-sexist, and dialogical.”

Denominational Commitments/Other
Pertinent Activities

Member, United Church of Christ of
New Brighton
Member, Social Justice Committee of the MN Conference of the United Church of Christ

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