Brent A. Strawn (Duke University): 30 OT/HB Scholars to Read and Follow

I have tried to do the same in my own life ever since: paying the closest attention to the texts at hand while also attending to the various and manifold contexts of Scripture. Those are habits of research, to be sure, but also something to present and model in the classroom. In the latter, I try above all else to communicate my passion and love for my discipline and for the OT itself, which, again, is endlessly fascinating in my humble opinion. I firmly believe that if my students remember anything from my classes, it will be my passion and love, not any one particular lecture or novel insight.

Can I pick two? (Classic professor move!) One, which emerges from and informs my teaching is thinking about the OT/HB as a kind of grammar or language for seeing, perceiving, and navigating the world. This idea was born out of thinking about my introductory course while learning from the lectures and writings of John McWhorter, my favorite linguist. I’ve written about this idea most extensively in my book The Old Testament Is Dying (2017).

A second is my longstanding interest in art, specifically ancient Near Eastern iconography, which was the subject of my doctoral dissertation. In my judgment, the visual remains are a crucial part of the ancient context of Scripture and its world that has gone largely un(der)tapped in scholarly circles which have tended to be logocentrically myopic. We must pay attention to the image, though, not just the word, especially since the word is often so heavily imagistic. A third idea (sneaky professor move!) is that my scholarship is typically interested in theological questions, by which I mean issues surrounding the divine and non-divine worlds and their complex interaction(s), including, when appropriate, existential engagement with these questions from the perspective of persons of faith.

Finally, I’d mention Jon Levenson’s essays in his remarkable collection The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and Historical Criticism: Jews and Christians in Biblical Studies. Levenson is surely one of the finest minds to ever work in biblical studies and his critical insights on historical criticism, biblical theology, and the place/impact of religious adherence within all that are simply stunning. As a Christian myself, and also one trained in the ways of historical criticism (inter alia), Levenson’s treatments remain, to my mind, ones that simply must be squarely faced and soberly assessed. One cannot go around them, that is, but rather must think through them (as Levenson himself has done).

First and foremost, my family. They always say I need a hobby, but my favorite pastime in spending time with them. After that, I would be happy to talk about great books (I’m a hopeless bibliophile), poetry, and exercise (I’ve been working out with Tony Horton for over a decade, though I’m quite sure he doesn’t know my name).