Theologian to Discuss The Power
Of Word: Scripture and The Rhetoric
of Empire at Burke Lecture Feb. 22 at UCSD

February 7, 2007

By Jan Jennings

Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, a pioneering scholar in biblical interpretation and feminist theology, will speak on The Power of Word: Scripture and the Rhetoric of Empire at 8 p.m. Feb. 22 in Hojel Hall, Institute of the Americas Auditorium, at the University of California, San Diego.

The lecture is one in an ongoing series presented by UCSD’s Eugene M. Burke Lectureship on Religion and Society. It is free and open to the public.

Fiorenza will explain and explore how, what she calls the “power of empire,” has historically shaped Christian scriptures and how it continues to shape self-understanding and public discourse. She will use a critical feminist perspective to probe the “power of word” in the past and in the present, investigating how the “rhetoric of empire” has shaped scripture as well as Christian and cultural self-understanding.

Fiorenza received a Theologicum (MDiv) and Licentiate in Practical Theology from the University of Wurzberg, Germany, and a doctorate in New Testament Studies from the University of Munster, Germany. She has taught in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame and was the Talbot Professor of New Testament Studies at the Episcopal Divinity School at Cambridge.

Currently Fiorenza is the Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, where she has chaired the doctoral programs in Religion, Gender Culture and in the Departments of New Testament and Early Christianity and Religion and Society.

Fiorenza co-founded the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion and is co-editor of feminist theology for the international journal, Concilium. She was the first woman president of the Society of Biblical Literature, the nation’s oldest and largest biblical society. In 2001, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Fiorenza was the first co-chair of the American Academy of Religion / Society of Biblical Literature (AAR/SBL) Women’s Caucus. She was a member of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual and of the Women’s Ordination Conference, which recognized her contributions with its first service award.

Fiorenza’s teaching and research focus on questions of biblical and theological rhetoric and interpretation and on issues of theological education, radical equality, and democracy. Her published works include In Memory of Her; Bread Not Stone; But She Said; Discipleship of Equals; Revelation: Vision of a Just World; The Power of Naming; Jesus: Miriam’s Child; Sharing Her Word; Jesus and the Politics of Interpretation, and Wisdom Ways: Introducing Feminist Biblical Interpretation.

For further information on Fiorenza’s Feb. 22 lecture call Dick Mauro at (858) 453-4618 or visit the Burke Lecture web page at http://burkelecture.ucsd.edu

 

Media Contacts:
Richard A. Mauro, (858) 453-4618
Jan Jennings, (858) 822-1684