Academic posts

Position: Senior Lecturer in Mission Studies

Laidlaw College in Auckland is seeking a Senior Lecturer in Mission Studies for its School of Theology, Mission & Ministry:

The Lecturer will be responsible for teaching in mission and contextual studies, ensuring that courses are developed and delivered in ways that are faithful to the Gospel of Christ, culturally incisive, and grounded in a biblical understanding of God’s missional purposes for Aotearoa New Zealand, the nations of the Pacific region, Asia and the world. They will also be actively involved in the College’s community and will lead the College’s Centre for Cross Cultural Mission (C3M).

The desired candidate will have the following skills and qualifications:

A PhD or equivalent in a relevant area of research
Significant missional experience
Active involvement in a local Christian community of faith and in Christian initiatives in the wider global community
Ability to publish papers and present research at academic conferences
Experience in teaching within a tertiary education provider
Experience mentoring students and providing pastoral care
Understanding of recent developments in the theological and general tertiary education sectors nationally and internationally
Experience and/or willingness to utilise e-Learning pedagogies and technologies

This position is a permanent full-time (1.0 FTE) position.

Please email your CV and cover letter to Natalie Tims, Human Resources Manager, at ntims@laidlaw.ac.nz to register your interest and request an application pack. Application packs include an application form related to your previous experience and theological principles, a Statement of Faith and a five-year Professional Development Research plan. Application packs must be submitted by Friday 2 May, 2014.

You can read the Job Description here.

A chair in Theology and Public Issues

With the recent departure of Professor Andrew Bradstock from these picturesque and stimulating shores, the Council of the University of Otago is now advertising the following position:

The Council of the University of Otago invites applications for the Howard Paterson Chair in Theology and Public Issues and Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues.

The University is seeking a scholar with a distinguished record of international research publications and teaching experience in the area of Theology and Public Issues, Public Theology, Christian Ethics or Applied Theology.

The Howard Paterson Professor will be expected to engage in ongoing research, teaching and postgraduate supervision and will be the Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues within the Department of Theology and Religion. The aims of the Centre are to facilitate research at the interface of Christian theology and society in a New Zealand context, and to encourage in the public realm theologically and ethically informed discussion on matters of public interest, including important issues of public policy. The Centre’s activities will include research and research publication, hosting conferences, public symposia and other educational events, and media commentary. The Centre has a national focus, and is also a foundation member of the Global Network for Public Theology. It attracts high-quality research students, and is expected to seek external funding to support some of its activities.

Salary will be at an appropriate point in the University’s professorial range, depending on qualifications and experience. Less experienced candidates with appropriate expertise are not precluded from applying but may be appointed at an Associate Professorial level.

For confidential enquiries about this role, please contact the search partner, Academic Search International:

Sonia Pechner, Executive Director
Email: Sonia.pechner@academic-search.net
T: +64 9 379 6900 M: +64 21 338 879

Closing Date 4th October 2013.

The position will be available from 1 February, 2014, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Lecturing Position in Biblical Studies

The School of Theology at the University of Auckland seeks to appoint a Lecturer in Biblical Studies with expertise in Hebrew Bible, but capacities to teach into the New Testament. The position may expand to include studies of Emerging Judaism in the future.

The successful applicant will be expected to undertake research, to teach at introductory undergraduate, advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and to supervise research students for the MTheol and PhD degrees.

Applicants will be expected to have a PhD or equivalent in Biblical Studies, some research publications and teaching experience.

Applications close on 21 March 2010.

For more information contact Elaine Wainwright.

Jeremy Begbie moves to Duke

Professor Jeremy Begbie will be concluding his role as Associate Director of the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (St Andrews) in order to take up an appointment as Thomas A. Langford Research Professor at Duke Divinity School, Duke University from July 1st 2008.

I’ve been informed that he’ll continue to teach half time at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, until December, while also starting his work for Duke half time from July, and then he’ll be resident at Duke for their Spring Semester from January 2009. He is not moving permanently to the United States but will be resident at Duke for part of the time, and then residing in Cambridge for most of the year. Although the UK will lose him as a full time teacher, he plans to remain theologically active in the UK, doing research, and also planning and running some new theology and the arts ventures. I wish Jeremy all the best as he undertakes this juggle.

For a taste of what Duke is in for, check out this lecture from my vodpod.

De Troyer to take up St Andrews post

Professor Kristin De Troyer will be taking take up the post of Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at the University of St Andrews as of 1 June 2008. Professor De Troyer is currently Professor of Hebrew Bible at the Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Religion at the Claremont Graduate University in California. She is also the Program Chair for the International Society of Biblical Literature.

The current focus of her research and teaching is on the Second Temple Period and she has developed a special interest in the history of the biblical text, its translations and their hermeneutical aspects.

She has authored, among other books, Joshua (Papyri Graecae Schøyen, PSchøyen I , ed. Rosario Pintaudi, Papyrologica Florentina, XXXV/Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, V; Firenze: Gonnelli, 2005); Rewriting the Sacred Text: What the Old Greek Texts Tell Us about the Literary Development of the Bible (Atlanta: SBL, 2003), which was translated and revised in a German edition, Die Septuaginta und die Endgestalt des Alten Testaments: Untersuchungen zur Entstehungsgeschichte alttestamentlicher Texte (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005); and The End of the Alpha Text of Esther: Translation and Narrative Technique in MT 8:1-17, LXX 8:1-17, and AT 7:14-41 (Atlanta: SBL, 2000-English; Louvain: Peeters, 1997-Dutch).

She has also co-authored Minor Prophets (Biblia Qumranica, 3B, Leiden: Brill: 2004) and From Quest to Q (Peeters, 2001) and co-edited and/or contributed to several volumes including: Pre-Maccabean Literature from the Qumran Library and Its Importance for the Study of the Hebrew Bible (DSD 13/3; Leiden: Brill, 2006); Reading the Present in the Qumran Library: The Perception of the Contemporary by Means of Scriptural Interpretation (Symposium Series, 30; Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2005); Truth: Interdisciplinary Dialogues in a Pluralist Age (Studies in Philosophical Theology; Louvain: Peeters, 2003); Wholly Woman, Holy Blood: A Feminist Critique of Purity and Impurity (TPI-2003). She is also preparing the publication of Kristin De Troyer, Armin Lange, with the assistance of Luke L. Schulte, Prophecy and the Dead Sea Scrolls (CBET, Louvain: Peeters).

Kristin De Troyer is a member of the Council of the Society of Biblical Literature and co-director of the Biblia Qumranica Project, which envisions to publishing the Biblical texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a synopsis. She is editor of the series Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology (Louvain: Peeters), a board member of the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament and the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and a project director for CGU’s Institute for Antiquity and Christianity. She is also member of the executive committee of the International Organization of Septuagint and Cognate Studies.

Currently, she is writing on a commentary on the Septuagint of Esther, and preparing a commentary on the books of Ezra-Nehemiah, and working on 1 Esdras.

She sounds like a suitable choice for the post, and a very busy person … I only hope not too busy for a beer or two, or a dram or two … or three, with the humble postgrads.