W&L Alum and Oxford Professor of New Testament Studies to Lecture at W&L

The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Strawbridge '01, associate professor in New Testament Studies at the University of Oxford and Caird Fellow in Theology at Mansfield College, will hold a reception at 5:30 p.m. Washington and Lee University on Sept. 20 and will lecture at 6 p.m. in Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library.

Her talk is titled "Skulls and Scripture: Reception of the Sacred" and is co-sponsored by W&L's Department of Religion, the Center for International Education and the Howerton Religion Fund.  

Strawbridge received the inaugural Society for Biblical Literature - de Gruyter Prize for Biblical Studies and Reception History in 2014. The award recognized the best unpublished dissertation or first monograph in biblical studies and led to her first book, "The Pauline Effect", which focuses on early Christian use of the Pauline epistles in the first three centuries CE. She has also published a number of articles, including recent articles on the resurrection of the body ("New Testament Studies") and the magical use of a New Testament text in the ancient world ("Vigiliae Christianae").  

At Oxford, Strawbridge teaches courses in New Testament Studies and early Christianity, which coincides with her own areas of research. She is also engaged in an interdisciplinary cluster focused on relics (the remains of holy people) and the dating of holy objects such as the bones of John the Baptist, pieces of the cross and, most recently, early edition copy of the Qu'ran.