Our 2021 annual conference was held online between 24th and 28th May. The theme for this year’s conference was ‘From the Rising to the Setting Sun : Global Perspectives on Bible and Violence‘. The conference was held in six sessions spread across the week.

All of the conference sessions were recorded and can be viewed on our Youtube channel.

Papers from this conference will be published in an edited collection under contract with Sheffield Phoenix Press.

For more details about the speaker line-up for each session, please click on the relevant image below.

7pm BST, Monday 24th May
Bible and Contemporary Violence

Convenor: Dr Michael Spalione

Keynote speaker: Dr Matthew Feldman,
Director: Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right

“From Christian witness to Christianism:
Thomas Merton, ideology and religious violence.”

With papers from:

Maria Power (Senior Research Fellow in Human Dignity, University of Oxford), “Overcoming conflict-generating interpretations of the Bible: some lessons from Northern Ireland”

Louis W. Ndekha (Theology and Religious Studies, University of Malawi), “‘Loving the Enemy’ and Christian Response to Violence: A Contextual Reading of Luke 6:27-29 in Malawian Context”

Aaron Woods (Hebrew Teaching Adjunct, Asbury Theological Seminary), “Jeremiah and Israel’s (New?) Promise land: Reading Jeremiah 29 as a challenge to Christian Zionism”


12 noon BST, Tuesday 25th May
Majority World Scholars

New this year, and in keeping with our newly-expressed core value of facilitating global conversations in Bible and Violence, we will have a session dedicated entirely to voices from the majority world.
Please note the earlier start time of this session
Convenor: Dr Ashley Hibbard


Keynote speaker: Dr Paul Chimhungwe, Lecturer & Acting Academic Dean, African Christian College, Eswatini.

Administration & Staff — African Christian College

“Denying Basic Human Rights in the name of Christ: The Consequences of (Mis)Interpreting Mark 16:16–18 in the Apostles of Johanne Marange”

With papers from:

Lodewyk Sutton (University of the Free State) ‘Honour through Violence and Justice? perspectives from Psalm 58’.

Helen Paynter (Director, CSBV) ‘Is it possible to be a Christian and a Nationalist?’ Helen stood in at short notice due to two of our speakers being unable to participate through ill heath


7pm BST, Tuesday 25th May
Traditional Biblical Approaches

Convenor: Dr Trevor Laurence

Keynote: Dr J. Richard Middleton, Professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis, Northeastern Seminary

“Did Abraham Pass the Test? Unbinding the Aqedah from the Straitjacket of Tradition”

With papers from:

Brandon Hurlbert, University of Durham – For Vengeance Or Something Else? The Hope Of The Timnite Woman In Judges 14

Jennifer Lehmann, Graduate Theological Union – Carnivalesque in Genesis 19: Hospitality and Reproduction in an Inverted World

Jon Darby, Nazarene Theological College/University of Manchester – Whose Blood Is on the Rider’s Robe? Revelation 19:13 in Literary and Intertextual Perspective


7pm BST, Wednesday 26th May
Creative Readings of Biblical Texts

Convenor: Brandon Hurlbert

Keynote speaker: Dr Johanna Stiebert, Professor of Hebrew Bible, University of Leeds

“Virginity, Violence and Biblical Texts.”

With papers from:

Siobhán Jolley (University of Manchester) “Some women were watching…” – Traumatic Victimisation and Female Witness to the Crucifixion.

Hannah Baylor (Oxford) ‘By Tamar, By Rahab, By Ruth, By the Wife of Uriah:’ A #MeToo Reading of Matthew’s Genealogy of Jesus.

Alexiana Fry (Stellenbosch University) The “Lucky” Victim: Current Rape Narratives and the Virgin Daughter of Judges 19.


7pm BST, Thursday 27th May
Emerging Scholars

In addition to our commitment to cutting-edge, high-end scholarship, once again this year we will be encouraging emerging scholars, through a session set aside for their presentations. At this session, a prize will be awarded for the best paper presentation.
Convenor: Dr Maria Power

Keynote speaker: Revd Dr Helen Paynter, Director: Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence

“I Believe in the Afterlife (of the word)”

With papers from:

Francis Mathew (MA student, South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies, Bangalore).
“The Avenger and the Perpetrator: A Study of Mimetic Doubles in Biblical Rape Narratives (Gen. 34; Judg. 19; 2 Sam. 13)”

Charlotte Trombin (doctoral candidate, University of Exeter).
“Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked because he was angry: Misogyny, the Bible and Environmental Violence.” Lottie’s paper won the CSBV 2021 conference student prize

Hannah Capey (doctoral candidate, University of Southampton).
“Black Comedy in the Hebrew Bible? A Reading of the Book of Esther.”


7pm BST, Friday 28th May
Traditional Biblical Hermeneutical Approaches

Convenor: Dr Trevor Laurence

Keynote speaker: Dr Lissa Wray Beal, Professor of Old Testament, Providence Seminary

“Servants of Grace and Horror in Jeremiah 25:1-14”

With papers from:

Lucas Martins, Assistant Professor of Hebrew and Hebrew Bible, Adventist University of São Paulo – The Violent Rhetoric of Prophetic Satire

Jerry Shepherd, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Taylor Seminary – The Message of the Prophets: Peace through Violence?

Scott Ryan, Assistant Professor of Religion and Biblical Studies, Claflin University – The Violence of the God of Peace and the Peace of a Violent Humanity: Reading Divine and Human Violence in Paul’s Letter to the Romans