Research Activity

Dr Nathan MacDonald leads a research group at the University of Göttingen,¿Germany. The group examines the different ways in which commitment to the one¿God was conceived by Judahites in the neo-Babylonian and Persian periods. In¿this manner the group is investigating key questions about the nature of¿theological diversity and coherence in the Old Testament and the¿understanding of central theological motifs in corpora such as the priestly¿material, the so-called deuteronomistic history, Isaiah, Job, Ezekiel,¿Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah.

Dr. Mark Elliott aims to deliver a book-sized publications by the end of this summer: The Bible through the ages: Leviticus (Blackwell). Other summer projects include a contribution to a St Andrews conference on The Protestant Latin Bible, a paper at the Society of New Testament Studies on ‘Spiritual Exegesis’ and a third at the Edinburgh Conference on Herman Bavinck.

Dr. William Tooman's research is focused on the literature and theology of the Hebrew Bible. In addition to completing work on several articles and chapters,he is currently finishing a monograph on the reuse of scripture in Ezekiel(Mohr-Siebeck) and working on a commentary on the Hebrew text of Leviticus(Baker Academic). He currently supervises two PhD students, who are writing on the poetics and rhetoric of characterization in the Deuteronomistic History vs. Chronicles, and on Ruth as an polemic against ethnic exclusion in Persian Yehud.

Dr. Grant Macaskill is currently completing his research on the Slavonic texts of 2 Enoch (sponsored by the British Academy), which will be published in 2011 by Brill. I have already begun work on my next project, a study of Union with Christ/Divine Participation in the New Testament. While a significant theme in theological and Patristic studies, participation has been widely neglected in New Testament research, particularly outside of the study of Paul and John. The work will engage with recent work on those authors, but will also argue that concepts of participation can be traced throughout the New Testament and constitute a core part of early Christian theology, identity and ethics. This research connects well with the teaching of M.Litt modules in Scripture and Theology. Along with William Tooman and J.R. Davila, Grant have been involved in the teaching of a module on the temple and Divine presence in the Bible, focusing on themes of exile, return and transformation from Ezekiel into the New Testament and beyond. The module has examined closely the use of temple imagery in relation to ecclesiology and Christology in select New Testament texts and the exegetical and theological factors at work in these. The module has been an exciting example of the interface between research and teaching.