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Conference Presenters
Alan J. Avery-Peck
is Kraft-Hiatt Professor of Judaic Studies and Chair of the
Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy
Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. Prior to coming to Holy
Cross in 1993, he taught at Tulane University, where he was
professor of Classical Studies, Director of the Tulane Jewish
Studies Program, and served for two years as Acting Dean
of the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Avery-Peck’s
specialty is Judaism in the first six centuries C.E., with
particular attention to the literature of Rabbinic Judaism.
He is the author of many articles and monographic studies
on Rabbinic law, including Mishnah's
Division of Agriculture, A History and Theology of Seder
Zeraim (2nd edition, Brill,
forthcoming, 2005), and he is, most recently, a co-author
and editor, with Jacob Neusner, of The
Encyclopaedia of Judaism (2nd edition,
Brill, forthcoming, 2006), The
Routlege Dictionary of Judaism (Routlege, 2004) The
Blackwell Companion to Judaism,
and The Blackwell Reader in Judaism (Blackwell,
2000). He is editor of The Review of Rabbinic
Judaism. Ancient, Medieval and Modern (Brill). At Holy
Cross, he teaches a range of course on Jewish history and
religion, including a seminar on theological responses to
the Holocaust.
John E. Thiel is Professor of Religious
Studies at Fairfield University where he has taught for twenty-nine
years. He has served as Chair of the Department of Religious
Studies at Fairfield and currently is Director of the University
Honors Program. He is the author of five books, including Senses
of Tradition: Continuity and Development in Catholic Faith (Oxford
University Press, 2000) and God, Evil, and Innocent Suffering:
A Theological Reflection (Crossroad, 2002). His articles
have appeared in Theological Studies, The Heythrop Journal,
New Theology Review, Horizons, Philosophy and Theology, and The
Month. Twice a recipient of fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Humanities (1989-90, 1997-98), Dr. Thiel
currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Catholic
Theological Society of America. He is a member of the American
Academy of Religion and serves on the Fundamental Theology
Advisory Board of the international journal Concilium.
Margaret Lamberts Bendroth is Executive
Director of the American Congregational Association. From
1998 to 2004 she was Professor of History at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, and from 1995 to 1998 she co-directed
the Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism Project, sponsored
by the Pew Foundation. She holds an A.B. in History from
Cornell University, an M.A. in Church History from Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in American History
from The Johns Hopkins University. Her publications include:
Fundamentalists in the City: Conflict
and Division in Boston’s
Churches, 1885-1950 (Oxford University Press, 2005); Growing
Up Protestant: Parents, Children, and Mainline Churches (Rutgers
University Press, 2002); Women and Twentieth-Century
Protestantism,
(co-edited with Virginia Brereton ), (University of Illinois
Press, 2001), winner of the Choice Award, Outstanding Book
of 2002; Fundamentalism and Gender,
1875 to the Present (Yale
University Press, 1993); Faith Traditions
and the Family (co-edited with Phyllis D. Airhart). (Westminster/John Knox
Press, 1996); Outreach and Diversity, Volume 5 of the Living
Theological Heritage Series for
the United Church of Christ (co-edited with Robert Schneider and Lawrence Jones) (Pilgrim
Press, 2000).
William J. Abraham,
Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley Studies and University
Distinguished Teaching Professor, Southern Methodist University,
where he teaches at Perkins School of Theology. A native
of Northern Ireland, he holds a B.A. from Queen’s
University, Belfast, an M.Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary
and a D.Phil. in Philosophy of Religion from the University
of Oxford, England.
A philosophical and systematic theologian in the Wesleyan
tradition, Professor Abraham has authored numerous articles
in philosophy, theology, and evangelism. In 1991 he wrote
a major review article on “The State of Christian Theology
in North America ” for the Encyclopedia Britannica’s Great
Ideas Today. His books include: The Divine Inspiration
of Holy Scripture (Oxford, 1981), Divine Revelation
and the Limits of Historical Criticism (Oxford, 1992), The
Coming Great Revival: Recovering the Full Evangelical Tradition (Harper
and Row, 1984), AnIntroduction to the Philosophy
of Religion (Prentice-Hall, 1985), and The Logic
of Evangelism (Eerdmans, 1989); Canon and Criterion
in Christian Theology (Clarendon: 2000) The Logic
of Renewal [Eerdmans, 2004]. He has also co-edited with
Steven W. Holtzer, The Rationality of Religious Belief,
Essays in Honour of Basil Mitchell (Clarendon: 1987).
Abraham has lectured and preached in United States, Great
Britain, Ireland, Singapore, and Australia. Over several
summers he has traveled to Karaganda, Kazakhastan to teach
at the Central Asian Evangelical School of Theology.
Beyond his academic endeavors and achievements, he has
served as a Methodist minister in Ireland. Abraham and his
wife of 36 years, Muriel, have three children, Timothy, Siobhan,
and Shaun. They live in Richardson, Texas, and attend Highland
Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, where he is an enthusiastic
teacher of scripture on Sunday mornings.
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