Colleen Conway , Ph.D.
Professor of Religious Studies and Chair
Department of Religion
(973) 275-5848
Email
Fahy Hall
Room 327
Colleen Conway, Ph.D.
Professor of Religious Studies and Chair
Department of Religion
Dr. Conway’s primary research focus is on the function of gender categories in biblical texts from literary, cultural and historical perspectives. Her first book, Men and Women in the Fourth Gospel: Gender and Johannine Characterization (Scholars Press, 1999) explores the roles of the female and male characters in the narrative of the Gospel of John. Behold the Man: Jesus and Greco-Roman Masculinity (Oxford Press, 2008), examines the way the New Testament authors responded to cultural ideals about manliness in their presentations of Jesus. Her recent work has focused on the use of the Bible in Western culture, especially with respect to debates about women and gender. So, for example, her book Sex and Slaughter in the Tent of Jael: A Cultural History of a Biblical Story (Oxford Press, 2016) examines how artistic and literary depictions of the characters of Jael and Sisera (Judges 4-5) reflect wide-ranging cultural debates about sex and gender roles. Dr. Conway has also recently published a revised 2nd edition of her co-authored Introduction to the Bible: Sacred Texts and Imperial Contexts (Wiley Blackwell, 2021). She is the editor-in-chief for the journal Biblical Interpretation as well as an associate editor for Catholic Biblical Quarterly.
Education
- Ph.D., Emory University, 1997
Scholarship
- Co-authored with David Carr. A Contemporary Introduction to the Bible: Sacred Texts and Imperial Contexts. 2nd Revised edition. Wiley Blackwell, 2021.
- John and the Johannine Letters. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2017.
- Sex and Slaughter in the Tent of Jael: A Cultural History of a Biblical Story. Oxford University Press. 2016.
- “Eve as Cyborg: The Eden Myth as a Blueprint for Artificial Women” Postscripts, 145-174 (2021).
- “Masculinity Studies” for Oxford Handbook on Sex and Gender in the New Testament. Oxford University Press, 2019.
- “Gender in the Gospel of John” in The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- Introduction and Annotations for the Gospel of John in The New Oxford Annotated Bible, 5th edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- "The New Historicism and the Historical Jesus in John: Friends or Foe?" (Book Chapter) In Felix Just and Tom Thatcher (Eds.), John, Jesus and History Vol. 1 Critical Appraisals of Critical Views, Leiden/Boston: Bril, November 2007.
- Behold the Man: Jesus and Greco-Roman Masculinity., Oxford University Press, 2008.
- "Philo of Alexandria and Divine Relativity." Journal for the Study of Judaism, 34(4), 471- 491, December 2003.
- "The Production of the Johannine Community: A New Historicist Approach." Journal of Biblical Literature, 121(3), 479- 495, September 2002.
- "Speaking Through Ambiguity: Minor Characters in the Fourth Gospel." Biblical Interpretation, 10, 324- 341, May 2002.
- Men and Women in the Fourth Gospel: Gender and Johannine Characterization. Society of Biblical Literature, 1999.
Accomplishments
- Recipient of $4,500 Faculty Innovation Grant from the Teaching, Learning and Technology Center, Seton Hall University. Project title: "Technology, the Bible, and Empire" (Summer 2004).
- Recipient of $7,000 Wabash Summer Research Grant (July-August 2000)