Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Blessed, Bartered, and Betrayed: Images of Biblical Women The Bible contains stories of hundreds of named and unnamed women. Many of these women are well known in biblical theology, art, music, theatre and literature: Eve, Sarah, Esther, the Virgin Mary, and Mary Magdalene, to name a few. Others are not as well known, women such as Dinah, Tamar, Judith, and Herodias, whose stories are filled not only with faith and moral lessons but also (not coincidentally) sex and violence. Historically, biblical women’s voices have been largely absent from sermons and theological texts, or altered so much as to lose sight of their original meanings. However, their images have been reflected in art. Artists from antiquity to the present have told these women’s stories often with deeper insight and greater sensitivity than have theologians - that is, until feminist biblical scholarship began to focus on women
in the Bible through a new lens. This seminar will explore a selection of biblical women through biblical, theological, and historical texts, as well as through art, music, theatre, and literature.

Workshop Schedule
8:45-9:00 am:
Continental Breakfast & Registration
9:00-11:15 am:
Lecture
11:30 am-1:00 pm:
Luncheon
You are also invited to attend
the Staley Lecture: Leah’s Story from 1:00-2:00pm

Registration
Registration fee: $20
Includes Continental Breakfast and Luncheon
Scholarships available.
Download the registration form here and return it with fees due
no later than March 23, 2009.
Please contact Reverend Valerie Mireb
with any questions at
803-786-3888 or vmireb@columbiasc.edu

Dr. Vivia Lawton Fowler is the Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. She received the B.A. in Religion and Sociology from Columbia College, the M.A. in Religion from the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, and the Ph.D. in Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Education from the University of South Carolina. First consecrated a diaconal minister in 1980 and now an ordained deacon in The United Methodist Church, Vivia served churches in S.C. for ten years before joining the faculty of Columbia College where she held teaching and administrative roles from 1986 to 2007. She became dean of Wesleyan College in June, 2007. A frequent speaker in churches, Dr. Fowler’s passion is sharing the stories of biblical women through character presentations and biblical
instruction. She has developed monologues for ten biblical women.