Psalms Conference

Dr Ellen F. Davis is the Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School. The author of eleven books and many articles, her research interests focus on how biblical interpretation bears on the life of faith communities and their response to urgent public issues, particularly the ecological crisis and interfaith relations. She is currently collaborating with professional dancers, musicians, and painter Makoto Fujimura on interpreting the Psalms through the arts.

Ko ōna kāwai nō Te Taitokerau nō Ngāti Hine, Te Kahu o Torongare, Ngāti Rangi, Te Māhurehure, Ngāti Rāhiri, Ngāi Tawake, Te Matarahurahu, Ngāpuhi. Ki te Rāwhiti ko ōna hapū ko Ngāti Konohi, Ngāti Rangi, Te Whānau a Ruataupare ki Tūpāroa, me Ngāti Kahungunu.

Te Hira is the Tikanga Māori Dean at St John’s Theological College and is currently completing his PhD through the University of Otago with a focus on theology and kapahaka. 

Dr Jill Firth (PhD, Australian College of Theology) is lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament at Ridley College, Melbourne.
She has ministered in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Hong Kong, and Melbourne, and is an Anglican priest and a trained spiritual director. She has edited her PhD on lament psalms for publication and is currently writing a commentary on Jeremiah.

Dr Brent Strawn (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is a professor of Old Testament at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina with particular interests in the Psalms, Old Testament theology, Israelite religion, and ancient Near Eastern iconography. He has published over two hundred and fifty academic works and regularly speaks and preaches in churches across the United States.

*Presenting virtually.

Dr Brian Fiu Kolia is a second-generation Australian-born Samoan. He is a lecturer in Hebrew Bible at Malua Theological College. He holds a PhD from the University of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia. He is interested in reading the text from decolonising, Pasifika/Moana cultural, and indigenous/native perspectives. More importantly, he is a husband to Tanaria and a father to Elichai.

Dr Michael Rhodes (PhD, University of Aberdeen/Trinity College Bristol), is lecturer in Old Testament at Carey Baptist College. His passion is to help the church hear and respond to God’s call in Scripture to become a community that embodies Jesus’s good news for the poor. At the Psalms Conference, Michael will be presenting with other Carey faculty members.