Contact information
I am an Assistant Professor in the Religion Department at Furman University in Greenville, SC.
Office: 206i Furman Hall Phone: 864-294-3089 Email: bryan.bibb@furman.eduI can be reached at the following address:
Bryan Bibb Department of Religion Furman University Greenville, SC 29613Professional Interests
I hold a BA in Religion from Furman, and the MDiv and PhD in Hebrew Bible from Princeton Theological Seminary. My research interests are in the areas of Ritual Studies, Ancient Israelite Religion, Biblical Theology, and Prophetic Rhetoric. My revised dissertation, Ritual Words and Narrative Worlds in the Book of Leviticus, has been published by Continuum/T&T Clark in the Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies. Later in the year I will also have an introduction to the pre-exilic prophets from Smyth & Helwys titled God’s Servants, The Prophets.
I am currently working on two exciting projects. One is a monograph on theological development within ancient Israelite religion. I have been working recently on two chapters: one on the development of Yahwistic monotheism in the context of Israelite archaeological evidence; and one on the theology of sacred space and time in the Priestly literature.
The second project is not quite ready to be revealed. However, I can tell you that it is related to this post on the future of scholarly communication. If you are a scholar or pastor interested in the issues of open-access scholarship, send me a note. I am interested in your perspective!
I am also Editor of the Furman Humanities Review, a journal dedicated to undergraduate research in the Humanities. We are currently working on a new issue as well as a online portal for distributing the journal and engaging in conversation about undergraduate research.
Teaching
At Furman I teach broadly across the canon, as I am the only Hebrew Bible person in the department. In addition to introductory courses, I have upper level courses on canonical units [The Pentateuch; The Prophets; Wisdom Literature] and on special topics [Israelite Religion; Hebrew; Senior Seminars on Isaiah and on The History of Monotheism]. I am also preparing to teach my first course in our new “First Year Seminar” program for incoming Freshmen, titled “The Mythology of Life and Death in the Works of Neil Gaiman.”
I was thrilled to receive the Alester G. Furman, Jr. and Janie Earle Furman Award for Meritorious Teaching during graduation on June 1, 2008, a ceremony that was notorious for another surprising event.
I am also active in the adult education program at my church, John Knox Presbyterian (USA). Sometimes that material ends up here. For instance, see this series on great leaders in church history and this sermon about the theology and reality of adoption.
Interests
I spend most of my free time with my wife and two boys (ages 4 and 1) and our extended family. I also love computers and technological gadgets, and have been devoted to Mac OS X since Furman gave me a Macbook Pro in 2006. Prior to that I used Linux, and I am still something of an open source and free culture zealot.
I love backpacking and hiking, especially with old grad school friends, though we can’t get together as often as I’d like. I also enjoy reading Science Fiction and listening to music. You can learn about some of my music tastes and follow my weekly radio show on WPLS, the Furman Radio station, in the music category.
