Speakers

Rabbi Dr. Deborah Kahn-Harris (Principal, Leo Baeck College)

‘Who do you think you are?: The use of genealogies in the construction of identity from the Bible to the BBC’

Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris is the Principal of Leo Baeck College in London, where she also teaches, specialising in feminist, postmodern, post-colonial, and cultural approaches to studying the Hebrew Bible. In her spare time she plays medieval music on her lever harp, mostly to entertain the budgies, but also to further annoy her teenage children.

Professor Vincent Lloyd (Villanova University USA)

‘Ambivalence of charisma: Moses from Hollywood to Canterbury’

Professor Ben Quash and Dr Michelle Fletcher (King’s College, London)

‘Where do I turn? Genesis 19 on when things fall apart’

Ben Quash came to King’s College London as its first Professor of Christianity and the Arts in 2007. Prior to that, he was a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College and then of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. He is fascinated by how the arts can renew people’s engagement with the Bible and Christian tradition, and is directing a major seven-year project to create an online Visual Commentary on Scripture. He runs an MA in Christianity and the Arts in association with the National Gallery, London, and broadcasts frequently on BBC radio. He is a Trustee of Art and Christianity Enquiry, and Canon Theologian of both Coventry and Bradford Cathedrals. His publications include Abiding: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2013 (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Found Theology: History, Imagination and the Holy Spirit (T&T Clark, 2014), and he has written catalogue essays for exhibitions at Ben Uri Gallery, London, the Inigo Rooms in Somerset House, and the Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015.

Michelle Fletcher researches and lectures on the Bible in its ancient and modern contexts. She specialises in the Apocalypse and visual culture, and loves using images to open up new perspectives on the biblical text.

Professor Tod Linafelt (Georgetown University, USA)

‘What does it mean to be human?: Adam (and Eve) inside and outside the Garden’

Neil McGregor (Writer, Broadcaster and former Director of the British Museum)

‘The first to know: the Shepherds, the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple’

Neil MacGregor was formerly Director of the National Gallery, London and the British Museum. His BBC radio series A History of the World in 100 Objects; Germany, memories of a Nation; and Living with the Gods have all been published by Penguin.

Paula Gooder (British theologian, Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral)

‘On veiling and unveiling: church and synagogue in stained glass and the writings of Paul’

Paula Gooder is a writer and lecturer in New Testament and is passionate about communicating the best of New Testament scholarship to as wide an audience as possible.  She splits her life between Birmingham, where she lives with her husband and two daughters, and London, where she is Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral.