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| Brigitte Kahl
Professor of New Testament
Brigitte Kahl, received the Th.D. (1983) and the Dr.Sc.Theol. (1986) from Humboldt University in Berlin. She is an ordained minister of the Protestant Church of Berlin-Brandenburg.
As a Professor of New Testament at Union and an Associate Professor at the Columbia Religion Department, a major focus of her work has been examining the relationship between New Testament and Empire. She played a major role in organizing and participating in Union’s highly popular 2004 conference on “New Testament and Roman Empire,” and subsequently introduced new teaching methods based on the discoveries which grew out of this event. The conference served as a catalyst for her reconceptualizing the way New Testament Studies are interpreted and taught. A key element of her “Critical Re-imagination” is the innovative use of Roman art and architecture to illuminate imperial gender and identity constructs as a socio-cultural backdrop for New Testament counter-visions, thus creating a juxtaposition of value domains which stands in stark contrast to traditional portrayals of New Testament themes. This “paradigm shift,” which led her to develop new courses on “New Testament and Roman Empire” and on “Reading Images, Reading Spaces, Reading Letters” for Master’s level students, will have an impact on the future profile and direction of the New Testament Ph.D. program.
In 2005, Dr. Kahl's work on this subject was continued through another important event--a public dialogue with best-selling author and philosopher Michael Hardt (Duke University) on Early Christianity, the poor, and the “multitudes.” This interdisciplinary forum involved the Poverty Initiative, with which she has worked in close collaboration in recent years. She believes that developing a fresh approach to Bible study and hermeneutics in the context of poverty (as the underside of empire) is crucial to New Testament understanding. This January, she helped develop the Bible studies related to the Poverty Initiative Immersion trip to Appalachia, and in Spring 2007, she will teach a new course, “Reading the Bible with the Poor,” which aims to bring Union students and poor people’s organizations together in Bible study and reflection.
During her last sabbatical, Dr. Kahl worked on a book that reconsiders Paul’s letter to the Galatians within a Roman imperial context, and offers a new perspective still largely absent from interpretations of this key document of Pauline theology and the Protestant Reformation. Putting a different spin on the theology of justification within the framework of a hermeneutics of resistance, she proposes to unearth a non-conservative Paul who confronts the “law” and the idols of empire as a voice of faith. She hopes this work will become a thought-provoking contribution to discussions about the present-day “theology of empire.”
Dr. Kahl recently published, “Reading Galatians and Empire at the Great Altar of Pergamon, USQR 59 (2005), and was co-editor of “New Testament and Roman Empire,” the USQR volume containing the presentations of the Union Theological Seminary conference in fall 2004, USQR 59 (2005). In 2006, she also published two articles in German, Der Galaterbrief und das Roemische Reich – L(o)eseversuche fuer einen gordischen Knoten and Galaterlektuere am Grossen Altar von Pergamon.
Prof. Kahl was a keynote speaker at the Conference in honor of Luise Schottroff at the University of Marburg (Germany) in June 2004. During the past four years, she served as a translator and consultant for Pauline letters for the landmark German Bible translation project, “The Bible in the Language of Justice” (Guetersloher Verlagshaus), a highly controversial work, which, since its original publication in Fall 2006, is already in its third edition. Her numerous scholarly presentations have included, “New Testament and Poverty,” at the Poverty Initiative/ Potter’s Field Consultation of the Peace Council (2005); “Introducing Matthew and Paul,” at the Columbia University Center for the Core Curriculum/Contemporary Civilization (2005); and “Biblical Genesis Patterns and DNA,” in Prof. Pollack’s class on DNA, Evolution, and the Soul (2006).
Prof. Kahl is a former board member of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament (JSNT). Her further research interests include the links between biblical exegesis and preaching/worship; issues of gender and eco-justice; the intertextuality between Old and New Testament, e.g. with regard to Genesis; the interpretation of Luke/Acts, and the complex and contrasting relationships between Lucan texts and Pauline letters—all issues on which she has widely published, both in English and in German.
| Faculty
Mary C. Boys
Euan K. Cameron
David M. Carr
Chung Hyun Kyung
James H. Cone
Alan Cooper
Samuel Cruz
Gary Dorrien
Esther J. Hamori
Serene Jones
Brigitte Kahl
Paul F. Knitter
Barbara K. Lundblad
Daisy L. Machado
Tyler D. Mayfield
John Anthony McGuckin
Troy Messenger
Christopher L. Morse
Su Yon Pak
Hal Taussig
Mark C. Taylor
Ann Belford Ulanov
Janet R. Walton
John B. Weaver
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