Latest updates

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Context matters: Festschrift for Knut Holter

Professor Knut Holter has been honored with a Festschrift entitled Context Matters: Old Testament Essays from Africa and Beyond Honoring Knut Holter. International Voices in Biblical Studies 16. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2023. Read More

Dr. Mligo promoted to Full Professor

Dr. Elia Shabani Mligo is to be congratulated for having been promoted to Full Professor of Contextual Theology at his university, Teofilo Kisanji University, Mbeya, Tanzania. Read More

Professor David Tuesday Adamo (1 May 1949 - 22 June 2022)

Professor David Tuesday Adamo passed away on June 22, at the age of 73. This means that the Nigerian and African guild of biblical studies has lost a profiled representative but it also means that many of us who work in the same field have lost a dear friend, in my case a friend over nearly three decades Read More

Promotion of Dr. Helen Nambalirwa Nkabala

Our Old Testament studies colleague at Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda), Dr. Helen Nambalirwa Nkabala, has been promoted to Associate Professor. This is good news for Makerere and for the African guild of biblical studies. Read More

New PhD course, 3-5 May 2021: African Biblical and Theological Hermeneutics

VID Specialized University is pleased to announce a new PhD course offered online 3-5 May 2021, entitled “TR 906: African Biblical and Theological Hermeneutics.” This course capitalizes on VID’s distinctive positioning as a research center for Africana studies including African biblical scholarship, as well as VID’s more than 170 years of engagement in intercultural African relationships with the church and theological education. With Africa now representing one quarter of World Christianity, the need to understand African contexts and perspectives is vital.Read More

PhD defence, Rev Olivier Randrianjaka

On August 18, VID Specialized University (Stavanger, Norway) organized a public PhD defence for Rev Olivier Randrianjaka, Lutheran Graduate School of Theology (Fianarantsoa, Madagascar). Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the defence took place on Skype.Read More

VID researchers in Uppsala University seminar

In these corona times many lectures and seminars are made accessible through digital platforms, and all of us can join two VID researchers who will be presenting a paper in the Biblical Studies Seminar at Uppsala University. Read More

UNISA: Symposium on religion, its texts, and engagement with contemporary issues

On 9-11 December 2019, the Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies at UNISA, University of South Africa, organized a symposium on religion, its texts, and engagement with contemporary studies. The symposium was initiated by Professors Elelwani Farisani and Huli Ramantswana. Three keynote addresses (Professor Anthony Pinn, USA; Dr Michael K. Mensah, Ghana; and Professor Knut Holter, Norway) and thirteen other papers focused on theoretical and more practical aspects of religious texts, mainly related to Bible and Christian tradition.

Adamo Seminar at SBL

The Annual Meeting of Society of Biblical Literature has an African Biblical Hermeneutics Section, and this year—on November 25—the ABH invited to a session where the research profile of our esteemed Nigerian colleague, Professor David Tuesday Adamo of Kogi State University, Nigeria, was discussed in a series of papers. The picture shows the presenters together with Adamo, from the left: Madipoane Masenya (University of South Africa), Knut Holter (VID Specialized University, Norway), Funlola Olojede (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa), David T. Adamo, Marta Høyland Lavik (VID Specialized University, Norway), Miracle Ajah (National Open University of Nigeria).

Book launch: Knut Holter launches three new books on contextual Old Testament interpretation

On May 3rd 2019, SALT Lutheran Graduate School of Theology (Fianarantsoa, Madagascar) organized a book launch for Knut Holter’s three new books about aspects of African and Malagasy interpretive strategies vis-à-vis the Old Testament.Read More

Agnes Lid new Chair of the Board, Wycliffe Global Alliance

Agnes Lid, Director of Wycliffe Norway, has been elected Chair of the Board of Wycliffe Global Alliance. Many congratulations from Stavanger, and many thanks for the collaboration we have with regard to training of Bible translators.

Master’s degree: Bible Translation

The Stavanger Campus of VID Specialized University has restructured its Master’s programs, and now offers a new Master of Theology and Religious Studies, with Bible Translation as one of the tracks of specialization. In a two years program, students are exposed to advanced perspectives—of method, theory, and hermeneutics—on Bible Translation, preparing for service as translator or communicator of the Bible, or for PhD studies in the field.

Read more here.

Workshop on Contextuality

Centre for Mission and Global Studies, VID Specialized University, Stavanger, organized a workshop on Contextuality and African Biblical Studies, Thursday 7. June, with participants from South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sweden, and Norway.

Zephania Shila Nkesela’s PhD defense

On June 6th, Rev Zephania Shila Nkesela (Tanzania) publicly defended his PhD thesis, “A Maasai Encounter with the Bible: Nomadic Lifestyle as a Hermeneutical Question,” on June 6, 2018, in the Major Aula, VID Specialized University, Stavanger, Norway. Read More

New website launched

The encounter between Africa and the Bible has for many years been a key research field for biblical scholars in Stavanger, and this website aims at presenting some of the research and networking activities of the Stavanger colleagues.