MBS Newsletter
Holly Hearon, Associate Professor of New Testament, holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union, a D.Min. from Union Theological Seminary, and a B.A. from Wellesley College. Hearon's research interests are Christian origins within Formative Judaism, women in the early church, and the study of oral narrative and social memory in relation to the biblical text. Hearon is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature (and currently serving as co-chair of the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media) and Catholic Biblical Association and is a past President of the Midwest Society of Biblical Literature.
Recent papers and publications include "The Mary Magdalene Tradition: Witness and Counter-Witness in Early Christian Communities" (The Liturgical Press, 2004), awarded first place in the category of “first time author” by the Catholic Press Association; “The Implications of Orality for Studies of the Biblical Text,” in Performing the Gospel: Orality, Memory and Mark, ed. Richard A. Horsley, Jonathan A. Draper, and John Miles Foley (Fortress, 2006); “The Story of ‘the Woman Who Anointed Jesus’ as Social Memory: A Methodological Proposal for the Study of Tradition as Memory,” in Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses of the Past in Early Christianity, Semeia Studies 52, ed. Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher (SBL, 2005); “Listen to the Voices of the Women” (with Linda Maloney), in Distant Voices Drawing Near: Essays in Honor of Antoinette Clark Wire, ed. Holly Hearon (Liturgical Press). She is a regular contributor to Lectionary Homiletics.
Hearon is a minister of word and sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She has served in parish ministry as well as an associate for women's ministry for the Women's Ministry Unit of the Presbyterian Church (USA).