It is a joy to announce that Dr. Bruce Beck, Ph.D., will offer the 2018 Three Hierarchs Academic Lecture, scheduled for Saturday, February 3 at 6PM. Dr. Beck is the Assistant Professor of New Testament at Holy Cross and Director of the Religious Studies program at Hellenic College. He also has served since 2003 as the Director of the Pappas Patristic Institute at the school. His area of specialization is the study of the New Testament and its interpretation within the Church.
Dr. Beck has studied at the Hebrew University, the University of Georgia, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Harvard Divinity School, where he received both received both his MDiv and ThD. Proficient is Greek (Homeric, Classical, koine/Biblical, Patristic), Hebrew (biblical and modern), Syriac, biblical Aramaic, Latin, French, and German, he draws from a wide range of sources in the interpretation of the New Testament, including the Greek Old Testament, the Orthodox lectionary, liturgical hymns, iconography, patristic writings, and academic scholarship. He has taught at Harvard College, Harvard Divinity School, and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, contributed chapters in edited volumes as well as papers for academic and parochial publications, offered lectures, interviews, and retreats throughout the world and worked in Academia for over 20 years.
The title of his presentation is “Deliver us from Danger and Distress:” Praying the Scriptures in the Early Church. “Deliver us from Danger and Distress” will focus be on how the biblical figures serve as models for our prayers in the liturgy and feasts – how we are so connected with God’s saving activity in our past – including the prophets, patriarchs, and the saints – and ultimately how we are rooted in faithfulness of God to the Fathers and Mothers of the Christian faith – how we are constantly having recourse to these models of faith – which we see time and again in our prayers. This presentation will also address practical ways by which we can use this to our advantage – by pointing to ways that Christians can pray the Scriptures today.
Dr. Beck is currently writing a book about the role of the prophets and other biblical saints in the early Church as models of prayer. His recent publications include “Testing God: Echoes of Exodus in the Gospels;” “Intertextuality and Reception History in the story of Jonah and Elijah in the Lives of the Prophets: The Tradition of Jonah as the Widow’s Son” (with Christos Arabatzis), “Learn from me”: Embodied Knowledge through Imitation in Early Christian Pedagogy;” “The Aesthetic of Typology: The Prophet Jonah in the Church’s Liturgical Hymns;” and “‘Out of the Mouth of Babes’: Prophetic Children of Palm Sunday in Patristic Liturgical Tradition.”
Visit https://www.saintanna.org/study/# for a list of past speakers and topics.