Jay Twomey

Jay Twomey

Assoc Dean

Professor

Professional Summary

Primary areas of interest include the (literary/theoretical/cultural/political) reception of biblical texts.  He is the author two books, The Pastoral Epistles Through the Centuries (2009) and 2 Corinthians: Crisis and Conflict (2013), and the co-editor of Borges and the Bible (2015).  His current work focuses on St. Paul in and around recent American cultural and political contexts.  He teaches courses on the Bible and literature, and the Bible in literary theory.

Education

Ph. D.: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2001 (Comparative Literature)

Research and Practice Interests

Reception studies, biblical studies, cultural studies, literary theory, comparative literature, American literature

Positions and Work Experience

08-2012 -08-2017 Department Head, English and Comparative Literature, University of Cincinnati

09-2010 -05-2011 Director of Undergraduate Studies, English and Comparative Literature, University of Cincinnati

08-15-2022 - Interim Divisional Dean for Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences,

Research Support

05-2004 -09-2004 University Research Council Summer Fellowship

05-2003 -09-2003 Taft Summer Research Fellowship

09-2009 -09-2010 Sabbatical Leave

09-2011 -08-2012 Taft Center Fellowship

Abbreviated Publications

Peer Reviewed Publications

“The Five That Remain:  Versions of the Messianic in Battlestar Galactica,” in Postscripts 3.2-3 (2007/2010): 162-185.

"Blasted Hope: Theology and Violence in Sarah Kane." The Journal of Religion and Theatre 6.2 (2007): 110-123.

"Reading Derrida’s New Testament: A Critical Appraisal." Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches 13.4 (2005): 374, 403.

"Silence with Full Submission?: Jonathan Edwards and the Pastoral Epistles." Queen: A Journal of Rhetoric and Power (2005).

"Reading A Christian Reading: Mark Jarman, T. S. Eliot and the Aesthetic Strategies of Religious Faith." Religion and the Arts 8.2 (2004): 223, 243.

"Spirit in Motion: Echoes of a Pentecostal Heritage in the Poetry of A. R. Ammons." Religion and Literature 34.2 (2002): 51, 75.

"Totalité, singularité‚ monde : Sur la cosmographie postmoderniste de Jean-Luc Nancy." Reseaux 88-89-90 (2000): 139, 149.

"Tempting the Child: The Lyrical Madness of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian." The Southern Quarterly 37 (1999): 255, 265.

“The Pastor and His Fops:  Gender Indeterminacy in the Pastor and his Readers,” in Semeia Studies 67 (2011): 283-300.

“The Biblical Man in Black:  Johnny Cash’s Pauline Exegesis,” in Biblical Interpretation 19 (2011): 223-252.

Review

Jean-Luc Nancy. "Dis-Enclosure: The Deconstruction of Christianity," in The Bible and Critical Theory5.2 (2009): 27.1-27.1.

Stephen Cox. "The New Testament and Literature: A Guide to Literary Patterns." Christianity and Literature 58.2 (2009) 9.

Alain Badiou. "Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism." Religion and Literature 36.2 (Summer 2004): 133-138.

Bruce Winter. "Philo and Paul Among the Sophists." The Bryn Mawr Classical Review 6.34 (2003).

Anne Staquet. "La morale et ses fables : de l’éthique narrative à l’éthique de la souveraineté." International Journal of Philosophical Studies 9.4. (November 2001): 558-559.

Review of Jean-Luc Nancy, Noli Me Tangere: On The Raising of The Body, in The Bible and Critical Theory 6.3 (2010): 52.1-52.3

Review of Daniel Langton, The Apostle Paul in the Jewish Imagination: A Study in Modern Jewish-Christian Relations, in The Bible and Critical Theory 7.2 (2011): 122-123.

Review of Staley and Walsh (eds.), Jesus, The Gospels and Cinematic Imagination:  A Handbook to Jesus on DVD, in The Bible and Critical Theory 5.1 (2009):  8.1

Book Chapter

"Is Naomi a Liberal Pluralist? The Politics of Loss and Renewal in Jonathan Edwards’ Sermon, ‘Ruth’s Resolution,’" in From The Margins 1:  Women of the Hebrew Bible and Their Afterlives, ed. Peter Hawkins and Lesleigh Cushing Stahlberg.  Sheffield-Phoenix, 2009:  141-158.

"A Funny Thing Happened on the Road to Damascus: Piety and Subversion in Johnny Cash’s Man in White," in Subverting Scriptures: Critical Reflections on the Use of the Bible, ed. Beth Hawkins Benedix. Palgrave, 2009:  11-22.

"Antonin Scalia v. Jonathan Edwards: Romans 13 and The American Theology of State." Sacred Tropes: Tanakh, New Testament, Qur’an as Literary Works. Brill, 2009:  493-504.

Book

The Pastoral Epistles Through the Centuries. Blackwell, 2008.

Under Review

2 Corinthians:  A New Testament Guide, under contract with Sheffield Phoenix Press.

Presentations

Invited Presentations

(03-2007. ) Is Naomi a Liberal Secularist? Politics and Redemption in Jonathan Edwards’ Sermon, ‘Ruth’s Resolution.’ .Boston University.

(12-2005. ) Bending the Rule: Jonathan Edwards, the Rule of Scripture, and Women’s Religious Agency .University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

(11-2010. ) “Triangulating in Reception Studies: A Response to W.J. Lyons & J. Økland, eds., The Way the World Ends? The Apocalypse of John in Culture and Ideology” .Society of Biblical Literature , Atlanta.

(04-2010. ) “Class Action Sagacity: Wisdom Literature and The Sweet Hereafter" .Pomona College, Claremont, CA.

(11-2009. ) “Paul in Fiction” .Colgate University, Hamilton, NY.

(04-2011. ) "The Road From Damascus: A Fictional Critique of Alain Badiou" .Ball State University, Muncie, IN.

(04-2011. ) "The Road From Damascus: A Fictional Critique of Alain Badiou" .Trinity University, San Antonio, TX.

Paper Presentations

(11-2008. ) The Pastor and His Fops: Gender Indeterminacy in the Pastor and his Readers .Boston.

(11-2008. ) The Event of Conversion: Alain Badiou on the Road to Damascus .Minneapolis.

(04-2008. ) The Five That Remain: Versions of the Messianic in Battlestar Galactica .Long Beach.

(11-2007. ) Saintliness and Sovereignty: Pauline Political Theology in Jonathan Edwards' America .Cleveland.

(11-2007. ) The Powers that Be: Antonin Scalia on Romans 13:1-5 .San Diego.

(03-2007. ) Is Naomi a Liberal Secularist? Politics and Redemption in Jonathan Edwards’ Sermon, ‘Ruth’s Resolution' .Boston University.

(11-2006. ) The State of Messianic Exception: Giorgio Agamben and Pauline Sovereignty .Washington D.C..

(04-2006. ) A Funny Thing Happened on the Road to Damascus: Johnny Cash and Paul Among the Theorists .Princeton.

(12-2005. ) The Gospel Truth?: Teaching the New Testament and/as Literature .Washington, D.C..

(12-2005. ) Silence with Full Submission?: Jonathan Edwards and the Pastoral Epistles .University of Redlands, Redlands, CA.

(12-2005. ) Silence with Full Submission?: Jonathan Edwards and the Pastoral Epistles .University of Redlands, Redlands, CA.

(11-2005. ) Rhetoric as Exegesis: Edwards, Chauncy and the Bible in Polemical Context .Milwaukee.

(03-2005. ) Post-Imperial Paul(s): Reading Community and Authority in the Pauline Epistles .Penn State.

(05-2004. ) Religion, Literature and War .Cornell University.

(11-2003. ) Rewriting Jesus: A Case Study in Effective Affective Learning .Chicago, IL.

(03-2003. ) No Heirs to Eliot: The Poetics of Blasphemy .Long Beach, CA.

(03-2003. ) Outcast: American Contexts for the Book of Ruth .University of Cincinnati.

(04-2002. ) 1st Corinthians: Forging Community in Paul’s Corinth .University of Illinois.

(04-2002. ) Messianic Secrets: Subversive Suffering in José Saramago, Terrence McNally and Rosario Castellanos .DePaul University.

(04-2001. ) Towards an Aesthetics of Globality .Boulder, CO.

(04-2001. ) Borges’ Worlds .University of Illinois.

(12-2000. ) The Letter to Philemon and the Pauline Corpus .University of Illinois.

(04-1999. ) The Heretic in His Labyrinth: Critiques of Totality in Borges’ Fiction .Lexington, KY.

(05-1997. ) ‘There was a better heaven’: Native American Novelists and the Encounter of Faiths .Brigham Young University.

(11-2011. ) “Sooner Murder an Infant in its Cradle”: Wisdom and Childlessness in The Sweet Hereafter” .San Francisco, CA.

(11-2011. ) “Paul and the Civil Rights Movement: Martin Luther King’s ‘Paul’s Letter to American Christians’” .San Francisco, CA.

(11-2009. ) “Fictional Neo-Paulinisms: Rewritings of the Life of Paul” .New Orleans, LA.

(11-2009. ) “The Biblical Man in Black: Johnny Cash’s Pauline Exegesis” .New Orleans, LA.

(04-2009. ) “Paulitics: Recent Theoretical Paulinism in Literary Perspective” .Cambridge, MA.

Other Information

Courses Taught
Graduate
15-ENGC-800 CONTEXTS LIT STUDY
15-ENGC-776 APP BIBLICAL LIT
15-ENGC-706 APP TO LIT THEORY
15-ENGC-700 MOD CONTEMP LIT

Undergraduate
15-ENGL-396H PERSPEC IN AM LIT
15-ENGL-352 BIBLE & LIT III
15-ENGL-351 BIBLE AND LIT II
15-ENGL-350 BIBLE AND LIT I
15-ENGL-303 SURVEY-AMERICAN LIT
15-ENGL-202 TOPCS IN LITERATURE
15-ENGL-201 TOPCS IN LITERATURE
15-ENGC-401 SEM: COMP LIT
15-ENGC-399 INTRO LIT THEORY
15-ENGB-300 INTRO: STUDY OF LIT

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