Dr Louise Lawrence
South West Ministry Training Course Research Fellowship and Lecturer in Theology, the University of Exeter

Dr Louise Lawrence is the first holder of our newly created Research Fellowship. The Fellowship has been created in consultation with churches in the South West and in partnership with the Theology Department in the University of Exeter.

Dr Lawrence is a native of Devon and knows the South West well. Over the past six years she has worked in Scotland as a Teaching Fellow in New Testament Studies in the University of St Andrews and most recently as Lecturer in New Testament Studies at Glasgow University. Louise, although a young scholar, already has an impressive list of publications to her name. Her work to date has focused on exploring ways in which anthropological and ethnographic approaches of the social sciences can increase and deepen our understanding of the New Testament.

Louise’s scholarly interests and passion for Bible reading have also led her to involvement in investigating how contemporary communities, in a variety of settings, read and interpret the Bible today. Some of this material will be included in a forthcoming volume on Exploring the Parables as Cultural Performances which offers reflections, not only on the continuing power of the parables, but also on how they can inform contemporary styles of preaching.

Please click here (pdf 72k) for Louise's report on the first year of the project, or click here (pdf 60k) for her article on Contextual Bible study on place or link to the University of Exeter Department of Theology website:

http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/theology/research/tlsh.htm

Workshops
The project booklet contains all the material you need to host your own workshop day (or four separate hour long sessions) on place. Ideas for group activities and the four biblical texts we have been using in the project along with questions which relate the context of the passage to present-day contexts are presented. Please do download this material and feel free to use it within a group of your choice. I would be delighted to know how it went, so please do e-mail me with any feedback.

Click here (pdf 940k) to download booklet