It is a real delight to announce that Newman University has just appointed Dr. Lloyd Pietersen as Visiting Research Fellow in Biblical Studies.

Lloyd has been an important voice within New Testament scholarship for a number of years and has just recently retired as Senior Lecturer and Research Coordinator in New Testament Studies at the University of Gloucestershire.

Lloyd undertook his PhD research at the University of Sheffield where he explored the development of Pauline communities, as represented in the Pastoral Epistles. This has subsequently been published in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series as The Polemic of the Pastorals (T & T Clark, 2004). Lloyd has been particularly active in NT social-scientific criticism, often chairing sessions at the British New Testament Society Conference. Lloyd’s other research interests also include the Bible and Spirituality and he is the co-editor of The Bible and Spirituality: Exploratory Essays in Reading Scripture (2013).

Lloyd is also Honorary Research Fellow at Bristol Baptist College where he is actively involved in their study programme based at their Centre for Anabaptist Studies.

A number of you will know Lloyd as the key note speaker at our Voices from the Desert Conference in July, where he gave a very well received and thought-provoking paper, as well as running a workshop after which many of us will never again read the parables of Jesus in quite the same way! We are excited to announce that he is already booked for next year’s conference (further details to follow). Past and present Newman students will also be familiar with Lloyd’s work (particularly his Reading the Bible after Christendom) where we study it during our Text, Culture and Interpretation module.

Lloyd will be a real asset to the centre’s work and it is a real joy to welcome him to the centre and we look forward to working with him and know that we will benefit from his boundless enthusiasm and thoughtful input.