Davina Lopez

Davina C. Lopez is an academic focusing on the study of Christian origins and Early Christianity. She is the Loy H. Witherspoon Professor of Christian Origins in the department of religious studies of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She was formerly Professor of Religious Studies and part of the core faculty in Women and Gender Studies, at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. As a researcher of the New Testament, she is the author of Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul's Mission and the co-author, with Todd Penner, of De-Introducing the New Testament: Texts, Worlds, Methods, Stories. She was for many years the co-chair of the Society of Biblical Literature's "Rhetoric and the New Testament" section and has served on several editorial boards, including Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches and The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies. She has contributed to the Society of Biblical Literature's Bible Odyssey project (https://www.bibleodyssey.org/). and has also served on the American Academy of Religion's Board of Directors, Women's Caucus for Religious Studies, and Teaching and Learning Committee. She also coordinated meetings for the Women’s History Month committee and created the Women’s History Month calendar. the courses that Lopez teaches in biblical and ancient studies emphasize the relationship between both the modern and ancient worlds, methodology in biblical interpretation, issues in understanding religious innovations, the continuing relevance of the Bible as a significant site for articulations of power relationships and community identity-construction across time and cultures. As a dedicated professor for humanities and the liberal arts, Lopez also teaches for the Film Studies, Ancient Studies and Women and Gender Studies programs at Eckerd College. methodologies. In doing so, Lopez asks the question of What did Paul mean by identifying himself as "apostle to the nations"? To answer this question, Lopez studies the patriarchal and imperial ideology in Rome's context.

Lopez, in her study, examines the different depictions of Rome and other nations within the Roman society. Rome was represented by god, emperor, and high man figure, whereas other nations were represented by a defeated, conquered, and low women figure. Thus, Lopez linked Paul's "apostle to the nations" to Rome's gender construction. She argued that while Paul's conversion, he realizes that he is in the same situation of the crucified Jesus as being subjected to the Roman death. Thus, Paul's perception of himself and people who followed him took the same way the Rome's image of other nations: defeated and suffering female figure.

'De-Introducing the New Testament' Lopez is a co-author with Todd C Penner of De-Introducing the New Testament: Texts, Worlds, Methods, Stories. The importance of this book is its argument for a postmodern framework in biblical studies. They call for a renewed method to de-familiarizing the power relation in the New Testament. The first chapter discusses how the New Testament depicts the order of things. It also criticizes the epistemological and main approach of New Testament studies. The second chapter turns to a related point of the approaches that are taken for granted in New Testament studies' textbooks. In the third chapter, the authors suggest an approach that studies the material culture in New Testament studies. They emphasize the importance of studying the text as a part of the whole context and thus, they mention the importance of adopting material objects in New Testament studies. The final chapter is titled “ Biblical .” This chapter discusses the context of the increment of methodological approaches during the time of neoliberalism. The argument of this chapter is that branding leads to neoliberal subjectivity in New Testament studies. In doing so, “scholars construct and promote themselves as ‘brands,’ ‘sellers,’ and ‘consumers’ in relation to intellectual currents and content.”

Select bibliography "Looking for an Argument: On Visual Rhetoric and Biblical Interpretation, Biblical Interpretation, 2017. ISSN 0927-2569 Conflations and Confrontations: Spirituality, Religion, and Values in the Liberal Arts Classroom. Religion & Education, 2009. ISSN 1550-7394 "Burton Mack and the Loss of Our Innocence," co-author with Todd Penner. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2015. ISSN 0002-7189