CSART sign (taken by Hannah Johnson)
The Center for the Studies of Ancient Religious Texts will feature Professor Leong Seow as the speaker for the upcoming lecture.
Seow will be discussing the Old Testament in this lecture.
Dr. Jeff Childers, a Carmichael-Walling professor of the New Testament and Early Christianity is the director of CSART and said Seow is a professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Seow is an expert in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament.
The goal of CSART is to foster the study of ancient religious texts through teaching, researching and mentoring, Childers said. CSART is having Seow speak partly because he admired and respected Old Testament professor, John Willis. Willis is one of Seow’s heroes, Childers said.
Seow contacted CSART to plan an event with them to honor Willis.
“So it’s a collaborative venture,” Childers said. “It was something he wanted to do and something we wanted to do, and that’s how it came together.”
Mark Hamilton, professor of Old Testament, is a fellow of CSART. Hamilton gives talks for the organization and CSART helps advertise his published research.
Hamilton said there are two to three CSART lectures per semester.
Hamilton said Seow is one of the leading testament scholars in the world and has published important books on the Old Testament and its history of interpretation.
Hamilton said Willis was a professor of Old Testament. He taught at ACU for 46 years and had a huge impact on many people. Seow and Willis had both a long-standing professional relationship and a friendship.
“Most of the faculty on this campus who went to ACU as undergrads were John’s students,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said Willis also wrote books and articles about the Old Testament and was a well-respected scholar around the world.
“He was also famous as the professor who brought cookies to class every class,” Hamilton said of Willis.
Childers said Willis retired last year. Hamilton now holds Willis’s place.
The lecture will be held Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
For more information, contact Childers at childersj@acu.edu or Hamilton at mark.hamilton@acu.edu.
