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Dr Liz Boase

Keynote Speaker in 2017

Theme: Through the Lens of Trauma: Jeremiah and Lamentations

Biography (from 2017):

Dr Liz Boase is a Lecturer in Biblical Studies: Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Uniting College in South Australia, and head of the Department of Theology at Flinders University.

“I began studying theology in my twenties and found that I resonated deeply with the books of the Old Testament. People often ask me what it is about the Old Testament which grabbed my attention and my usual response is that in these ancient writings we are able to find out a great deal about ourselves and what it means to be truly authentic human beings before God. In these ancient writings we find people struggling with the same sorts of questions that we ask today: What is life about? Where do I find hope? Why do people suffer? How do we function well as a society? How do we relate to others? In exploring these sorts of questions, we encounter some deep and robust conversations– conversations between different voices in the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures, always spoken in the presence of God. The place where we find our fullest humanity is, for me, in those writings which deal with deep questions about pain and suffering. It is there that I find the courage to name and acknowledge the tough stuff of  life. It is there that I find the language to bring all of who I am to God, in pain, in anger, and in hope.

Much of my research has focused on the book of Lamentations and on lament literature in general. Recently, I have been working with these texts from different hermeneutical (interpretive) perspectives. One project involves reading Lamentations from an ecological perspective. The other reading lens is that of trauma theory and trauma studies. I enjoy the challenge of engaging with familiar texts from different perspectives. It opens up new ways of seeing the bible and challenges me to engage biblically with some significant issues facing contemporary society.”

Publications

  • Boase, E.C. (2006).The fulfilment of doom? The dialogic interaction between the book of lamentations and the pre-exilic/early exilic prophetic literature. New York, USA: T and T Clark.

  • Boase, E.C. (2016). Fragmented Voices: Collective Identity and Traumatization in Lamentations. In Elizabeth Boase and Christopher G Frechette, ed. Bible Through the Lens of Trauma. Atlanta, Georgia: SBL Press, pp. 49-66.

  • Boase, E.C. and Frechette, C.G. (2016). Defining Trauma as a Useful Lens for Biblical Interpretation. In Elizabeth Boase and Christopher G Frechette, ed. Bible Through the Lens of Trauma. Atlanta, Georgia: SBL Press, pp. 1-23.

  • Boase, E.C. (2014). The Traumatised Body: Communal Trauma and Somatisation in Lamentations. In Eve-Marie Becker; Jan Dochhorn, Else Kragelund Holt, ed. Trauma and Traumatization in Individual and Collective Dimensions: Insights from Biblical Studies and Beyond. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, pp. 193-209.

  • Boase, E.C. and Taylor, S. (2013). Public Lament. In MJ Bier & T Bulkeley, ed. Spiritual Complaint: The Theology and Practice of Lament. Eugene, USA: Pickwick Publishers, pp. 205-227.

  • Boase, E.C. (2013). Blurring the Boundaries: The Rhetoric of Lament and Penitence in Isaiah 63:7-64:11. In MJ Bier & T Bulkeley, ed. Spiritual Complaint: The Theology and Practice of Lament. Eugene, USA: Pickwick Publishers, pp. 71-87.

  • Boase, E.C. and Agnew, S. (2016). “WHISPERED IN THE SOUND OF SILENCE”: TRAUMATISING THE BOOK OF JONAH.Bible and Critical Theory, 12(1) pp. 4-22.

  • Boase, E.C. (2014). Grounded in the Body: A Bakhtinian Reading of Lamentations 2 from Another Perspective.Biblical Interpretation, 22(3) pp. 292-306.

  • Boase, E.C. (2012). The Cursing Psalms: What are they, why are they there and how do we pray them today?New Norcia Studies, 20 pp. 59-65.

  • Boase, E.C. (2008). The Characterisation of God in Lamentations.Australian Biblical Review, 56 pp. 32-44.

  • Boase, E.C. (2006). The fulfilment of doom? The dialogic interaction between the book of lamentations and the pre-exilic/early exilic prophetic literature. Claudia, V Camp; Andrew Mein, ed. New York, USA: T and T Clark.