Cynthia (Cindy) Chapman

  • Adelia A.F. Johnston and Harry Thomas Frank Professor of Religion

Education

  • BA, Kalamazoo College, 1987
  • MDiv, Vanderbilt Divinity School, 1991
  • ThD, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, 2002

Fall 2026

Biblical Migrations in American Novels — FYSP 016

Biblical Prophets and Prophecy — JWST 207

Biblical Prophets and Prophecy — RELG 207

Spring 2027

The Garden of Eden in Literature, Art, and Film — JWST 203

The Garden of Eden in Literature, Art, and Film — RELG 203

  • “The Breath of Life: Speech, Gender and Authority in the Garden of Eden,” Journal of Biblical Literature 138 vol. 2 (2019): 241-262.
    https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.15699/jbl.1382.2019.655524
  • The cover of Cindy Chapman's book "The House of the Mother"The House of the Mother: The Social Roles of Maternal Kin in Biblical Hebrew Narrative and Poetry. Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library. New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2016. http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300197945/house-mother
  • The Gendered Language of Warfare in the Israelite-Assyrian Encounter. Harvard Semitic Monographs 62. Winona Lake, Ind: Eisenbrauns, 2004.
  • The Field Belonging to Boaz: Creating Kinship through Land, Labor, Food, and Feeding,” Journal of Biblical Literature 142/3 (2023): 431-450.
  • Built Women in Men’s Paradises: A Critical Analysis of the Garden of Eden Narrative and Alex Garland’s Ex Machina,” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 2022.
  • ‘The Voice of Your Wife’: Why an Ancient Interpreter Chose to Voice Eve with a Testament.” Journal for the Study of Judaism, 2021.

Notes

Cindy Chapman Hosted Colloquium for Biblical Research

Adelia A.F. Johnston and Harry Thomas Frank Professor of Religion Cindy Chapman hosted the Colloquium for Biblical Research at Oberlin August 2 through 5. Eleven biblical studies scholars presented and responded to papers at the annual event, which has been held in recent years at Dartmouth, Amherst, Boston College, and Princeton. 

Cindy Chapman Awarded NEH Summer Stipend

Professor of Religion Cindy Chapman received a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support her research on a book titled Mother-born Nations: Maternal Markings of Ethnic Insiders and Outsiders in the Bible and Pseudepigrapha. The book will establish the biblical roots for the matrilineal principle in Judaism.

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