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WORK TITLE: A Modest Apostle
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http://candler.emory.edu/faculty/profiles/hylen-susan.html * http://candler.emory.edu/faculty/profiles/cv-files/hylen-susan_cv.pdf * https://www.workingpreacher.org/profile/default.aspx?uid=2-hylen_susan
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LC control no.: n 2005071047
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2005071047
HEADING: Hylen, Susan
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100 1_ |a Hylen, Susan
670 __ |a Hylen, Susan. Allusion and meaning in John 6, c2005: |b ECIP t.p. (Susan Hylen) data view (Dr.; Dept. of Religious Studies, Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, Tenn.)
953 __ |a sh20
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:University of California, San Diego, B.A., 1990; Princeton Theological Seminary, M.Div., 1995; Emory University, Ph.D., 2004.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Vanderbilt University, professor in the Department of Religious Studies; Emory University, associate professor of New Testament at Candler School of Theology; elder in the Presbyterian Church.
RELIGION: Presbyterian.WRITINGS
Coauthor of New Proclamation Year B 2012: Easter through Christ the King Sunday, Fortress Press, 2012. Contributor of book chapters to Feasting on the Gospels: John, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville, KY), 2015; Oxford Encyclopedia of Bible and Theology, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2015; and CEB Student Bible, Abingdon Press, 2015.
Contributor of articles to Feminist Studies in Religion and Biblical Theology Bulletin.
SIDELIGHTS
Susan E. Hylen is an associate professor of New Testament at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She previously taught in the Department of Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Hylen writes scholarly books on the early church and has authored three books on the Gospel of John, as well as several other book chapters, essays, and articles. She holds a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Emory University.
Hylen’s research explores the roles and authority of women in the early church and interpretations of the diverse and often contradictory evidence about the participation of women. She also lectures at church, conference, and teaching events. Hylen partnered with cowriter Gail R. O’Day, A. H. Sanford Professor of Preaching and New Testament at Candler School of Theology, to write John, a book in the “Westminster Bible Companion” series. The book offers accessible commentary on the Gospel and explains its distinctive qualities.
In 2005 Hylen published Allusion and Meaning in John 6. She offers a new interpretation of the chapter. Rather than Jesus repudiating Moses and manna and offering himself as an alternative, Hylen explains that John becomes an interpreter of Exodus, puts the event in a positive light, and sees the Exodus as a positive constructive relationship to Jesus. Hylen discusses this Gospel section in relationship to Jewish scripture, its dualism, and its metaphorical language.
Imperfect Believers
Hylen’s 2009 Imperfect Believers: Ambiguous Characters in the Gospel of John examines the characters portrayed in the gospel—Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the disciples, the Jews, Martha and Mary, Peter and the Beloved Disciple, and Jesus. Hylen explains that the characters are complex and ambiguous, which encourages readers to understand biblical characters, their actions, and their speech within the context of the message of the Gospel. Through the characters, readers are able to reason according to the terms the Gospel sets forth.
Writing in Interpretation, Frances Taylor Gench remarked: “The implications of Hylen’s study are striking, requiring a picture of John’s community as one that has not fully separated from other forms of Judaism (as traditionally assumed), and an understanding of belief as a process or spectrum rather than an all-or-nothing affair. This study will be of interest to all who engage Johannine characters in their practice of ministry.”
A Modest Apostle
Hylen next wrote A Modest Apostle: Thecla and the History of Women in the Early Church in 2015. Although women played important roles and held some authority in the early church, official decrees limited them from active leadership. Contradictions of women’s activity ranged from exceptional to heretical. The Acts of Paul and Thecla (ATh), a book in the New Testament Apocrypha, are often contrasted with 1 Timothy to represent communities with opposite responses to the question of women’s leadership. Hylen examines ATh and 1 Timothy and reveals that in Roman times, women exhibited gendered virtues like modesty, industry, and loyalty to family in very different ways, including active leadership in their communities.
K.A. Dugan commented in Choice: “Hylen’s compelling reinterpretation of Thecla opens new avenues for understanding women in biblical history.” Hylen explains that the life of Thecla, and early Christian women in general, can be more fully understood in the context of women adapting to the complex social norms of the time. She does this by comparing the way Thecla is presented in ATh and 1 Timothy. Although women were expected to be subservient to men, they also held important social roles in the community. According to Christian Century reviewer Matthew L. Skinner, “Hylen sees no essential contradiction in these mores.” Christian women then were able both to exercise authority and conform to conventions that expected modesty.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice, April, 2016, K.A. Dugan, review of A Modest Apostle: Thecla and the History of Women in the Early Church, p. 1182.
Christian Century, Volume 133, number 21, 2016, Matthew L. Skinner, review of A Modest Apostle, p. 23.
Interpretation, Volume 65, number 2, 2011, Frances Taylor Gench, review of Imperfect Believers: Ambiguous Characters in the Gospel of John, p. 202.
ONLINE
Emory University Web site, http://candler.emory.edu/ (March 29, 2017), author profile.
Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/ (March 29, 2017), author profile.
Susan E. Hylen
Associate Professor of New Testament
Susan E. Hylen
Email: susan.hylen@emory.edu
Phone: 404.727.3378
PhD, Emory University, 2004
MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1995
BA, University of California San Diego, 1990
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Dr. Susan E. Hylen teaches courses in New Testament at Candler and in Emory’s Graduate Division of Religion, equipping students to become responsible interpreters of the biblical texts. She has authored three books on the Gospel of John, as well as a number of other book chapters, essays and articles. Her current research explores the roles and authority of women in the early church, and offers a new way of interpreting the diverse and often contradictory evidence about the participation of women.
A ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Hylen also serves the Candler community and the academy, contributing to several committees, advisory and editorial boards, including chairing the Women in the Biblical World section of the Society of Biblical Literature. She is a frequent lecturer at church, conference and teaching events.
Associate Professor of New Testment
Emory University
Atlanta, Ga.
Susan Hylen
Biography
Susan E. Hylen is Associate Professor of New Testament at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, Ga. She is the author of A Modest Apostle: Thecla and the History of Women in the Early Church (Oxford University Press, 2015). Her other books include Imperfect Believers: Ambiguous Characters in the Gospel of John (Westminster John Knox, 2009).
Biographical information was updated as of the latest contribution. Author profiles may not reflect author's current employment or location.
A Modest Apostle: Thecla and the History of Women in the
Early Church
Matthew L. Skinner
The Christian Century.
133.21 (Oct. 12, 2016): p23.
COPYRIGHT 2016 The Christian Century Foundation
http://www.christiancentury.org
Full Text:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
A Modest Apostle: Thecla and the History of Women in the Early Church, by Susan E. Hylen (Oxford University Press, 200 pp., $74.00). Women
in the Roman era were expected to be subordinate to men, yet they also had opportunities to engage in leadership and play socially influential
roles in various settings. Hylen sees no essential contradiction in these mores. Her interpretations of 1 Timothy, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, and
the reception of Theda's memory in the early church describe a complex social landscape in which Christian women exercised authority while
conforming to conventions that prized modesty.
Selected by Matthew L. Skinner, who teaches New Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is the author of Intrusive God,
Disruptive Gospel: Encountering the Divine in the Book of Acts (Brazos Press).
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Skinner, Matthew L. "A Modest Apostle: Thecla and the History of Women in the Early Church." The Christian Century, vol. 133, no. 21, 2016,
p. 23. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA472473101&it=r&asid=2e11b102f245dbcbde0ea8cd0ac6a4a9. Accessed 5 Mar.
2017.
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Imperfect Believers: Ambiguous Characters in the Gospel of
John
Frances Taylor Gench
Interpretation.
65.2 (Apr. 2011): p202.
COPYRIGHT 2011 Union Theological Seminary
http://www.interpretation.org/
Full Text:
Imperfect Believers: Ambiguous Characters in the Gospel of John
by Susan H. Hylen
Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2009. 206 pp. $24.95.
ISBN 978-0-664-23372-3.
SUSAN HYLEN'S COMPELLING study directs attention to an intriguing paradox: while the Gospel of John conveys a dual is tic worldview of
sharp contrasts (flesh/spirit, above/below, day/night), its characters are ambiguous and complex and blur rather than reinforce the Gospel's sharply
defined categories. She argues, moreover, that the ambiguity in characterization plays an important literary function, drawing readers into a
process of discernment that assists in their own formation as believers who reason according to the terms the Gospel sets forth.
Hylen makes her case by attending closely to what John says about each character according to indirect modes of characterization. In Part 1, she
considers characters often read as "flat" or representative (Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the disciples, Martha and Mary, and the Beloved
Disciple), yet for whom she finds textual evidence that suggests greater complexity. Interestingly, characters display ambiguity of different kinds.
Nicodemus' ambiguity, for example, suggests that there is more to discipleship than belief in Jesus, and that being "born again" may not be an allor-nothing
affair. Indeed, "The characterization of Nicodemus presents the reader with an idea of discipleship as an event (like birth) and as a
slow and uncertain process" (p. 38). The Samaritan woman's characterization is ambiguous because her testimony to Jesus occurs in the absence
of clear belief in him, indicating that incomplete understanding does not preclude discipleship or participation in the activity of witnessing. As for
the disciples of Jesus, Hylen argues that they do not undergo a linear progress toward belief in Jesus, as many commentators have supposed;
instead, they are marked by both belief and disbelief throughout the entire narrative. She describes them as "eschatological character[s]" whose
promised perfection lies outside the narrative time of the Gospel and can help readers see their own discipleship from the standpoint of God's
future promises. Even the Beloved Disciple, so often seen as the premier example of discipleship, admits ambiguity: his faith and understanding
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is genuine, yet partial, and builds upon the faith and understanding of others. Thus he shows the importance of relational discipleship, for his faith
and understanding are intertwined with what others believe and do.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The chapters in Part 2 are less exegetical and more conceptual, as Hylen explores questions particular to the characters of the Jews and Jesus. She
opens up new interpretive possibilities by reading the Jews, so often typed as "representatives of disbelief" and enemies of Jesus in John, as
ambiguous characters. They both believe and disbelieve, much like the rest. Indeed, they understand a great deal about Jesus and John's
presentation of them establishes significant points of continuity between Jewish and Christian traditions. Thus, in Hylen's view, "the Jews no
longer exist only on the wrong side of a deep dualistic divide, as the exemplars of Jesus' opponents" (p. 127)--a reading that has potential to
reframe the way contemporary Christian readers view themselves in relation to Judaism.
While Jesus is surely the least ambiguous of John's characters, Hylen argues that many elements of John's characterization make him appear
mysterious and elusive. She proposes a metaphorical, rather than symbolic, reading of the Gospel's imagery, noting that the sheer variety and
quantity of metaphors used to characterize Jesus require the reader to hold together multiple, distinctive, and even competing ways of
understanding who he is, ensuring that "the character of Jesus will not be easily defined or narrowed to a single point" (p. 150). Reading John's
imagery metaphorically, rather than symbolically, also involves recognizing many positive associations between Jesus and aspects of Jewish
tradition.
The implications of Hylen's study are striking, requiring a picture of John's community as one that has not fully separated from other forms of
Judaism (as traditionally assumed), and an understanding of belief as a process or spectrum rather than an all-or-nothing affair. This study will be
of interest to all who engage Johannine characters in their practice of ministry. It will also be of particular interest to those who wrestle with the
ethical implications of John's dualism, for John's ambiguous characters may teach us that "a life of discipleship involves more than simple
either/or judgments that place people inside or outside the community of God's faithful" (p. 161). After all, are not all disciples of Jesus imperfect
believers?
Frances Taylor Gench
UNION PRESBYTERIAN SEMINARY
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
Gench, Frances Taylor
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Gench, Frances Taylor. "Imperfect Believers: Ambiguous Characters in the Gospel of John." Interpretation, vol. 65, no. 2, 2011, p. 202+. General
OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA254314525&it=r&asid=461c28e51509e07b9ea301deefa2848a. Accessed 5 Mar.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A254314525
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Hylen, Susan. A modest apostle: Thecla and the history of
women in the early church
K.A. Dugan
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1182.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
Hylen, Susan. A modest apostle: Thecla and the history of women in the early church. Oxford, 2015. 182p bibl Indexes afp ISBN
9780190243821 cloth, $74.00
53-3469
BR1720
2015-1017 MARC
Long understood as a devoted follower of Paul, Thecla also represents contradictions in the biblical interpretation of women. She has been
interpreted as conflicted--as a woman who is both able to break free of male hierarchy and oppressed by the patriarchy of the early Christian
world. Departing from this standard, Hylen (Candler School of Religion, Emory Univ.) reinterprets Thecla's story. She argues that the life of
Thecla (and early Christian women more broadly) can be more fully understood if the conflicting positions of women are seen as evidence of
complex social norms. Hylen makes her case through careful comparisons of Thecla as she appears in 1 Timothy and in the apocryphal Acts of
Paul and Thecla. Drawing on a range of sources and analyzing key terms like modesty and piety, Hylen creates a complicated image of Thecla.
Emerging from a woman constrained by mutually exclusive expectations is a woman whose leadership style embodied modesty. Recentered
agency and complex modesty expand the interpretive range of Thecla's presence in the Bible. Hylen's compelling reinterpretation of Thecla opens
new avenues for understanding women in biblical history. Summing Up: *** Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.--
K. A. Dugan, Northwestern University
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Dugan, K.A. "Hylen, Susan. A modest apostle: Thecla and the history of women in the early church." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic
Libraries, Apr. 2016, p. 1182. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449661600&it=r&asid=96b275953558d712d196fff4f28a952b. Accessed 5 Mar.
2017.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A449661600