Professor Mark Brett

BIO:

Professor Mark Brett teaches Hebrew Bible and ethics. He was raised in Papua New Guinea, which has yielded a lifelong interest in the cultural contexts of education and biblical studies. His PhD on hermeneutical philosophy was published as Biblical Criticism in Crisis? (Cambridge University Press, 1991), and his subsequent research has focused on ethnicity and postcolonial studies. During 2005–2008, he also worked for an Aboriginal organization in developing new frameworks for the negotiation of native title claims within the state of Victoria. He is a member of Brunswick Baptist Church.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• PhD (University of Sheffield, UK)
• MDiv (Princeton Theological Seminary, USA)
• BA (University of Queensland)

Recent Publications:

• ‘Redeeming Eden: Biblical Ethics in the Anthropocene’, in P. Walker and J. Cole (eds), Theology on a Defiant Earth: Seeking Hope in the Anthropocene (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2022), 145–159.
• ‘Introduction: Social Inclusion and the Ethics of Citation’, Journal of Biblical Literature 140 (2021): 819-825.
• ‘The Imperial Context of the Pentateuch’, in J. Baden and J. Stackert (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), 443-562.
• Locations of God: Political Theology in the Hebrew Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019).
• ‘Religious Dimensions of Postcolonial Policy in Australia’, in C. Baker, B.R. Crisp and A. Dinham (eds), Re-imagining Religion and Belief for 21^st Century Policy and Practice (Bristol: Policy Press, 2018).
• ‘A Suitably English Abraham: Emigration to Australia in the Nineteenth Century’, in J. Havea (ed.), Postcolonial Voices from Downunder: Indigenous Matters, Confronting Readings (Eugene: Pickwick, 2017), 110–121.
• Political Trauma and Healing: Biblical Ethics for a Postcolonial World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016).
• ‘Narrative Deliberation in Biblical Politics’, in D.N. Fewell (ed.), The Oxford Handbook to Biblical Narrative (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 540–549.
• ‘The Priestly Dissemination of Abraham’, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 3 (2014): 87–107.

Units Currently Teaching:

• Genesis (Undergrad and Postgrad)
• Justice in the Prophets (2023)
• Samuel and Political Theology (2023)

Research Areas:

• Hebrew Bible
• Colonialism
• Political Theologies
• Intercultural Studies