Knowles, Melody

Melody Knowles came to McCormick in 1999, and teaches courses on the religion of Israel, the Psalms, Hebrew, and the Bible in film. Her principal research interests include the reworking of historical traditions within the psalter, and the ancient practice of religion. She has also been involved in archaeological excavations at Tel Miqne (biblical Ekron) and Tel Beth-Shemesh. She serves on the steering committees for the Society of Biblical Literature consultation on Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology, chairs the Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah section, and is a member of the board of trustees of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Dr. Knowles was born in Canada, and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity Western University. She earned her M. Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and was awarded the B. Stanton Prize in Old Testament and a Goethe Institute Fellowship for study in Germany. Her doctoral dissertation was entitled, "The Centrality of the Jerusalem Temple and Religious Practice of Yehud in the Persian Period" (Princeton Theological Seminary, 2001, Choon-Leong Seow, advisor).

Melody has been active in the life of the church since her birth into a family of Salvation Army officers and soldiers. She is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church, and works with Brent House (the Episcopal Chaplaincy at the University of Chicago) and the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program at Christ Church in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Melody is married to John Allan Knight and has two young children: Ella Tennessee and John Oliver.

Education
B.A., Trinity Western University (summa cum laude)
M. Div., Princeton Theological Seminary
Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary

Courses
B 321: Introduction to Hebrew Exegesis I
B 449: Hebrew Exegesis III
B 494: Film and the Bible
B 430: The Psalms

Publications and Research Projects: Books
Centrality Practiced: Jerusalem in the Religious Practice of Yehud and the Diaspora in the Persian Period. Society of Biblical Literature Archaeology and Biblical Studies; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 2006.

For a series of reviews published in the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, go to: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/abstracts-articles.html#A68

Contesting Texts: Jews and Christians in Conversation About the Bible (editor and co-author of the Introduction), with John Pawlikowski, Esther Menn and Timothy Sandoval; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007.

Publications and Research Projects: Articles
"Feminist Interpretation of the Psalms." Co-written with Dr. Esther Menn at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Forthcoming in Cambridge Methods in Biblical Interpretation: The Psalms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
"1 Chronicles," and "2 Chronicles." A Theological Bible Commentary. Edited by Gail R. O'Day and David L. Petersen. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.
"Psalm 31," "Psalm 32," "Psalm 33," "Psalm 37." Pages 128-37, 144-46 in The Lectionary Commentary: The Psalm and Hymn Responses for Worship and Preaching. Edited by Roger E. Van Harn and Brent Srawn. Winona Lake: Eerdmans, 2009.
"A Woman at Prayer?: A Critical Note on Psalms 131:2b." Journal of Biblical Literature 125.2 (2006): 385-89.
"Teaching the Temptation: Seminarians Viewing The Last Temptation of Christ." Co-authored with Alison Whitney. Pages 193-202 in Scandalizing Jesus? Reappreciating Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation of Christ. Edited by Darren J.N. Middleton. New York: Continuum, 2006.
"The Flexible Rhetoric of Retelling: The Choice of David in the Texts of the Psalms." Catholic Biblical Quarterly 67 (2005): 236-49.
"Pilgrimage Imagery in the Returns in Ezra." Journal of Biblical Literature 123 (2004): 57-74.