Professor Studies Biblical Family Violence

Religious studies professor Caryn Reeder, who joined the Westmont faculty this fall, is anxious to begin conducting research on a new topic. She has spent much of the past year writing “The Enemy Within: Biblical and Intertestamental Traditions of Family Violence,” a dissertation she hopes to publish focusing on domestic violence in the Bible and other ancient texts.

“I’m ready to move beyond family violence and get into something more cheerful,” she says.

Reeder graduated from Augustana College and earned master’s degrees at Wheaton College and the University of Cambridge. She expects to receive her doctorate in New Testament from Cambridge by the end of 2007.

Her research included texts in the Old and New Testaments, books that didn’t make it into the Hebrew Bible, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Reeder says it’s difficult to make ethical conclusions about some texts that advocate violence against family members. She hopes further research on the material and ancient cultures will help us understand the modern roots of religious violence.

“Even today in Western Europe, there are reports in the news of domestic violence based on religious reasoning,” she says. “Though it may seem distant from us, it’s something that’s still very much a part of some religious societies.”

Reeder has published several articles and was awarded the Panacea Society Scholarship in 2005 and 2006. While teaching at Cambridge, she won the Allen, Meek and Read Award and the Scholefield Prize, Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge.

Reeder has begun researching the works of Aemilia Lanyer, a 17th century poet who wrote “Eve’s Apology in Defense of Women,” blaming Adam for original sin.

Reeder says her students will drive the learning experience in the classroom.

“When I was an undergrad, I loved the classes where the professor opened up the dialogue with a question and it went to class discussion,” she says. “I definitely learned the most from those because you have to prepare. You have to think on your feet.”

Reeder also has a passion for traveling, having worked and lived in Jerusalem for two years and in England for four years.

“I love living in new cultures, integrating into them, not just visiting, but actually living with the community, getting to know new traditions, seeing the world through someone else’s eyes,” she says “I’ve benefited so much from being in another culture and seeing myself and America from outside.”