Faculty Bio: Aron Tillema
Dr. Aron Tillema, a member of the Presbyterian church (PCUSA), is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible whose work bridges ancient texts and their reception in communities of faith. He has led adult education courses and small groups that bring biblical scholarship into congregational life. Trained at the University of California, Davis in Hebrew Bible and Mediterranean religions, he brings close attention to language and rhetoric to the question of how scripture works among its diverse readerships. At Moravian, he teaches Introduction to the Old Testament, Biblical Hebrew, Exploring the Questions Together, and more. His courses range across prophetic literature, reception history, Bible and ecology, and Bible and popular culture, interested in ethnographic approaches to interpretation. His research centers on the Book of Jonah, Lamentations, and the social uses of scripture. He currently edits the Lamentations volume for Equinox's Themes and Issues in Biblical Studies series and serves on the steering committee of the International Society of Biblical Literature Writings section.
Degrees and Institutions:
- PhD - University of California, Davis, 2023
- MA - University of California, Davis, 2020
- MDiv - Princeton Theological Seminary, 2017
- BA - Azusa Pacific University, 2014
Publications and Works:
- “Between Debasement and Praise: Animality and the Human-Divine Relation in the Book of Jonah” in Jonah. Themes and Issues in Biblical Studies. Eds. Diana Edelman and Philippe Guillaume. Sheffield, U.K.: Equinox Publishing.
- Gendered Lament, Gendered Response: Reading Lamentations with Its Early Interpreters. Journal of Biblical Literature 15 June 2024; 143 (2): 281–301.
- “The Book of Jonah in Recent Research.” Currents in Biblical Research, 21(2), 145–177.
- Tillema, A. (2020, November 23). Interpretations of Jonah. Bible Odyssey