Gaventa Named Distinguished Professor of New Testament Interpretation

Baylor Executive Vice President and Provost Elizabeth Davis announced in December the appointment of Dr. Beverly Roberts Gaventa as Distinguished Professor of New Testament Interpretation in the Department of Religion. Dr. Gaventa currently serves as Helen H.P. Manson Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she has taught for 21 years. She will join Baylor in fall 2013.
Gaventa received her PhD from Duke University under the supervision of W.D. Davies and her MDiv from Union Theological Seminary in New York, where she studied with J. Louis Martyn and Raymond E. Brown.
"Distinguished Professors have a unique role in helping to clarify and articulate Baylor's mission to be a research university with a distinctively Christian identity," Provost Davis said. "The serious study of the Bible is a central part of that identity, and Dr. Beverly Gaventa has established herself as one of the leading New Testament scholars in the world who engage in theological interpretation of the Christian Scriptures. She brings to Baylor a sterling reputation as a scholar/teacher, and she will, in splendid ways, build on the legacy left by her predecessor, Dr. Charles H. Talbert, Distinguished Professor of Religion Emeritus."
"We are so pleased that Dr. Gaventa is joining the Baylor faculty," said Dr. Robyn Driskell, divisional dean for the College of Arts and Sciences. "With her distinguished record, she will most assuredly enhance the work of both the religion department and the College."
About her election to the Baylor faculty, Gaventa said, "I am genuinely honored by the invitation extended me by Baylor University, and I look forward to joining the vibrant New Testament program at Baylor, where I have had strong conversation partners for many years."