Dr. Christine Thomas

Christine Thomas holds a joint appointment with Xavier University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), the Reform Jewish rabbinical seminary. In the words of President Michael Graham, S.J., “her appointment represents our concerted focus on the need for interreligious dialogue and engagement as well as religious mutuality and intellectual vitality.”

 She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. She is a graduate of Smith College and spent the year after graduation at the University of Tokyo on a Fulbright Fellowship. At HUC–JIR she teaches rabbinical students and doctoral and masters students courses in Biblical literature and exegesis, as well courses in ancient languages such as Aramaic and Ugaritic. At Xavier she teaches courses in Hebrew Bible and a Theological Foundations course which includes a focus on Judaism and Jewish–Christian relations. Her scholarship focuses both on biblical literature and the history of the ancient Near East. She explores gender dynamics in biblical narratives as well as the roles played by royal women in the political world of Late Bronze Age Syria.