2020 IM Call for Papers

The call for papers for the 2020 International Meeting remains open. The deadline for submission for the International Meeting is 29 January 2020.

Support for Australian Colleagues

Our thoughts, sympathy, and support are with our colleagues and everyone in Australia affected by the bushfires. This is an immediate local disaster as well as a long-term global concern. To support our colleagues in Australia, consider a donation to the Australian Red Cross, the World Wildlife Fund, the South Australia government appeal, or the RSPCA South Australia.

2020 SBL Member Benefit from JSTOR

JSTOR has invited SBL into a two-year pilot program that provides access for all SBL members to more than one hundred journals in JSTOR’s Religion and Theology Collection. To visit the collection, log in to the member benefits page and use the link in the JSTOR section. SBL is grateful to JSTOR for this member benefit through 2020.

Amazon Purchases: Thank you to all our Amazon Smile supporters! If you haven’t signed up, just go to https://smile.amazon.com/ and choose Society of Biblical Literature as your charity of choice. Then make all of your future Amazon purchases via amazonsmile.com and they will donate a percentage of your purchase to us. It costs you nothing extra. This is a great time of year to get signed up as you can see, everyones small purchases add up!

You can also support SBL by linking to Amazon from this link.

SBL Calendar

See Events on the SBL Calendar

SBL on Twitter

@BibleOdyssey shares content related to Bible Odyssey and biblical studies in general.

@SBLSite
Want to continue conversations from the Annual and International Meeting? We recommend the hashtag #SBLsite on Twitter.

@SBLPress will be posting new publications, e-book releases, and special sales.

SBL International Travel Awards Applications

The SBL International Travel Award applications are now open. These awards offer opportunities to current SBL members outside North America to attend the Annual or International Meeting, to participate in the program, to enhance their professional development, and to build their network with fellow scholars. The International Travel Awards defray transportation, hotel accommodations, and other expenses incurred for the Annual or International Meetings. Please visit the travel award page for information on eligibility, criteria, and application instructions.

Bible Odyssey News

The Jewish Publication Society’s TANAKH translation of the Hebrew Scriptures is now available in the Search Bibles page (https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/bibles) of Bible Odyssey. SBL is grateful to the Jewish Publication Society and University of Nebraska Press, which provided access to this translation free of charge. This is a wonderful opportunity to expose this outstanding translation to more of the general public.

In 2019, SBL partnered with the Vietnamese Biblical Theology Society to translate selected articles on Bible Odyssey into Vietnamese, expanding Bible Odyssey’s international and non-Anglophone public resources in biblical studies. In 2020, the Asociación Bíblica Argentina (ABA) has partnered with SBL to translate selected articles on Bible Odyssey into Spanish. This opportunity was made possible by Juan Manuel Tebes, Chair of SBL’s International Cooperation Initiative Committee, and María Verónica Talamé, President of ABA. Many thanks to María and Juan for this new opportunity to foster biblical studies!

Update on the De Gruyter Prize for Biblical Studies and Reception History

The De Gruyter Prize for Biblical Studies and Reception History promotes the study of the reception history of the Bible and aims to highlight the broad impact of the Bible in a wide variety of historical contexts and cultural settings. SBL is grateful to De Gruyter for investing in this growing area of research and teaching, one that also cultivates interdisciplinary studies in the humanities.

Beginning in 2020, the award will be for papers in two categories: Textual Culture and Reception of the Bible, and Visual Culture and Reception of the Bible. De Gruyter will support each category with an annual cash prize of $750. The awarded papers will be published in the Journal of the Bible and its Reception. In addition to being published, the awarded papers will be delivered at the SBL Annual Meeting followed by a panel discussion.

In order to submit a paper for the award, the intent to submit form must be completed no later than 15 March 2020. See here for further information.

National Summit on Religion and Education

In September 2019, SBL took part in a National Summit on Religion and Education to discuss the past, present, and future of K-12 religious studies education in the United States. The summit brought together an inter- and multi-disciplinary group of institutions and individuals. An important outcome of the summit is a white paper that constitutes an agreement of priorities for the future of the field among the signatories, which includes SBL. A priority task in the whitepaper, approved by the SBL Council, is the following:
Create a set of learning objectives for the academic study of sacred texts, modeled on the Religious Studies Companion Document to the C3 Framework (2017). Given the proliferation of Bible-as-literature courses, it’s imperative to have clear learning objectives agreed upon by SBL and the mainstream education community, including the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).