Thursday 18 June 2026, 5-7pm BST

• Hannah Bowden, Senior Researcher at Youthscape, Luton, England, talking about the Troubling Jesus report on the Bible engagement of non-Christian teenagers.
• Simon Harry, Baptist minister, Cambridgeshire, England, will speak about his doctoral research on intergenerational Bible study.
• Gerald West, Professor Emeritus in the School of Religion, Philosophy, and Classics in the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, spoke about three dimensions of space in Contextual Bible Study in the reading of Ruth.

Thursday 19 March 2026

• Sean McGuire, Adjunct Professor, Prairie Bible College and Carey Theological College, Canada, will share insights on biblical hermeneutics in the metamodern mood, drawing on his research amongst Canadian Baptists
• Helen John, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Exeter, England, will be talking about how biblical texts offer a way into conversations about local culture in northern Namibia
• Jo Logan, St Hild College (Mirfield), West Yorkshire, will be speaking on the contemporary reception of Eph 5:21-33 by women in the South East of England, particularly interpretative approaches.

Thursday 13 November 2025

• Jacob Haasnoot, a doctoral student at the Centre for Contextual Biblical Interpretation at Vrije University Amsterdam, spoke on his research into how ordinary readers in South Sudan interpret the Bible.
• Zoe Strong, doctoral student at the University of Aberdeen, told us about her research on dyslexia and Bible reading.
• Sthembiso Zwane, Director of the Ujamaa Centre, linked to the University of Kwazulu-Natal, shared about their work with working class communities who read the Bible from the perspective of marginalization and exclusion.

Thursday 26 June 2025

• Melody Briggs of Lindisfarne College of Theology – gave an overview of her ongoing research project on how children’s workers in churches handle scripture.
• Andrew Village of York St. John Uni – talked about his research on factors associated with biblical conservatism.

Thursday 27 March 2025

All speakers commented on the challenges of Bible user research and who it benefitted. This has been a regular feature of our conversations since.

• Peter Ben-Smit, co-director of the Centre for Contextual Biblical Interpretation at VU – gave an overview of the Centre’s research.
• Rob Heimburger of Cardiff Uni – spoke about his research on how Bible readers in Columbia read Mt 18:21-35 as conflict survivors.
• Anna Hutchinson of St Mellitus College – talked about her recent book The Influence of the Doctrine of Scripture.

Thursday 21 November 2024

Our theme was “exploring the complexity of Bible user contexts”. Our speakers were:

• Richard Powney of Bible Society – the largest Bible survey ever (probably)
• James Bielo from Northwestern Uni – second hand sacred and the material culture of the Bible
• Louise Lawrence from Exeter Uni – on her recent co-edited volume, Challenging Contextuality
  

Thursday 6 June 2024

Eleven of us met to share our Bible user research interests and plan how the network would work.