Easter and Passover

Andrew McGowan was appointed Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School in 2014. An Anglican priest and historian, his scholarly work focuses on the life of early Christian communities, and on aspects of contemporary Anglicanism. He is author or editor of six books; his project of re-describing early eucharistic practice in relation to ancient food and meals is found in Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals (Oxford, 1999) and in subsequent articles and chapters produced in conversation with members of the Meals in the Greco-Roman World group of the Society of Biblical Literature. In Ancient Christian Worship (Baker Academic, 2014; Italian translation Il Culto Cristiano dei Primi Secoli [Dehoniane, 2019]) he considers discursive and ritual practice in the ancient Church, including use of music and speech as well as sacramental ritual, acknowledging the diversity of early Christian belief and practice. He is currently working on how early Christian and other ancient Mediterranean groups used, changed, and created notions of sacrifice. Before coming to Yale, Professor McGowan was Warden of Trinity College at the University of Melbourne. He was also a member of the General Synod of the Australian Anglican Church and of its Doctrine Commission, contributing to published conversations on environmental theology, restorative justice, and the theology of worship, and was editor of the Journal of Anglican Studies for ten years. His sermons have been published in Ancient and Modern (Wipf and Stock, 2015) and in Seven Last Words: Cross and Creation (Cascade, 2021). Biography

Prof. Joel Baden works widely in the field of Hebrew Bible, with special attention to the literary history of the Pentateuch. He is the author, most recently, of The Book of Exodus: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2019). His other books include J, E, and the Redaction of the Pentateuch (Mohr Siebeck, 2009); The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis (Yale University Press, 2012); The Promise to the Patriarchs (Oxford University Press, 2013); The Historical David: The Real Life of an Invented Hero (HarperOne, 2013); Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness (with Candida Moss; Princeton University Press, 2015); and Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby (with Candida Moss; Princeton University Press, 2017). He is the co-editor of the volumes The Strata of the Priestly Writings: Contemporary Debate and Future Directions (TVZ, 2009), Sibyls, Scriptures, and Scrolls (Brill, 2017), and The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch (with Jeffrey Stackert; Oxford University Press, 2021). Current projects include editing The Routledge Handbook of Marginalization in the Bible and a special issue of the journal Religions devoted to the Hebrew Bible, race, and racism, along with writing forthcoming commentaries on Deuteronomy (IECOT), Exodus (Anchor), and Lamentations (Oxford). Prof. Baden has published numerous scholarly articles and essays. He has also written widely for a popular audience, in venues such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, Slate, The Los Angeles Times, Politico, CNN, and The Daily Beast. Biography