Dr Ann Conway-Jones

My research interest is early Jewish–Christian relations. I am particularly interested in exploring the interplay between Jewish and Christian exegesis, and in tracing the beginnings of mysticism. I studied for my PhD through Manchester University. My thesis has been published by OUP as Gregory of Nyssa’s Tabernacle Imagery in Its Jewish and Christian Contexts. I am an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham.

I teach biblical studies and early mysticism not only at Queen's, but also for Woodbrooke Quaker Studies Centre, Birmingham Church of England diocese and the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. I have previously taught biblical Hebrew at the University of Birmingham.

I am an Accredited Lay Worker of the Church of England. I have worked in a parish and as a university chaplain. I am actively involved in Jewish–Christian dialogue, and am Chair of Birmingham Council of Christians and Jews.

Select Publications

• ‘Exegetical Puzzles and the Mystical Theologies of Gregory of Nyssa and Dionysius the Areopagite’, Vigiliae christianae (published online June 2020).
• ‘Challenging Anti-Judaism in the New Testament: A Case Study from Luke’, Theology 123:6 (2020), 424-431.
• ‘“The Greatest Paradox of All”: The “Place of God” in the Mystical Theologies of Gregory of Nyssa and Evagrius of Pontus’, Journal of the Bible and Its Reception 5:2 (2018), 259-79.
• ‘The New Testament: Jewish or Gentile?’, Expository Times (published online November 2018).
• ‘Is the God of the Old Testament a God of Violence?’, Friends Quarterly 46:4 (2018), 4-17.
• ‘Teaching early Jewish-Christian relations: Negotiating the tensions between history and theology’, Jewish/non-Jewish Relations – Between Exclusion and Embrace (online teaching resource).
• Sermon Preached in the Chapel of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge: Evensong, Remembrance Sunday, 2016, The Expository Times (published online Jan 2017).
• Gregory of Nyssa's Tabernacle Imagery in Its Jewish and Christian Contexts, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
• ‘Interiorised Apocalyptic in Gregory of Nyssa, Evagrius of Pontus and Pseudo-Macarius’, in Markus Vinzent (ed.), Studia patristica 74 (Leuven, Peeters, 2016).
• ‘Contempt or Respect? Jews and Judaism in Christian Preaching’, The Expository Times, 127: 2 (2015), 63–72.
• ‘Uncreated and Created: Proverbs 8 and Contra Eunomium III/1 as the Background to Gregory’s Interpretation of the Tabernacle in Life of Moses II 173–7’, in Johan Leemans and Matthieu Cassin (eds), Gregory of Nyssa: Contra Eunomium III: An English Translation with Commentary and Supporting Studies, Supplements to Vigiliae christianae (Leiden: Brill, 2014).
• ‘Filled with the Glory of God: The Appropriation of Tabernacle Imagery in the New Testament and Gregory of Nyssa’, in Michael Tait and Peter Oakes (eds), Torah in the New Testament: Papers Delivered at the Manchester–Lausanne Seminar of June 2008, Library of New Testament Studies 401 (London: T&T Clark, 2009), 228–238.
• ‘The Divine Colour Blue’ on the OUPblog (Oxford University Press's Academic Insights for the Thinking World), 8th October 2014.
• Chapters in Words for Today (ed. Nicola Slee) and Fresh from the Word(ed. Nathan Eddy), International Bible Reading Association.
• Bible and Sermon notes, Roots: Adult and All Age (resources for the weekly lectionary).