Dr Sarah Hart

DTheol  (University of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia)
BA, DipMus, MTheol  (University of Auckland, NZ)

Lecturer in Biblical Studies

E-mail: shart@gsc.ac.nz 

My earliest formal theology studies were at the Diocesan Theology Centre, Vienna, Austria where I pursued post-graduate music studies in the early 1980s. I have worked as a professional musician in Melbourne (Australia), Vienna (Austria), Norrköping (Sweden), and Auckland (New Zealand). I returned to New Zealand in the late 1990s since which I have continued to study theology alongside professional music commitments.

Sailing with the wind behind me in a P class as a child and nose diving from the Banks Peninsula Heads back into Akaroa Harbour put the “fear of God” into me. Other major experiences in my life are the Ignatian thirty day retreat and four years in Japan (Tokyo and Hiroshima). The multi-voices of the Hebrew Bible were a conceptual and religious inspiration for Jesus. They fascinate me too.

To relax I enjoy tramping, kayaking and cycling. Creating human communities and care of the earth, air and waterways for future generations concerns me.

Research Interests:
Priestly Writings
Israelite temples and cult
Judean communities in Neo-Babylonia
Oral and written factors in the production of biblical text

Refereed works:
2013         “An Intertextual Reading of Torah and Māori Spirituality—from the Perspective of a New Zealander.” Seachanges, The Journal of Women Scholars of Religion and Theology 6 (2013):1-23. http://wsrt.asn.au/

2012          “From Temple to Tent: The Cultic World of Diaspora Israelites (Exodus 24:15— Numbers 10:28)” D.Theol. Repository of MCD University of Divinity.

2009          “ ‘The Cultic Tent of the Wilderness’ (Exodus 24:15—Numbers 10:36) in Intertextuality with ‘Burnt Offering of a Bull’ (Leviticus 1:1-9).” Pages 14-25 in Text and Ritual: Papers Presented at the Symposium Text and Ritual in Copenhagen in November 2008. Edited by Anne Katrine Gudme. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 2009.

2004          “The Rape of Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1-19): Through the Hermeneutical Lens of Aotearoa New Zealand.” Seachanges, The Journal of Women Scholars of Religion and Theology 4 (2004):1-24. http://wsrt.asn.au/

Book Reviews:
2015          forthcoming. Review of Jan Christian Gertz, Angelika Berlejung, Konrad Schmid and Markus Witte, ed., T&T Clark Handbook of the Old Testament: an Introduction to the Literature, Religion and History of the Old Testament, Colloquium 47.

2014          Review of Nigel Zimmermann, Levinas and Theology, Colloquium 46:2 (2014): 276-77.

2014          Review of John J. Ahn and Jill Middlemas, ed., By the Irrigation Canals of Babylon: Approaches to the Study of the Exile. Colloquium 46:1 (2014): 111-13.

2013       Review of Avraham Faust, Judah in the Neo-Babylonian Period: The Archaeology of Desolation. Colloquium 45:2 (2013): 241-43.

Publications: Other:
2003          ed. Music for a New Millennium. Auckland: Millennium Music Publications, 2003.

2002          “From Reluctant Crows to Bellbirds.” Liturgy: A Publication of the Auckland Diocesan Liturgy Centre 27, no. 4 (2002): 14-25.

2000          Review of Joyce Ann Zimmerman “Liturgy and Hermeneutics.” Liturgy: A Publication of the Auckland Diocesan Liturgy Centre 25, no. 1 (2000): 30-32.

1997          “Liturgy with Musical Instruments.” Liturgy: A Publication of the Auckland Diocesan Liturgy Centre 22, no. 1 (1997): 33-38.

1996          “Day by Day.” Mental Health Quarterly June (1996): 9-10.

Membership: Professional Organisations:
Australian Catholic Biblical Association (ACBA), current secretary
Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Biblical Studies (ANZABS)
Society of Biblical Literature, USA (SBL)