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Time/Zeit: 07:30 PM Berlin / 1:30 PM EST 

Location: L1.201 (UPB) / LC Murphy Room (JCU)

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Meeting-ID: 697 4459 4849

Passcode/Kenncode: 593983

Claudia D. Bergmann (Institut für Evangelische Theologie / ZeKK / Paderborn University): 

“The Gendered Response to a Child in Danger”

Claudia D. Bergmann is Professor for Biblical Studies at Paderborn University (Germany). Her most recent book is Festmahl ohne Ende: Apokalyptische Vorstellungen vom Speisen in der Kommenden Welt im antiken Judentum und ihre biblischen Wurzeln (Kohlhammer, 2019); her most recent coedited book (with Thomas R. Blanton IV) is entitled Imitating Abraham. Ritual and Exemplarity in Jewish and Christian Contexts (Brill, 2025). She currently studies the reception history of the biblical figure Hagar and the Qumran Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice.

Dr. Bergmann’s presentation investigates how male and female personae in the Hebrew Bible respond to danger that threatens their children or children in their care. It shows that biblical writers attributed certain behavior to either men and women in order to invoke a certain response in the reading or listening audience helping them to identify with caretakers and/or children in danger.

Thomas R. Blanton IV (Theology and Religious Studies / ��������): 

“Sarah as Exemplar of Domestic Subordination: On the Sociopolitics of Scriptural Interpretation in 

1 Peter 3:1–7”

Thomas R. Blanton IV is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at ��������. He is the coeditor, with Claudia D. Bergmann, of Imitating Abraham: Ritual and Exemplarity in Jewish and Christian Contexts (Brill, 2025), and is in the process of writing The Circumcision of Abraham: Modeling Ritual from Genesis to the Letters of Paul for the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library. His research focuses of economic issues in the Pauline epistles and early “Christianity” in its Judean and Greco-Roman contexts.

Dr. Blanton's presentation analyzes the creative reinterpretation of Gen 18:12 involved in 1 Peter 3:1–7, where the biblical figure of Sarah is adduced as a model exemplifying the domestic subordination of wives to their husbands; and proposes that sociologist of religion Staf Hellemans’s “processing approach,” combined with an analysis of the sociopolitical and economic investments of “religious” interpreters, could be useful for dialogues aiming to promote interreligious understanding.

Time/Zeit: 07:30 PM Berlin / 1:30 PM EST 

Location: L1.201 (UPB) / LC Murphy Room (JCU)

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Meeting-ID: 673 1612 0012

Passcode/Kenncode: 365205

Zishan Ghaffar (Paderborn University / ZeKK):

“Sarah and Hagar in the Qur’an”

Prof. Dr. Zishan Ghaffar is a distinguished scholar at Paderborn University, serving as Professor of Quranic Exegesis at the Paderborn Institute for Islamic Theology. He also chairs the Center for Comparative Theology and Cultural Studies (ZeKK), where he leads interdisciplinary research in Islamic theology and Quranic studies. His research focuses on the historical development of Quranic interpretation and the role of the Quran in contemporary theological and cultural contexts.

Notably, his habilitation thesis, Korankommentierung als Traditionsbildung (“Quranic Commentary as Tradition Formation”), examines processes of tradition formation in Islamic exegesis. In 2024, he published The Many Faces of Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, offering a nuanced analysis of this pivotal Quranic chapter. Prof. Ghaffar has led several major research projects, including a state-funded initiative examining the role of prophets in Islam, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research.

Semiha Topal (�������� / Tuohy Center for Interreligious Understanding):

“Islamic Feminists Reimagining Sarah and Hagar”

Dr. Semiha Topal is the Program Manager at the Tuohy Center for Interreligious Understanding at ��������. She has a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Arizona State University and an M.A. in Gender Studies and Religion from SOAS, University of London. 

Previously, Dr. Topal worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, and at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, teaching courses on gender, secularism, and Islam, in Turkey and the Middle East. Her current work focuses on fostering interreligious dialogue and understanding, particularly through organizing events and workshops that highlight cultural and religious traditions.