Escobedo Saint John's Bible Lecture Series--February 21, 2017

"Turtles All the Way Down: New Ways of Looking at Old Texts"

Thomas M. Bolin, Ph.D., Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a former Theology Department faculty member at St. Mary's University, will be on campus as part of the Escobedo Saint John's Bible Lecture Series.

Bolin will discuss wisdom, using The Saint John's Bible as a guide for his remarks.

Professor Bolin's research focuses on the ancient literary and cultural contexts of the Hebrew Bible as well as ancient Israelite history, specifically wisdom literature and post-exilic texts. Hermeneutics is a more recent research interest.

He teaches courses in Theology, Religious Studies, and Classical Studies at St. Norbert.

The Saint John’s Bible is the first handwritten, hand-illuminated Bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine Abbey in more than 550 years, and its seven-volume Heritage Edition now resides at St. Mary’s University. The Saint John’s Bible was commissioned in 1998 by the Benedictine monks of Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn. The Heritage Edition, valued at about $150,000, is a full-scale reproduction of the original masterpiece; each volume measures 2 feet tall by 3 feet wide when open. Only 299 sets exist, and St. Mary’s owns the only one in Texas. Learn more about The Saint John’s Bible at St. Mary’s.

Rubén M. Escobedo (B.B.A. ’60) and his wife, Verόnica Salazar Escobedo, gave $500,000 to create the Escobedo Saint John’s Bible Lecture Series Endowment. The gift allows for the recruitment of scriptural scholars, research and curriculum design, and other programming as St. Mary’s seeks to establish a Center for Catholic Studies.