Professor Alison Jack (MA BD PhD)
Professor of Bible and Literature and Principal of New College

Address
- Street
-
School of Divinity, Mound Place
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH1 2LX
Background
Since studying the New Testament as an undergraduate at New College with Professor John O'Neill, I have been fascinated by the ongoing influence of biblical texts and the way they have teased and puzzled their readers. Throughout my academic career I have tried to integrate my interest in English and Scottish literature with my study of the Bible, and this has led me to focus on the fiction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. My work in various parishes alongside my academic studies has offered me much fruitful engagement with committed and interested readers of these biblical texts, in a wide variety of circumstances. The combination of roles has been stimulating and challenging. Other areas of research in Religious and Moral Education in primary and secondary schools have offered fresh insights into contextual readings of the Bible and other sacred texts.
My recently published monograph, The Prodigal Son in English and American Literature (OUP, 2019), explores the rich connection between this biblical figure and a wide range of literature. I have also recently co-edited a book (with Caroline Blyth) on The BIble in Crime Fiction and Drama (Bloomsbury, 2018).
I am Director of the newly formed Scottish Network for Religion and Literature.
Qualifications
MA BD PhD Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Authority
Responsibilities & affiliations
External appointments
Chair of the Editorial Board of Theology in Scotland
Trustee of the Drummond Trust
Trustee of the Hope Trust
Council Member and Past President of the Church Service Society
Undergraduate teaching
Over a period of several years I have developed and taught a level 10 Honours course with a colleague in the English Literature Department, entitled “Reading the Bible and Literature”. Out of this has developed a level 8 course on "The Bible and Literature", with a particular focus on enabling English Literature students and others to appreciate the role of the Bible in literary texts.
I also course manage and teach an interdisciplinary level 10 course on "Modern Religious and Ethical Debates in Contemporary Fiction" with colleagues in Religious Studies and Theology and Ethics; and a level 10 course on "The Parables in Practice". I am course organiser for the Level 8 course, "Jesus and the Gospels".
Postgraduate teaching
I am course manager for the "Selected Topics in Biblical Studies" Level 11 course, and I contribute to the "Science and Religion in Literature" Level 11 course.
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
I welcome applications from prospective postgraduate students keen to work in the fields of the reception history of the Bible, the Bible in Literature and the Bible in the context of ministry or education. The parables of Jesus are a further research interest.
Current PhD students supervised
Tricia Worster
Gemma King
Jaime Wright
Past PhD students supervised
Sarah Agnew
Teresa McCaskill
Research summary
Hermeneutics, with a particular interest in reception history, feminism and literary criticism; the intertextuality of the Bible, and in particular of the Gospels and Revelation; biblical allusions in English and Scottish fiction; Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Scottish fiction; the Gospels; parables of Jesus.
I am also developing a research interest in the fields of Bible in religious education in schools, and in science, literature and religion.
Current research interests
I am currently exploring the influence of the Bible on Twentieth Century poets from Scotland, Ireland and America. Other research interests include violence in the Bible, especially against women, and its relationship to the portrayal of women in crime fiction and drama.Affiliated research centres
- Scottish Network for Religion and Literature
- Centre of Theology and Public Issues
-
Poets, professors and priests: Reflections on poetic and pedagogic vocation in the work of Seamus Heaney and David Jasper
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
The Bible and literature
(17 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108859226.021
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (E-pub ahead of print) -
Religion and popular literature in Scotland: The literary imagination as inspiration
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
Weird tales: The shifting role of science and religion in literature’s search for truth
(15 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003213987-3
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
Poetry, praise and prayer: Church Service Society lecture 26th August 2021
(14 pages)
In:
The Record, vol. 56, pp. 3-16
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
'The holy space ablaze': New understandings of spiritual reality through poetry and music
(13 pages)
In:
Theology in Scotland , vol. 29, pp. 35-47
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15664/tis.v29i1.2421
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Reading Eve in Victorian literature: Revisiting the fallen woman and the angel in the house
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Accepted/In press) -
[Review of] Bryan D. Spinks, Scottish Presbyterian Worship: Proposals for Organic Change, 1843 to the Present Day (Edinburgh: St Andrew Press, 2020), pp. xx + 299. £25.00/$40.00
(2 pages)
In:
Scottish Journal of Theology, vol. 75, pp. 70-71
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0036930621000284
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (Published) -
From ‘Furrow’ to ‘Windfall’: Creation and the Fall in Seamus Heaney’s ‘Kite’ Poems
(8 pages)
In:
Bible and Critical Theory, vol. 17, pp. 90-97
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Hearing competing voices in James Robertson’s The Fanatic
In:
Studies in Scottish Literature
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print)
Conference details
- Nov 19th: SBL Annual Meeting 2017 Boston: “Lost and Found”: The Bible as Artefact and Metanarrative in Crime Fiction, with Special Reference to Peter May’s Lewis Trilogy”, in the Bible and Popular Culture section.
In the press
I am a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Prayer for the Day and the Daily Service.