The Department of New Testament and Related Literature is a vibrant centre of interdisciplinary research committed to critical, transformative, and contextually grounded scholarship. Our research focuses on the literary, historical, social, and theological dimensions of early Christian texts and traditions, approached through a range of methodological lenses—from ancient philology to post-structuralist theory.
Our scholars explore early Christianity as a dynamic and diverse phenomenon situated in the complex cultural, political, and religious ecosystems of the ancient Mediterranean world. By interpreting ancient texts through contemporary questions, we embrace the notion of writing a history of the present—allowing the past to speak meaningfully into today’s world.
Research in this area centres on the close reading of New Testament texts, with a strong focus on the Gospels, Pauline and Deutero-Pauline literature and Hebrews, and the Apocalypse of John. These texts are examined for their literary structures, social and cultural contexts, theological arguments, and rhetorical strategies. Innovative work is being done in gender, sexuality and disability theory, metaphor theory, spatial theory, affect theory, narrative interpretation, social-scientific criticism, social identity theory and symbolic language, while simultaneously engaging historical-critical and socio-rhetorical methods.
This area focuses on the literature and lived experience of early Christians from the second to seventh centuries CE, studied within their Graeco-Roman and Late Antique settings. Researchers examine how early Christian communities negotiated issues of power, identity, authority, gender, and discipline. Attention is also given to the material, medical, and ascetic practices of the early church, including monasticism, pastoral care, and the management of the body. The study of ancient slavery forms a large part of the department’s research offering.
The department has a strong tradition of research on the Greek Old Testament and its various versions, especially the Septuagint (LXX), and their role in the theological and literary formation of early Christianity and New Testament scripture. Special attention is given to the interpretation of Deuterocanonical books and their reception. This research highlights the dynamic interplay between Jewish-Greek scripture and emerging Christian thought, shedding light on the lived experiences of the early Christians and offering glimpses into the early constructions of Christian morality.
The study of ancient languages is foundational to all our research. The department promotes advanced work in Biblical Greek and Hebrew, as well as Latin, Coptic and Syriac, enabling deep engagement with primary texts. Research in this area also includes explorations of language pedagogy, translation theory, and stylistic analysis of early Christian rhetoric.
This research area explores how early Christian texts construct and regulate identity through discourses of the body, power, and difference. Scholars examine how gender roles, sexual ethics, bodily discipline, disability, childhood, old age, race and ethnicity, and enslavement were represented and contested in early Christian literature. Critical engagements with feminist theory, queer theory, and disability studies allow for new perspectives on ancient Christian thought and its ongoing impact on social and ethical debates.
Research in this field addresses the intersection between early Christianity and ancient social systems, including slavery, kinship, economics, health, and religious experience. Apocalypticism, ritual practices, and symbolic worldviews are examined through anthropological, sociological, and cross-cultural models. This work situates early Christian texts within the broader currents of ancient Mediterranean religious life.
Scholars in the department explore how New Testament texts were received, interpreted, and transformed across the centuries. Special attention is paid to the early Christian period (first to seventh century CE), but reception in the medieval, modern and African contexts is also studied. This includes an emphasis on hermeneutics, contextual theology, and the ethical implications of biblical interpretation.
The department is deeply committed to advancing African-centred approaches to biblical interpretation. Research in this area interrogates the colonial and Eurocentric epistemological frameworks that have long shaped biblical scholarship, and seeks to reimagine the reading of New Testament and early Christian texts through African cultural, philosophical, and theological lenses. This includes engagement with indigenous knowledge systems, postcolonial and decolonial theory, and contextual ethics. By foregrounding the lived realities and historical experiences of African readers, this research area contributes to the transformation of biblical studies both within the continent and globally, producing scholarship that is locally relevant and critically engaged with broader structures of power and knowledge.
The department is home to a thriving community of researchers at postgraduate and postdoctoral level. Students are welcomed into a collaborative and intellectually rigorous environment where mentorship, peer engagement, and interdisciplinary dialogue are central to scholarly formation. Through research seminars, international networks, and digital platforms, we equip the next generation of scholars to contribute to both academic and public conversations around the New Testament and early Christianity.
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