Curriculum Vitae

Academic Education :

At the Faculty of Theology, KU Leuven, Belgium:
- Licentiate in Religious Studies (1983)
- Licentiate in Sacred Theology (1985)
- Doctorate in Sacred Theology and
  PhD in Religious Studies (1992)
Dissertation (in Dutch): Authenticity and Integrity of 1 Cor 11:2-16. A Contribution to the Discussion on Paul's View on Women (Leuven, 1992).

Career:

• 1985-1991: Assistant at the Faculty of Theology KU Leuven (Belgium)
• 1986-1991: Professor at the Higher Institute for Religious Studies in Brussels (Belgium)
• 1987-1992: Guest Professor at the Center for Church Studies in Leuven
• 1988-1992: Temporary additional lecturer for New Testament at the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands)
• 1992-1993: Temporary additional lecturer for New Testament at Tilburg Faculty of Theology (the Netherlands)
• since 1993: Universitair Docent (Lecturer) in Religious Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands)

Research Interests

My research focuses on the cultural impact of biblical characters and images and on the rhetoric of gender in early christian literature.

I am currently writing a book on the representation of Herodias in predominantly Western culture.

Herodias appears in the story detailing the death of John the Baptist, included in de Gospel of Matthew (14:1-12) and Mark (6:14-29). Her role is decisive in that she asks for John's head and thus brings about his tragic end. John is of course the true hero of the story. He appears in all the Gospels and holds an equally prominent place in Christian tradition. As a result, the story of his life and death became a favorite topic in Christian art. It is in this context that Herodias, together with her more (in)famous daughter, later called Salome, keeps reemerging, from antiquity until the present time.

Related Publications

"Herodias Goes Headhunting," in C.E. Joynes, C.C. Rowland (ed.), From the Margins 2: Women of the New Testament and their Afterlives (Bible in the Modern World 27; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2009), 164-175.
"Cutting Edges and Loose Ends. Or: How to Remember John the Baptist," in A. Brenner and F. Polak (eds.), Performing Memory in Biblical Narrative and Beyond (Bible in the Modern World 25; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2009), 282-295.
"Herodias," in K. Doob Sakenfield, (ed.), The New Interpreters' Dictionary of the Bible . Vol. 2 (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2007), 813.
"Murderous Mother, Ditto Daughter. Herodias and Salome at the Opera," lectio difficilior. European Electronic Journal for Feminist Exegesis 2 (2001): http://www.lectio.unibe.ch.
"Capital Re-Visions: The Head of John the Baptist as Object of Art," in Missing Links. Arts, Religion and Reality (ed. J. Bekkenkamp e.a.; Interdisziplinäre Forschungen zu Religion, Wissenschaft und Kultur: A. Geisteswissenschaftliche Sektion, Bd. 1; Münster: LIT Verlag, 2000), 71-87.
"Killer Queens. The Recycling of Jezebel and Herodias as Fin the Siècle Phantasies," in Recycling Biblical Figures (ed. A. Brenner, J.W. van Henten; Studies in Theology and Religion 1, Leiden: Brill, 1999), 192-204.

• List of Publications

BOOK

HIDDEN TRUTHS FROM EDEN: ESOTERIC READINGS OF GENESIS 1-3

Caroline Vander Stichele and Susanne Scholz

Since the sixteenth century CE, the field of biblical studies has focused on the literal meaning of texts. This collection seeks to rectify this oversight by integrating the study of esoteric readings into academic discourse. Case studies focusing on the first three chapters of Genesis cover different periods and methods from early Christian discourse through zoharic, kabbalistic and alchemical literature to modern and post-postmodern approaches.

• SBL Press

BOOK

 TEXT, IMAGE, & OTHERNESS IN CHILDREN'S BIBLES: WHAT IS IN THE PICTURE?

Caroline Vander Stichele and Hugh S. Pyper

Children's Bibles are often the first encounter people have with the Bible, shaping their perceptions of its stories and characters at an early age. The material under discussion in this book not only includes traditional children's Bibles but also more recent phenomena such as manga Bibles and animated films for children. The book highlights the complex and even tense relationship between text and image in these Bibles, which is discussed from different angles in the essays. Their shared focus is on the representation of "others"-foreigners, enemies, women, even childrenthemselves-in predominantly Hebrew Bible stories. The contributors are Tim Beal, Ruth B. Bottigheimer, Melody Briggs, Rubén R. Dupertuis, Emma England, J. Cheryl Exum, Danna Nolan Fewell, David M. Gunn, Laurel Koepf, Archie Chi Chung Lee, Jeremy Punt, Hugh S. Pyper, Cynthia M.Rogers, Mark Roncace, Susanne Scholz, Jaqueline S. du Toit, and Caroline Vander Stichele.

• SBL

Courses 2014-15

This year I am (co-)teaching the following courses:

• Heilige Boeken

• Bijbelse verhalen in woord en beeld

• Religie en populaire cultuur

• BA scriptietraject Religiestudies

• Early Christian Literature

• Eros and Thanatos in Christian Art and Culture

• Religion and Film: Apocalypse Now or Never

Teaching Interests

• Hermeneutics and the reception history of biblical and apocryphal texts.
• Representations of gender in the Bible and beyond.
• Bible and modern media.

• No ancillary activities