In 2024, I published several articles. They demonstrate the breadth of my work and the different audiences for whom I write.
In their edited volume Digitale Sakralraumpädagogik (Kohlhammer, 2024), Ulrich Riegel and Mirjam Zimmermann have collected essays that explore the theoretical, didactic, and practical possibilities of representing sacred buildings in a digital sphere and the virtual engagement with them. My contribution, co-authored with Esther Graf, examines the spatial understanding and function of synagogues in a Jewish context. The function of synagogues as a communal gathering place, their connection to the Torah and the Temple, the absence of imagery in synagogues, and the expression of social relationships within them are discussed. The concluding section reflects on the impact of these aspects for the virtual representation of synagogues. Based on a rudimentary draft of Esther Graf, I wrote the complete article.
The edited volume The Power of Parables: Essays on the Comparative Study of Jewish and Christian Parables (Brill, 2024), edited by Eric Ottenheijm, Marcel Poorthuis, and Annette Merz, documents the surprising ways in which Jewish and Christian parables bridge religion with daily life. In our co-authored article “Honouring Human Agency and Autonomy: Children as Agents in New Testament and Early Rabbinic Parables,” Annette Merz and I examine the representation of children as agents in selected New Testament and early rabbinic parables, and the potential theological meaning facilitated by these representations. The discussed parables demonostrate how God, despite his potentially restrictive exercise of authority, always leaves an agentival space to human beings. This human autonomy, in turn, has an affect on the image of God as portrayed in New Testament and rabbinic parables. My contribution to the article consisted of an overview of childhood scholarship, the theoretical understanding of agency, the discussion of rabbinic parables, and the conclusion.
The edited volume Parels van wijsheid: Parabels, fabels en gelijkenissen in de wereldliteratuur (Adveniat, 2024), edited by Eric Ottenheijm, Nikki Spoelstra, and Martijn Stoutjesdijk, is aimed at a broader audience. It intends to correct the notion that parables are a unique Jewish-Christan genre. Its contributions explore parables throughout history and across cultures: within Christianity, Judaism, other cultures (Buddhism, Islam, Greek philosophy etc.), and in present-day literature and culture. The two contributions written by me discuss the parable of the children in the field in the Gospel of Thomas (logion 21) and the representation of caring fathers in New Testament and early rabbinic parables.