Crandall University’s Murray Lectureship series features Christian scholars who come to campus to share with our students, staff, faculty, and the broader community.

All are invited to this year’s Murray Lecture, featuring Dr. Brent A. Strawn who will share a lecture entitled, “The Greatest Poem Ever Told: The Bible as Poetry.” Join us on Thursday, October 16 at 7:00pm in Stultz Hall Room 117.

2025 Murray Lecturer: Prof. Brent A. Strawn

Brent A. Strawn is D. Moody Smith Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law at Duke University. He has edited over 30 volumes, including the award-winning The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law (2015) and is a frequent guest on CNN. Professor Strawn’s research focuses on ancient Near Eastern iconography, Israelite religion, biblical law, the Psalms, poetry, and Old Testament theology. He joined the Duke Divinity School faculty in 2019 and has a secondary appointment at the Duke University School of Law. Strawn is also a member of the Hebrew Bible track in the PhD program in Religion, where he teaches and advises doctoral students in Duke’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Before that, he taught at Asbury Theological Seminary for three years and then, for eighteen years, at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, where he was the William Ragsdale Cannon Distinguished Professor of Old Testament.

Strawn has published over two hundred and fifty articles, chapters in books, contributions to reference works, and reviews. He is the author of What Is Stronger than a Lion? Leonine Image and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005), The Old Testament Is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended Treatment (Baker Academic, 2017), The Old Testament: A Concise Introduction (Routledge, 2019), Lies My Preacher Told Me: An Honest Look at the Old Testament (Westminster John Knox, 2021), and Honest to God Preaching: Talking Sin, Suffering, and Violence (Fortress Press, 2021). He has edited or coedited over twenty-five volumes, including The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law (Oxford, 2015), which received the 2016 Dartmouth Medal from the American Library Association for most outstanding reference work, and The Westminster Study Bible (Westminster, 2024).

Strawn is an ordained elder in the North Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church and regularly speaks and preaches at churches across the country. He has appeared on CNN on matters ranging from Easter celebrations to Pope Francis to gun violence, and served as both translator and member of the editorial board for The Common English Bible. Professor Strawn has received grants from the Association of Theological Schools, the Catholic Biblical Association, the Wabash Center, the Center for Hebraic Thought, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.