Research Profile: Sally Douglas
BA, BTeach, Dip Min, MDiv, MTS, PhD
Sally’s interdisciplinary research spans biblical studies and systematic theology, as she reflexively engages with biblical and early church texts and the potential implications of re-engaging with these, often suppressed, texts in contemporary context. In particular, Sally’s research attends to questions of christology, soteriology, gender and discipleship. Her doctoral excavation and exploration of early church christology was published in the LNTS series by Bloomsbury as Early Church Understandings of Jesus as the Female Divine: The Scandal of the Scandal of Particularity (2016).
The central question that informs Sally’s research and writing is ‘So what?’ – ‘So what might this mean for how we understand ancient texts in light of contemporary research?’; ‘So what might this mean for understandings of the Divine?’ and ‘So what might this mean for how we live?’.
Sally is a Uniting Church Minister working in the mode of ‘scholar – pastor’. Alongside her academic work she serves in placement with an inner city congregation. Sally teaches across a range of subjects and is regularly invited to speak at local, state, national and international events and conferences.
Research Supervision
Sally welcomes research proposals focused on New Testament and early church texts that relate to questions of christology, soteriology, discipleship and understandings of gender.
Teaching
Sally’s teaching includes:
- Jesus, Discipleship and Justice
- Cross and Resurrection in Earliest Christianity
- Mark’s Gospel in Context
- Introducing the Gospels
- Prayer and Spirituality
Recent Publications
Monograph
Book Chapters
‘Jesus’ Impact on Understandings of Gender: Attending to First Century Dialogue’ in The Impact of Jesus of Nazareth: Historical, Theological and Pastoral Perspectives, SCD Press Publication (forthcoming).
Articles
‘Being the Church: An Exploration of Mission’, The Australian Journal of Mission Studies, December (2015): 38-44.
‘A Decoding of Evil Angels: The Other Aetiology of Evil in the Biblical Text and its Potential Implications in our Church and World’, Colloquium, (2013): 42-60.
Sally also publishes articles for a more general audience focusing on theology, the church and contemporary culture:
- ‘Why We Must Reject Consumerist Culture’ (2019)
- https://crosslight.org.au/2019/10/09/why-we-must-reject-consumerist-culture/
- ‘Seeking a Meaningful Understanding of Suffering and God’ (2019)
- https://crosslight.org.au/2019/07/31/coming-to-a-meaningful-understanding-of-suffering/
- ‘Violence Against Women: When the Church Fails’ (2017)
- https://crosslight.org.au/2017/07/21/violence-women-church-fails/
