Research Profile: Sally Douglas
BA, BTeach, Dip Min, MDiv, MTS, PhD
Sally’s interdisciplinary research spans Biblical Studies and Systematic Theology. Sally is passionate about investigating earliest Christian sources and attending to questions of christology, soteriology and discipleship, both in the ancient world and within contemporary context. 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).
Sally’s current research focuses on analysis of early texts including 1 Clement, as she examines the similarities, and dissimilarities, between such texts and canonical texts, particularly in relation to earliest Jewish-Christian self-understanding, attitudes to women, and understandings of salvation. Sally is also currently researching aspects of 1 Peter, Matthew’s gospel and Mark’s gospel.
As a theologian the question that informs Sally’s investigations of ancient texts and fuels her passion for making both theology and ancient sources accessible to others 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?’; ‘so what might this mean for how we live?’ etc. Sally teaches across a range of subjects and regularly speaks at the local congregational level, as well as at state, national and international events and conferences. Sally’s research continues to be engaged with by various podcast and vodcast series.
Teaching
Sally’s teaching includes:
- Cross and Resurrection in Earliest Christianity
- Mark’s Gospel in Context
- Christology (2019)
- Introducing the Gospels – Tutor
- Prayer and Spirituality – Tutor
Recent Publications
Monograph
Early Church Understandings of Jesus as the Female Divine: The Scandal of the Scandal of Particularity, Library of New Testament Studies, vol. 557. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016.
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, for example:
- ‘Not Under Attack – Just a Little Bit Bored’ (2018)
- ‘Violence Against Women: When the Church Fails’ (2017)
