Faculty Directory
Angela Kim Harkins
Professor of New Testament
Professor Ordinaria
Angela Kim Harkins
Ph.D.
Contact
Simboli Hall 321
Telephone: 617-552-6512
Email: angela.harkins@bc.edu
ORCID
Education
- B.A.., Loyola University, Chicago
- M.A., University of Notre Dame
- S.T.L., 糖心Vlog STM
- Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Research Interests
Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish Prayers, Deuterocanon, Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses, Religious Experience, History of Interpretation
Expertise
- Biblical Studies
- Spirituality Studies
- Theology and the Arts
Profile
Dr. Angela Kim Harkins, Professor Ordinaria of the New Testament, is a biblical scholar whose research in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity focuses on prayer, apocalypse, and religious experience. Her scholarship examines ancient Jewish and Christian texts and traditions of prayer, visionary experience, and apocalyptic revelation. She is particularly interested in how religious experience is represented in ancient texts. She regularly teaches courses on the Gospels, Letter to the Hebrews, and Second Temple Judaisms.
Biography
Dr. Harkins was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in the northwest side of Chicago, Illinois. She completed her M.A. degree in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame with a concentration in biblical languages in 1997. She studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel under Emanuel Tov with funding from a Fulbright Fellowship in 1997-1998, an exciting year that coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. She returned to Notre Dame to begin her Ph.D. studies in the Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity area, with a minor in Syriac exegesis and Liturgical Studies. She wrote her dissertation on the Thanksgiving Hymns (Hebr. Hodayot) from Qumran under James C. VanderKam (2003).
Dr. Harkins arrived at the BC CSTM in 2015. She spent the previous two years in England where she held a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship at the University of Birmingham (309,235 Euros) for interdisciplinary research on religious experience and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Prior to this fellowship, Dr. Harkins was a tenured Associate Professor in the Religious Studies Department and a member of the Judaic Studies faculty at Fairfield University (Fairfield, CT), where she was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award by the College of Arts and Sciences in 2011.
Dr. Harkins has published extensively on the topic of prayers, emotions, and religious experience in early Jewish and Christian texts. She has authored or edited nine books, and more than forty scholarly articles and essays. She is the author of Reading with an 鈥淚鈥� to the Heavens: Looking at the Qumran Hodayot through the Lens of Visionary Traditions, Ekstasis 3 (De Gruyter, 2012) and Experiencing Presence in the Second Temple Period: Revised and Updated Essays in Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 111 (Peeters, 2022). Her latest monograph is An Embodied Reading of the Shepherd of Hermas: The Book of Visions and its Role in Moral Formation, Studies in Ancient Religion and Culture series (Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2023).听
Dr. Harkins serves听as the Executive Editor of the听Journal of Ancient Judaism听(Brill), a position that she shares with Jonathan Klawans, Boston University (2022-present).
Selected Appointments, Awards, and Grants
- 2027: Visiting Professorship of the Catholic Biblical Association, 脡cole biblique et听arch茅ologique fran莽aise de J茅rusalem, Israel (spring semester)
- 2026-2028: Vice-Director, Enoch Seminar
- 2022: Executive Editor of Journal of Ancient Judaism, Brill.
- 2021: President, New England/Eastern Canada Region of the Society of Biblical Literature
- 2020: Elected to membership in the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS)
- 2014: Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow, European Commission, 鈧�309,235
- 2011: Fairfield University College of Arts and Sciences, Distinguished Teaching Award
- 2010: Wabash Center for Teaching in Religion and Theology, pre-tenured fellow
- 2001: Excellence in Teaching Award. Kaneb Center. University of Notre Dame
- 1997: Fulbright Student Award for research at Hebrew University, Jerusalem
- 1994: Theology Department Undergraduate Award, Loyola University Chicago
- 1993: Alpha Sigma Nu. National Jesuit Universities Honor Society
Professional Activities
- Co-chair with Isaac Oliver and Shlomo Zuckier, Enoch Seminar on Sacrifice and Atonement at Lugano, Switzerland, June 6-9, 2027
- Qumran and Dead Sea Scrolls Program Unit, Steering Committee, Society of Biblical Literature
Editorial Positions
- Journal of Ancient Judaism, Executive Editor, Brill (2022-ongoing)
- New Testament Studies, Editorial board member, Cambridge University Press (2026-2028)
- The Journal of Theological Studies, Editorial board member, Oxford University Press (2021-ongoing)
- Studia in Veritas Testamenti Pseudepigrapha, Brill, Editorial board (2022-ongoing)
- Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Editorial board member, Sage Journals (2016-2026)
- Biblical Studies of the Catholic Biblical Association, Editorial Board/Consulting Board Member (2014-2026)
- Ekstasis Series: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Medieval Period, De Gruyter (2015-2020)