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R. Christopher Heard
Associate Professor of Religion

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting my faculty web site! In case you don’t know me, let me introduce myself: I’m Chris Heard, Associate Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University. I use this web site as an extension of my teaching and scholarship, and a window into my personal world. Here you can find resources for the classes I teach, synopses of my research projects, and more. I hope you enjoy your visit and find it helpful. Students enrolled in my courses can find more detailed information posted within their Blackboard course site. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or suggestions.

Website Renovation in Progress!

Please feel free to visit any of my category pages available through the menu in the left-hand column of this page. However, please also be aware that I am currently renovating my faculty web site to conform to the new look and feel of the Pepperdine and Seaver College web sites. It will take me some time to convert all of the older content to the new look, so please be patient with me if some of the links on “deeper” pages don’t function quite right at present.

Current Teaching Activities

Summer 2009

Block 1: May 4–June 5, 2009

REL 101. The History and Religion of [Ancient] Israel
Weekdays 11:30–1:45 PM in CAC 214

 

Summer 2009 Contact Information

Study: PLC 101D
Open-Door Hours: None between June 8 and August 3, 2009
Phone: 310-506-4299
E-mail: cheard@pepperdine.edu
AIM: drchrisheard
Twitter: drcheard
 

Fall 2009 Courses

HEB 330. Elementary Biblical Hebrew I
TF 8:00–9:50 AM, AC 286

REL 101. The History and Religion of [Ancient] Israel
TF 12:00–1:30 PM, JPA 190
TF 2:00–3:30 PM, JPA 190

Teaching Initiatives

During the 2009–2010 academic year, I will be overhauling Religion 101 to use more up-to-date technologies and more interactive pedagogy, in keeping with my Religion 101 for the 21st Century grant proposal that was recently funded by Pepperdine University.

During the 2009–2010 academic year, I will be attempting to teach biblical (classical) Hebrew using Second Language Acqusition techniques learned, in part, while attending a Communicative Biblical Hebrew workshop at Ashland Theological Seminary in June 2009.

Fall 2009 Committee Assignments

  • General Education Program Review Committee (Institutional Research)
  • Rank, Tenure, and Promotion Committee (SFA)
  • Teaching and Learning Committee (SFA)

Current Scholarly Activities

My scholarly publications to date have focused mostly on aesthetic, ethical, and social analyses of biblical narratives, especially the narratives in Genesis. At present, I am doing basic research and initial writing on Genesis 1–21 through the Centuries for the Blackwell Bible Commentary series; this volume, which I will submit to the series editors in September 2011, surveys the use, influence, and impact of the book of Genesis 1–21 on Western culture. I will follow this project with a companion volume, Genesis 22–50 through the Centuries, due to the publisher in March 2015.

I currently serve as President for the Society of Biblical Literature/Pacific Coast Region, a one-year appointment culminating at the regional meeting in 2010.

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