Dr Arthur Keefer

Biography

Arthur Keefer is Adjunct Research Fellow in the Notre Dame Centre for the History of Philosophy and the Institute for Ethics and Society, and Honorary Research Associate at the University of Divinity in Melbourne.

Keefer was educated in the USA, gaining degrees in International Studies and German (Virginia Tech) and obtaining a Master of Divinity (Covenant Theological Seminary). He went to the University of Cambridge in 2014 for his doctoral work, holding the Decani Scholarship at Clare College from 2015-2017, and then worked as a schoolmaster and chaplain at Eton College from 2017-2023.

His research focuses on the interpretation of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible within its ancient Near Eastern context and in its relation to ancient and contemporary philosophy. With book-length projects, he has reconsidered the extensive range of issues requisite for interpreting the book of Proverbs as a whole (Bloomsbury, 2020) and provided an historically contextualized account of its moral and theological virtues (CUP, 2021). He has also queried the idea, both mainstream and scholarly, that Ecclesiastes has to do with the “meaning of life” (CUP, 2022). His current research includes OT ethics, especially the hermeneutical issues involved, and the reception of biblical wisdom literature within philosophical works.

Much of Keefer’s work has involved using resources from philosophy and psychology to interpret the Bible, giving new shape to interdisciplinary methodologies within biblical studies. But it has also been sustained with a controlling interest in the ancient contexts of biblical literature, which is borne out in most of his academic articles. Keefer co-edited The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature and serves as Book Review Editor for the Journal of Theological Studies.

Research expertise and supervision

Biblical Wisdom Literature (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes)
Philosophical and Biblical Ethics
Old Testament (esp. philology and ANE contexts)
Reception History of the Bible (esp. in philosophy)

Books

Monographs

Ecclesiastes and the Meaning of Life in the Ancient World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
The Book of Proverbs and Virtue Ethics: Integrating the Biblical and Philosophical Traditions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Proverbs 1-9 as an Introduction to the Book of Proverbs. LHBOTS 701. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2020.

Edited volumes

The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature. Co-edited with K. Dell & S. Millar. Cambridge University Press, 2022.

Book chapters

“Wisdom and Faith, Hope, and Love” in Fractured Virtues: Renegotiating Faith, Hope, and Love in a Broken World. Cascade Books (forthcoming)
“Preaching Proverbs: Spiritual Formation through Proverbial Virtues” in Wisdom and Spiritual Formation (forthcoming)
“Woman Wisdom across Proverbs: Woman Wisdom’s Appearance across the Collections” in Finding Woman Wisdom: Essays on the Personification and Embodiment of Wisdom as a Woman in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond in Honour of Katharine J. Dell (forthcoming)
“Nihilism: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.” Pages 446-449 in Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, vol. 21. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2023.
“Weisheit and Proverbs.” Pages 79-104 in Gerhard von Rad and the Study of Wisdom Literature, T. Sandoval & B. Schipper, eds. AIL 46. Atlanta: SBL, 2022.
“The Wisdom Literature and Virtue Ethics.” Pages 455-474 in The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature, K. Dell, A. Keefer & S. Millar, eds. Cambridge: CUP, 2022.
“The Family and Everyday Life.” Pages 665-680 in The Biblical World, 2nd edition, K. Dell, ed. London: Routledge, 2021.
“The Meaning and Place of Old Testament Context in OT/NT Methodology.” Pages 73-85 in Methodology in the Use of the Old Testament in the New: Context and Criteria, D. Allen & S. Smith, ed., Library of New Testament Studies 579. London: Bloomsbury, 2019.
“Orthodox Theological Criteria from 1 Peter for Women’s Ordination in the Church” in Deaconesses, Ordination of Women and Orthodox Theology, P. Vassiliadis, N. Papageorgiou, & E. K-Hatzivassiliadi, eds. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.

Journal articles and proceedings

“Georg Lorenz Bauer’s Biblische Moral des Alten Testaments: The First ‘Old Testament Ethics’?” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 136 (2024): 425-432
“Philosophical Engagement with the Bible: Some Methodological Reflections.” Currents in Biblical Research 21 (2022): 349-374
“Proverbs 21:1 and Ancient Near Eastern Hydrology.” Vetus Testamentum 71 (2021): 205-218
“The Meaning of Life in the Book of Ecclesiastes: Coherence, Purpose and Significance from a Psychological Perspective.” Harvard Theological Review 112 (2019): 447-466
“Sound Patterns as Motivation for Rare Words in Proverbs 1-9.” Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 43 (2017): 35-49
“A Shift in Perspective: The Intended Audience and a Coherent Reading of Proverbs 1:1-7.” Journal of Biblical Literature 136 (2017): 103-116
“A Phonic Explanation for Ḥŏḵmôṯ.” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 128 (2016): 695-700
“Phonological Patterns in the Old Testament: A Century of Studies in Sound.” Currents in Biblical Research 15 (2016): 41-64
“Revising the Modern Moral Paradigm with the Book of Proverbs.” Religions 7, 79 (2016)
“The Use of the Book of Proverbs in Systematic Theology.” Biblical Theological Bulletin 46 (2016): 35-44

In the media

Podcast Interview with Dr Dru Johnson, about books Proverbs and Virtue Ethics and Ecclesiastes and the Meaning of Life. “OnScript.” 2024.
Podcast Interview with David Capes. “Exegetically Speaking.” 22 July 2024.
BBC Radio 3. Celebrant for Choral Evensong, Eton College Chapel. 31 July 2023.
Podcast Interview with Dr Renee Garfinkel about book Ecclesiastes and the Meaning of Life. “The Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas.” Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. 26 Jan 2023.

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