2025 Payton Lectures: Born of a Woman

Overview

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke affirm that the life of Jesus of Nazareth is inseparably joined to another life: that of Mary of Nazareth. The apostle Paul presents the gospel by explaining that “in the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). God has definitively entered the world through the life of a particular person, yet Protestants rarely reflect on the importance of God’s work in the world being channeled through the life of Mary. 

In the 2025 Payton Lectures, Dr. Amy Peeler (Wheaton College) will unfold the theological significance of the Incarnation as a work of God mediated through the embodied life of Mary. Through close readings of Scripture, and drawing on the history of biblical interpretation, Dr. Peeler will offer a refreshing interpretation of familiar texts and demonstrate how to think well about masculine language for God and about men's and women’s roles in the church in light of the incarnation of Jesus, Son of Mary. 

Join us for the 2025 Payton Lectures as we consider the Incarnation, the character of God, discipleship in the church today, and the right way to understand the metaphors at the heart of the Christian faith: God as Father and Jesus as Son.

This event is free and open to the public; registration is required. The Lectures will be held both virtually and in-person on Fuller’s Pasadena campus.

Program Schedule:

Monday, May 12 - 7:00 pm (PT):  “Mother and Father: The Life of Mary as Theological Lens”(Travis Auditorium)

Join us for a detailed exploration of the events in the life of Mary recorded in the New Testament. The Incarnation and Mary’s role in it provide the perspective from which Peeler then offers a way to think faithfully and inclusively about the dominance of masculine language for God in Scripture.

 
May 13, 10:00 am (PT): “Laboring Sons: Paul’s Appeal to the Incarnation for the Life of the Church” (Travis Auditorium)

When Paul discusses his vision for men’s and women’s roles in the church, his appeals to creation, birth, and the Incarnation are never far away. Peeler asks what difference the Incarnation makes for Paul and if it matters for how gender plays out in the church today. The answers are clear: The Incarnation matters a great deal to him, and should change everything for us.

Followed by a light refreshments in the Travis Breezway

PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Amy Peeler (Wheaton College)

Amy Peeler is the Kenneth T. Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies and Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. Author most recently of Hebrews: A Commentary for Christian Formation (Eerdmans, 2022) and Women and the Gender of God (Eerdmans, 2024), she also had the privilege as serving as one of the four editors for New Testament In Color: A Multiethnic Commentary (Eerdmans, 2024). Her next major writing projects focus on Paul’s statements on gender as informed by his belief in the Incarnation and the NICNT commentary on the Pastoral Epistles. She serves as Assistant Priest at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Geneva, IL and enjoys time with her family, running, and CrossFit.

Respondent: Alice Yafeh-Deigh (Azusa Pacific University)

Alice Yafeh-Deigh is a professor of biblical studies at Azusa Pacific University. Her areas of expertise, research, and teaching interests include New Testament exegesis, Greco-Roman sexual ethics, cultural hermeneutics, feminist hermeneutics, postcolonial hermeneutics, and literary and rhetorical methods of biblical interpretation. Her approach to the study of the New Testament strongly emphasizes the historical and sociocultural influences that gave rise to individual texts.

Respondent: Chris Blumhofer (Fuller Seminary) 

Chris Blumhofer is associate professor of New Testament at Fuller Seminary, where his writing and teaching focus on the Gospel of John, early Christianity in its Second Temple Jewish context, and the theological interpretation of Scripture. He is the author of The Gospel of John and the Future of Israel, published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. He recently co-edited with Joel Green and Diane Chen Early High Christology: John among the New Testament Writers, published by Fortress in 2024. Chris writes regularly both for academic journals and for pastors and church leaders. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and can often be found preaching and teaching at his home congregation in Durham, North Carolina.

More information at: fuller.edu/paytonlectures

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