Rev Dr Sarah Agnew

Cert IV TAE, BA (Hons), BMin, BTh (Hons), PhD

Sarah is a Biblical Storyteller, a poet, and a Uniting Church Minister. Currently in placement with Christ Church Uniting, Wayville (Kaurna Land, SA), Sarah has served with Belair (SA) and Wesley Forest (ACT). A member of the Network of Biblical Storytellers International and their associated Scholars’ Seminar, Sarah presented the Keynote Addresses for the annual Festival Gathering of the Network in 2020. Sarah’s PhD was awarded by the University of Edinburgh, in New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology, with a thesis establishing a new Embodied Performance methodology for analysing biblical compositions using emotion, the body, and the performer-interpreter’s relationship with their audience/listeners. This work is published as Embodied Performance. Mutuality, Embrace, and the Letter to Rome, Pickwick, 2020.

Sarah is Adjunct Lecturer in Biblical Studies with Uniting College for Leadership and Theology, with a focus in this season on teaching the Biblical languages. This is her second appointment as Adjunct with Uniting College (previously from 2011–2016); she also tutored biblical studies at the University of Edinburgh from 2015–2017. Sarah has supervised graduate and post-graduate projects in storytelling and liturgy with Adelaide College of Divinity, Uniting College/University of Divinity, St Augustana University, and Pittsburgh Seminary/University of Edinburgh’s DMin Program.

Teaching Discipline

Biblical Studies – Languages and Translation; Old Testament/Hebrew Bible; New Testament

Research Areas

Biblical Performance Criticism; Embodied Performance Analysis; Biblical Translation; Narrative Criticism; Oral Storytelling; Embodiment and Emotion; Liturgy and Worship

University Appointments

Casual Academic (Uniting College for Leadership and Theology)