Video

2026 J.J. Thiessen Lecture Series featuring Dr. Dr. Shayna Sheinfeld (videos)

Resistance in Scripture and Society

Wednesday, October 21, 2026 @ 12:15 PM  |  Video

As modern political anxieties grow over the rise of authoritarian tendencies and democratic strain in North America and across the globe, dissent feels more urgent than ever. What resistance looks like, however, varies with individuals, communities, and movements. In this lecture series, we will explore how acts of resistance show up in the Bible and beyond by examining how women and other minoritized populations challenged their oppression. Analyzed through the lenses of showing up, paying attention, and doing the work, these ancient figures offer powerful models for disruptive and subversive action for audiences today.

Dr. Shayna Sheinfeld (PhD, McGill University) is Associate Professor of Religion at Augsburg University (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA). Sheinfeld is a scholar of Ancient Judaism, including both biblical canons and non-canonical materials. Her work emphasizes the vast diversity of Judaism in the ancient world. Sheinfeld has published extensively on Bible, apocalypse, popular culture, and gender, and is the author and editor of multiple books, including Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean (with Sara Parks and Meredith Warren), which won the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies Frank W. Beare Award for Outstanding Book (2023) and the British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies, Honourable Mention for Best Book (2024).

 

Lecture 1 | Resistance is Showing Up
Tuesday, October 20 at 11:00 AM

Examining the biblical figure of Esther, among others, this lecture will explore how the act of showing up—physical and rhetorical presence—can disrupt structures of power found in the text, and how showing up can be a way to resist today.

Lecture 2 | Resistance is Paying Attention
Tuesday, October 20 at 7:00 PM

Using the narrative of Jael (Judges 4–5) and stories of the Zealots in Josephus, this lecture will examine how we as readers of ancient text bring our own assumptions to ancient narratives—and how by paying attention to text and context, we can identify and deconstruct our own internalized systems of oppression.

Lecture 3 | Resistance is Doing the Work
Wednesday, October 21 at 11:00 AM

In this last lecture we will explore biblical models for doing the work of resistance, examining, among others, the apocryphal story of Judith and women followers of Jesus. Through this analysis we will explore the myriad ways that praxis can appear and consider the kinds of work we ourselves might do in the current environment.

KEYWORDS: JJ Thiessen, J.J. Thiessen, public lectures, lecture, video, Shayna Sheinfeld, resistance