Toochukwu Agha
Email: tagha@nd.edu
Primary Field of Study: Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity
Research Interests
Prophetic Literature (Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern), Ancient Judaism, Contextual Biblical Interpretation, Second Temple Literature, Racism, Pedagogy, and Biblical HermeneuticsEducation
B.A. Philosophy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka; M.A., Spiritan International School of Theology (affiliate of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh; Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Profile
Toochukwu Agha works on the various dimensions of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, with particular emphasis on the prophetic literature, the interaction between the prophetic corpus and other areas of the Hebrew Bible, the phenomenon of prophecy in Israel within its Ancient Near Eastern context, and the reception and influence of the prophets on later Jewish thought and theological reflection (Second Temple literature, Hellenistic, and Rabbinic Judaism). His dissertation examines the composition and redactional history of the book of Jeremiah through the prism of the problem of prophetic struggle for authenticity in relation to the calamity of 587/6, and the impact of Jeremiah’s prophetic career on exilic and postexilic Judaism from a variety of perspectives: historical, literary and text-critical. In addition to the prophetic literature, he is also interested in the ongoing relevance of the Biblical hermeneutics for our increasingly complex society.
Dissertation
Jeremiah, Prophetic Conflict, and the Catastrophe of 587/6 BCE