Talk Views Biblical, Modern Wartime Rape

Caryn Reeder, associate professor of New Testament at Westmont, examines modern wartime rape and biblical stories of captive women in a talk Monday, Sept. 28, at 7 p.m. in Hieronymus Lounge at Westmont’s Kerrwood Hall. The lecture, part of the Gender Studies Series, “From Boko Haram to Biblical Israel: Deuteronomy 21:10-14 and Wartime Rape,” is free and open to the public.

“I will explore the story of the woman taken captive in war in Deuteronomy through the lens of wartime rape in modern analysis,” Reeder says. “What does this biblical story look like in light of modern understandings of wartime rape, especially as practiced by the abductions carried out by Boko Haram and now also ISIS?”

Reeder, who has taught at Westmont since 2007, says she will delve into what a biblical response to modern situations of wartime rape might be, based on the story of the captive in Deuteronomy.

“It’s important because of the stories of schoolgirls being abducted by militants in Nigeria, and Yazidi and Christian girls being kidnapped and enslaved by ISIS in Syria and Iraq,” she says. “With stories like these in the news every day, we need to think seriously about the ancient roots of such violence, and how Christians might respond.”

Reeder lived in Jerusalem before and during the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, witnessing some of the effects of the conflict. She worked for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Israel from 1999-2001, teaching a semester at Bethlehem Bible College. She earned a prestigious Fulbright award that supported her teaching and research in the West Bank of the Palestinian Territories from September 2013 through June 2014.

Reeder, a graduate of Augustana College, earned master’s degrees at both Wheaton College and the University of Cambridge. She earned a doctorate in New Testament at Cambridge and has authored a book “The Enemy in the Household: Family Violence in Deuteronomy and Beyond.”