Theodore A. Perry

Boston College and the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Theodore A. Perry to the 2011-2013 Corcoran Visiting Chair in Christian-Jewish Relations. Dr. Perry is Professor Emeritus at the University of Connecticut. He has published and taught prolifically in the areas of comparative literature, the Hebrew Bible as literature, medieval Sephardic (Spanish Jewish) and Spanish literature, religious studies, paremiology, and 16th-century French literature. His most recent books include God's Twilight Zone: Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible (2008) and The Honeymoon is Over: Jonah's Arguments with God (2006). He was Professor of Comparative Literature at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, Cardin Chair in Jewish Studies at Loyola College in Maryland, Visiting Fulbright Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Professor of Modern and Classical Languages at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Perry studied at Yale University (Ph.D., Romance Philology; M.A., French Literature), the Universite de Bordeaux, France (Fulbright Fellow in French Literature and Philosophy), and Bowdoin College (B.A. summa cum laude, French). During Dr. Perry's tenure at Boston College, his research will focus on literary and philosophical exegesis of the Book of Qohelet (Ecclesiastes) based in part on interpretive principles elaborated by philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. In addition to his research activities, Dr. Perry's contributions will include teaching a graduate-level course, organizing a Spring 2012 conference, and offering public lectures.