Rebecca Poe Hays, PhD

Education

PhD, Baylor University
MDiv, Samford University
BA, Union University

Research Interests

Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Story and Storytelling in Biblical Literature
The Psalms, Trauma, and Resilience

Courses Taught

Hebrew 1 & 2
Christian Scriptures 2

Publication Highlights

• “Telling Stories for Healing and Resilience: A Trauma-informed Reading of Psalms 105–106,” Biblical Theology Bulletin (2023)
• “A Delayed Harvest: Isaiah 61 as the Reversal of the Song of the Vineyard (5:1–7),” Journal of Biblical Literature (2023)
• The Function of Story in the Hebrew Psalter (Lexington/Fortress Academic, 2021)
• “A Rhetorical Solution to a Text-critical Problem in Psalm 69,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 2021
• “Trauma, Remembrance, and Healing: The Meeting of Wisdom and History in Psalm 78,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 2016
• Co-editor, C. S. Lewis Remembered: Collected Reflections of Students, Friends & Colleagues (Zondervan, 2006)

About Dr. Poe Hays

Dr. Rebecca Poe Hays is Assistant Professor of Christian Scriptures (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament). Before joining the faculty at Truett, she worked with Baylor’s Institute for Faith and Learning on a grant from the Lilly Endowment’s Called to Lives of Meaning and Purpose Initiative that focused on the exploration of vocation in churches. Dr. Poe Hays believes that ministry must be grounded in faithful and responsible readings of Scripture, and she loves teaching the “Older” Testament in order to draw out its ongoing relevance for the church. She is particularly interested in how the stories in Scripture—particularly in the Psalms—communicate with us and shape us, and in how these sung stories might help individuals and faith communities build resilience. She presents regularly at the national meetings of the Society for Biblical Literature and is co-chair of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible unit of the Society of Biblical and Related Literature.

An ordained Baptist minister, she has served in churches and Christian non-profits in Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas. Dr. Poe Hays is married to the Rev. Dr. Joshua Hays, who serves as Associate Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Waco, and together they have a daughter Mary Brandon, a son Whitten, and a distinguished mutt named Cooper.