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

• Introduction to Christian Scriptures
• Christian Scriptures 2
• Hebrew 1 & 2
• Proclaiming the Kingdom (Doctor of Ministry)

Publication Highlights

• Reading Resilience in the Psalms: Trauma, Healing, and the Strength to Survive (Oxford University Press, 2026) 

• “Praying Psalm 46 for Resilience,” Word & World (2025) 

• Co-authored with John Garland, “Reading Psalms 136–139 with Refugees and Asylum-seekers: A Trauma-informed Canon-critical Framework for Healing,” Horizons in Biblical Theology (2024) 

• “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) 

About Dr. Poe Hays

Rebecca Poe Hays is associate professor of Christian Scriptures (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament). Dr. Poe Hays believes that ministry must be grounded in faithful and responsible readings of Scripture, and she loves teaching the “Elder” Testament in order to draw out its ongoing relevance for the church. She is particularly interested in how the songs and stories in Scripture communicate with us and shape us, and in how these texts might help individuals and faith communities build resilience. She currently serves as the President-elect of the Scholars of Biblical and Associated Literature (formerly the Society of Biblical Literature Southwest Region), where she also serves as co-chair of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible unit, and as the President of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion Southwest Region. With João Chavez, she is the series co-editor of Perspectives on Baptist Identities (Baylor University Press). She is the co-facilitator of the Conyers Scholars Online Program, which is a program sponsored by the Baylor Graduate School and the Institute for Faith and Learning that encourages and supports doctoral students who are interested in questions regarding faith, learning, and vocation.

An ordained Baptist minister, she has served in churches and Christian non-profits in Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas. She continues to write for the church in the form of Sunday school curricula, resources for The Baptist Standard, and commentaries for Working Preacher. 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, a son, and a distinguished mutt named Cooper.