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

• 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.
• “Singing Stories Together: Relationship and Storytelling as Resources for Resilience in the Book of Psalms,” in Biblical and Theological Visions of Resilience, edited by Christopher C. H. Cook and Nathan H. White (Routledge, 2020).
• “Trauma, Remembrance, and Healing: The Meeting of Wisdom and History in Psalm 78,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament,. 2016.
• “Sing Me A Parable of Zion: Isaiah’s Vineyard (5:1–7) and Its Relation to the ‘Daughter Zion’ Tradition,” Journal of Biblical Literature, 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. 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 cope with trauma and develop 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 regional SBL. An ordained Baptist minister, she has served in churches and Christian non-profits in Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas. Dr. Poe Hays and her husband Joshua, who serves as Associate Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Waco, have a daughter named Mary Brandon and a distinguished mutt named Cooper