In classrooms, in faith communities, in the public square, Katherine A. Shaner challenges leaders to listen for the voices of people who are usually left out of our stories in our biblical texts and in our histories of justice. Her newest research probes the ways that debt language and structures of debt have shaped biblical interpretation and translation—a project that draws out the implicit theological assumptions in the American conversation around student debt. As Assistant Professor of New Testament at Wake Forest University Divinity School, she teaches courses across the New Testament and early Christian history that explore the theological, social, and political implications of biblical interpretation for contemporary communities. Throughout her teaching and scholarship she examines the intersections of race, class, and gender as well as the ethics of contemporary biblical interpretation. Shaner’s first book, Enslaved Leadership in Early Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2018), challenges readers to re-think common perceptions about how enslaved persons participated in early Christian communities. She is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
