Biography:
Fr Bruno is Vice Regent of Blackfriars Hall and Course Director at Blackfriars for the MTh in Applied Theology. In Blackfriars Studium, he is the Director of Studium Studies where he teaches Old Testament and Biblical Languages. Fr Bruno is also a Chercheur Invité at the École Biblique et Archaeologique Française in Jerusalem. Fr Bruno completed his Licence in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 2014 (under the supervision of Prof Peter Dubovsky and Prof Dominik Markl) and his Doctorate at the University of Cambridge in 2018 (under the supervision of Dr Nathan MacDonald). His doctoral work took a socio-anthropological approach to the Book of Judges that argued for an identity-preference for family as the texts’ social background prior to comparable allegiances to tribe or nation. His continuing work investigates how concepts of identity are influential on the formation of biblical texts as socially authoritative, in particular those texts forming the so-called Deuteronomistic History.
Faculty Research Area(s):
Biblical Studies: Old Testament & Hebrew Bible
Research Interests:
My research interests include the socio-cultural contextualization of biblical texts, in particular the Hebrew Bible’s Former Prophets, and the contribution of critical biblical scholarship to theology. I am interested in the methodology of biblical interpretation, how it might provide a rigorous and historically informed foundation for using the Bible in questions of theology and religion, taking account of archaeological and epigraphical data.
Links:
https://www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/people/fr-bruno-clifton-op/
Publications & Research Outputs:
Books
Forthcoming – Family and Identity in the Book of Judges, Ferdinand Schöningh, Brill: Leiden.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2021 – “Discerning the Literal Sense: Bringing Together Biblical Scholarship and Dogmatic Theology” NV 19:1 251-67
2014 – “What if Israel was God’s stubborn and rebellious son?” ZAR 20 115-126
Book Reviews
2021 – Review of The Galilean Wonderworker: Reassessing Jesus’ Reputation for Healing and Exorcism, by Ian G. Wallis, NBl 102/1100 583-585
2018 – Review of Joshua: An Introduction and Study Guide: Crossing Divides, by J. Gordon McConville, JTS 69/1, flx210, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flx210
