Edith M. Humphrey

Dr. Edith M. Humphrey is the William F. Orr Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Prior to her service at PTS, she taught at several colleges and universities in Canada, and was professor of Scripture at Augustine College, Ottawa, Canada, from 1997-2002, where in her final year she served as dean. She earned her bachelor’s from Victoria University (University of Toronto) and received her doctorate from McGill University, Montreal, where she was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal.

The author of numerous articles on the literary and rhetorical study of the Bible, she has also written four books, And I Turned to See the Voice: The Rhetoric of Vision in the New Testament, Ecstasy and Intimacy: When the Holy Spirit Meets the Human Spirit, (The Sheffield Guide to) Joseph and Aseneth, and The Ladies and the Cities: Transformation and Apocalyptic Identity in Joseph and Aseneth, 4 Ezra, the Apocalypse and The Shepherd of Hermas. In her popular writing she has addressed such subjects as the Jesus Seminar, the Holy Trinity, sexuality and the human person, the authority of Scripture within the Great Tradition, and Christian spirituality. Humphrey is a co-author, along with other members of the Primate’s Theological Commission (Anglican Church of Canada) of a series of theological workbooks for congregational use, entitled Wrestling with God. She is at present completing the manuscript for a book provisionally entitled Grand Entrance: Worship on Earth as In Heaven (Brazos Press). This study will address the significance of worship as an action, space, and communion into which we enter with the entire church.

Humphrey is well known as a popular speaker at church, ecumenical conferences, and seminary events. For 25 years, she has been active as a regular speaker and committee member in the Anglican Communion on the parish, diocesan, national (Canada and the US), and international levels. In early summer 2009 she will be received into the Eastern Orthodox communion, and will make her church home at St. George Antiochian Cathedral in Oakland, with her husband and others of her family. At one time the musical director and organist at St. George’s Anglican Church in Ottawa, she now participates in the PTS choir and plays oboe in a woodwind ensemble. She and her husband Chris have a daughter who is in college, two married daughters, three granddaughters and a new arrival on the way; it is their joy that the entire family is presently resident in the Pittsburgh area.

To learn more about Humphrey, visit http://www.edithhumphrey.net.

The material contained in Humphrey's website does not necessarily express the opinion of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary faculty, staff, or Board of Directors.

*William F. Orr served on the Seminary's faculty from 1936 until his retirement in 1974. To honor his work in nurturing seminarians and parishioners throughout Western Pennsylvania, PTS named Orr an honorary alumnus. Humphrey is the third incumbent to hold this Chair.