Ela Łazarewicz-Wyrzykowska is a biblical scholar (PhD in Biblical Studies, University of Manchester) with a background in literary studies (MA in Polish Philology, University of Warsaw). She specialises in the Hebrew Bible and biblical reception.

Ela studied in Poland, Israel and England, and holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from the University of Manchester (2009). Her doctoral thesis is entitled “Aesthetic Form and the Book of Amos: The Application of a Bakhtinian Category to a Biblical Text”.

She was Assistant Director of MA programme in Pastoral Theology at Cambridge Theological Federation (2009-2013), Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Biblical Studies, Tel Aviv University (Spring 2017) and Research Associate at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology (2018-2021).

Ela published an article on “Samson: Masculinity Lost (and Regained?)” in Ovidiu Creanga (ed.), Men and Masculinity in the Hebrew Bible and Beyond (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2010) and her essay entitled “Davidic Narratives in the Contemporary Roman Catholic Liturgical Readings” is included in the forthcoming volume The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Warrior, Poet, Prophet and King, edited by Marzena Zawanowska and Mateusz Wilk, in Brill’s series Themes in Biblical Narrative. In September 2019 she organised, with the support of the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, a symposium entitled “New Vision of Biblical Formation in the Roman Catholic Church.” Its conclusions were published in the Pastoral Review in Ela’s article entitled “Imagining a new vision of biblical formation in the Catholic Church” (Pastoral Review, January/February/March 2020).

Ela’s interests include reception of biblical texts in literature, visual arts and liturgies, models of engagement with Scripture in the Catholic Church, theology of creativity and children’s spirituality. She is currently working on a number of projects, including an article about prophetic aspects of contemporary art, an essay on a dialogue between women’s involvement in the Polish Solidarity movement and pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli tutti and a larger project regarding Scripture and spirituality in Astrid Lindgren’s books.

Ela teaches medical humanities at the Warsaw Medical University. She is also a Godly Play practitioner.

She lives in Warsaw with her husband and three children.

See also https://sophiaconversation.wordpress.com/2021/02/09/goscinnosc-hospitality-and-crossings-an-artwork-and-a-poem-by-ela-lazarewicz-wyrzykowska/

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