Hello, my name is Alex Kirk.

I am Assistant Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, AL.

I am a philologist and a theologian by training with expertise in Old Testament language, literature, and interpretation. I completed my PhD on the book of Proverbs under Walter Moberly and Stuart Weeks in Theology & Religion at Durham University. My first book, Agur’s Wisdom and the Coherence of Proverbs 30 (SBL Press, 2024), argues for reading the chapter as a collection unified by Agur’s voice, a wry or sardonic tone, and themes surrounding humility and pride. My study has broader implications concerning tone, voice, and humor in biblical texts as well as for debates around the theology of wisdom and wisdom literature as a genre.

Ongoing projects include an edited volume on the relationship of wisdom and law as concepts in ancient Israel/early Judaism (w/ Rony Kozman, LHBOTS) and an edited journal issue dedicated to humor and biblical wisdom (w/ Katherine Southwood, HeBAI). Moving forward, I plan to try my hand at a constructive theological reading of Ecclesiastes in conversation with the likes of St. Jerome, Gregory of Nyssa, and Martin Luther, as well as contemporary critical scholarship. More generally, I am interested in Biblical Hebrew philology and linguistics, poetry, wisdom literature, the history of interpretation, hermeneutics, and theological interpretation of Scripture. For a window into my academic work, complete with PDFs of publications, syllabi, and more (!), you can browse my academia.edu profile. Much of the same info is on my CV, which I keep up-to-date as a public Google doc.

Prior to coming to Beeson, I spent the better part of a decade involved in innovative theological education initiatives for under-resourced pastors and ministry leaders. From 2016–19, I spent most of my time teaching Bible and theology for national pastors in the majority world with Training Leaders International. If you want to view a gallery of past adventures, check out my my Instagram. From 2019–2023, I continued to teach with TLI as a volunteer while I lived and studied in Durham, England. During this time, I was also part of a small faculty team that launched William Tennent School of Theology in Colorado. I helped to plan the initial biblical studies track for Tennent and have regularly taught courses on the Pentateuch, Scripture and translation, as well as the Biblical Hebrew sequence. From 2023–24 I was privledged to be on the faculty of Crosslands Seminary in the UK, offering non-residential training to serving UK pastors.

The best way to keep up-to-date with me and my work as well as get a glimpse into what I am studying, teaching, and thinking about is to subscribe to my email newsletter. I've dubbed it SPLINTERED LIGHT, which comes from a paradigm-shifting conversation that C.S. Lewis once had with J.R.R. Tolkien. I try to keep it fresh and interesting with short updates on what I'm up to, some spiritual reflections, recommendations for music/art/books/websites/articles, and short writing on biblical and theological topics. Just in case anyone is interested, old issues of the newsletter are archived here. At the moment, the newsletter is on hold while I focus on other projects, but I hope to return to this forum in the future.

Thanks for reading.

Stay in touch: alex.kirk@samford.edu