Todd Russell Hanneken, Ph.D.

Portrait

Personal Webpage

Professional email:
thanneken@stmarytx.edu

Personal email:
todd.hanneken@gmail.com

Mastodon Mastodon @thanneken@hcommons.social

(Twitter @thanneken no longer in use)

Curriculum Vitae

Professor and Chair
Department of Theology,
St. Mary’s University,
San Antonio, Texas

St. Mary's

University websites

St. Mary’s University

Department of Theology

Todd Hanneken’s Faculty Page

Open Educational Resources

Theological Questions (Atla Open Press 81; 2021). https://doi.org/10.31046/atlaopenpress.81. This Open Educational Resource (OER) can be continuously expanded, revised, and remixed by anyone through the open-source repository on GitHub. The most recent supplement is “Mary, Mariology, and Marianists” (2022).

HD Seminar

Teaching

Scholar of ancient Jewish literature and history of reception

My work outside digital humanities tools for manuscript study focuses on how literary expressions of theological ideas were received and reconceived over the centuries. In other words, I work on texts in the Hebrew Bible, Old Testaments (plural), and writings on the margins of authority and canonicity. I study how they were composed from earlier traditions and received by later authors and communities. The marginal literature in particular casts light on the emergence of our concepts of “Scripture” and “Interpretation.” Colleagues in the field who know the work of my teachers, James C. VanderKam, James L. Kugel, and John J. Collins, will see their influence on all my work.

The Subversion of the Apocalypses in the Book of Jubilees, Cover

I am particularly interested in the Book of Jubilees, a Hebrew work from the mid-second century before the common era that was authoritative for several communities but rejected in the rabbinic Jewish tradition. It stands out as a lengthy, well-developed, and well-preserved exemplar of one understanding of Judaism in the wake of the Maccabean Revolt. It demonstrates the shaping of Jewish literary traditions, and its influence evidences a traditional authority parallel to scripture.

My dissertation, directed by James C. VanderKam, was thoroughly revised into my first book, The Subversion of the Apocalypses in the Book of Jubilees. I argue that Jubilees uses the literary features that mark apocalypses (angels, judgment), but uses them to confront and reject the theological claims typically made about them (angelic evil and interference, deferred judgment).

CBQMS 53, Cover

Most of my publications other than digital humanities (listed below) fall into three categories: introductory surveys of Jubilees, how Jubilees uses its sources, and how Jubilees is used in later sources. The tertiary articles are in Early Jewish Literature: An Introduction and Reader (Eerdmans 2017), The Blackwell Companion to the Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (forthcoming), and Textual History of the Bible (Brill 2019). The articles on how Jubilees uses its sources for legal exegesis and response to the theological implications of apocalyptic literature have appeared in Testing and Temptation in Early Jewish and Christian Literature (2020), Journal for the Study of Judaism (2015), The Fallen Angels Traditions (2014), God, Grace, and Creation (2010), and Henoch (2006). The articles on the influence of Jubilees on the Dead Sea Scrolls and New Testament have appeared in Catholic Biblical Quarterly (2015), and A Teacher for All Generations: Essays in Honor of James C. VanderKam (2012).

See my Curriculum Vitae for complete citation information. Several works are available on Humanities Commons. I am moving away from Academia.edu; no content is available there that is not also available on Humanities Commons.

Director, Jubilees Palimpsest Project

Jubilees Palimpsest Project Logo

Project website

Manuscript images and information about Latin Moses (Latin Jubilees and the Testament of Moses) and the technology that is bringing hidden information to the web. (jubilees.stmarytx.edu)

Image repository

Mirador

All project images comply with IIIF standards so can be viewed and annotated in Mirador or other standards-compliant environments. (jubilees.stmarytx.edu/mirador)

Spectral RTI Pseudocolor with Raking Light

Spectral RTI imaging technology

Spectral RTI combines the advantages of spectral imaging (color accuracy and enhancements, image fidelity) with the advantages of RTI (texture visualization, interactive relighting)

Guide to the complete process of capture, processing, and publication of images that combine spectral color enhancements with texture imaging. (jubilees.stmarytx.edu/spectralrtiguide)

Open repository of the software required for Spectral RTI processing (github.com/thanneken​/SpectralRTI​_Toolkit)

NEH Logo

Grant support

The Jubilees Palimpsest Project has been supported by startup and implementation grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Digital Humanities.

Digital Humanities

Videos

Video

All videos are voice over slides or screen capture (see below for public lectures on YouTube).

“Walkthrough of Hans Christian Andersen Cutouts from the Royal Library of Denmark,” The Jubilees Palimpsest Project, July 2019. (LINK)

“Introduction to Mirador and Other Tools for the Study of Latin Moses (Jubilees and the Testament of Moses),” The Jubilees Palimpsest Project, June 2018. (LINK)

“The Jubilees Palimpsest Project,” Presented to the Society of Biblical Literature, November 2017. (YouTube)

“The Future of Biblical Scholarship in a Digital Age,” Presented to the Catholic Biblical Association, August 2016. (YouTube)

“Integrating Spectral and Reflectance Transformation Imaging,” Presented to the Society of Biblical Literature, November 2014. (YouTube)

Textual History of the Bible

Articles

Pre-publisher copies of articles for Brill’s Textual History of the Bible. Leiden: Brill (2017–2022).

Pre-publisher copies of two essays for volumes of the Brill series Digital Biblical Studies

Pre-publisher copy of “Early Judaism and Modern Technology,” For Early Judaism and Its Modern Interpreters. Second edition. Matthias Henze and Rodney A. Werline, eds. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2020. (LINK)

National Geographic Cover BAR Cover

Media coverage and popular articles

“The Bible Hunters,” by Robert Draper. National Geographic. December 2018. (PDF)

“Biblical Studies in the Digital Age: How Digital Archaeology has Revolutionized Biblical Studies,” by Marek Dospěl. Bible History Daily. April 3, 2017. Online.

“Digital Archaeology’s New Frontiers,” Biblical Archaeology Review. March/April 2017. Pages 28–29, 65–66. Print and online (subscription required).

“Seeing Colors Beyond the Naked Eye: Spectral RTI, a New Tool for Imaging Artifacts,” Ancient Near East Today. December 13, 2016. Online.

“Eying the Ancients: St. Mary’s Prof., Students to Use Technology to Read What the Early Church Tried to Erase,” by Elaine Ayala. San Antonio Express News and mySA.com. September 4, 2016. Print and online.

“A Pair of Technologies Sheds New Light on Jubilees Palimpsest,” by Steve Moyer. Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 36.4 (2015). Print and online.

“Researchers Read Previously Invisible Ancient Texts,” San Antonio Express News, April 12, 2015. Print and online (subscription required).

“New Technology Unmasks Ancient Scriptural Manuscripts,” by Carmel Tajonera. Gold & Blue: The Magazine of St. Mary’s University. Summer 2014. Print and online.

Public lectures and workshops

“Spectral RTI Training Workshops,” at British Library, University College London, Royal Library of Denmark, and University of Graz, Summer 2019 (LINK)

“Spectral RTI Training Workshops,” University of Texas Austin, January 16-17, 2019 (LINK)

“What Humanities Scholars Really Want from Digital Imaging,” Rochester Institute of Technology, Carlson Center for Imaging Science, November 28–29, 2018 (announcement, slides, YouTube)

“Spectral RTI Training and Demonstration,” Rochester Cultural Heritage Imaging, Visualization, and Education (R-CHIVE), June 2018 (LINK)

“The Next Generation of Digital Tools for the Study of Manuscripts,” Recent Developments and the Future of Scholarship and Teaching Ancient Scribal Heritage, University of Notre Dame, May 2018 (LINK)

“Digital Archaeology Tools for Discovery and Access to Previously Illegible Manuscripts,” Workshop on Late Antiquity. University of Texas, Austin, November 2017 (utexas.edu, slides)

“The Jubilees Palimpsest Project,” St. Mary’s University, September 2017 (flyer, slides)

Collaborations

Inscriptions of Israel and Palestine https://library.brown.edu/iip/

Low-Cost End-to-End Spectral Imaging System for Historical Document Discovery RIT News Story

Professional affiliations and service

Catholic Biblical Association

CBA 2016 Plenary

Elected member of Program Committee, Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series Editorial Board, Research Support Committee, and Technology and Outreach Committee (chair)

Six presentations, most recently with Vanessa Cypert, “Pneumatology in Early Christian Scribal Practices,” July 2019 (abstract)

Co-convener, The Bible and Digital Humanities Continuing Seminar

Abstractor for Old Testament Abstracts

Society of Biblical Literature

Eight presentations, most recently, “Three Priorities for Digitally-Enabled Research and Teaching in Manuscripts of Biblical Literature,” July 2019 (abstract, paper)

Advisory Board, SBL Text-Critical Studies Monograph Series

The Association for Computers and the Humanities

“Deep Digitization: Considerations and Tools for Imaging Cultural Heritage Beyond the Basics,” July 2019 (abstract, paper)

Rochester Cultural Heritage Imaging, Visualization, and Education (R-CHIVE)

Presentation on texture imaging 2017 (slides) and Spectral RTI training and workshop 2018 (LINK)

South Texas Jewish Studies Research Triangle

“A Historical Taxonomy of Biblical Interpretation: Premodern, Modern, and Postmodern,” Pedagogy Section, 2017.

Various local and regional faith community and ecumenical/interreligious dialogue programs

La Biblia y su Tradición, The Bible and Its Tradition – Collaboration to promote love of Scripture in the languages of the Southwest

Source of Light Center at University Presbyterian in San Antonio, board member 2013-2016 and presenter

Dioceses of San Antonio and Austin, speaker at various events and workshops

Minnesota Rabbinical Association and Congregation Beth Jacob, speaker on ancient Jewish literature preserved by Christians