Revd Dr Richard Briggs

Richard was Cranmer’s Lecturer in Old Testament and the Director of Biblical Studies for 18 years, and now works in ministry in the Church of England after being ordained in 2015. He is currently on the team of St Nics Church Durham, having previously been Associate Minister of St Mary’s Sherburn and two other churches. Richard is married to Melody, and they have three adult children, and live in a converted church building just outside Durham.

Richard survived a first degree in Mathematics and Philosophy at Oxford before turning to Theology. He studied at the London School of Theology and then completed a PhD at the University of Nottingham in biblical hermeneutics, which was published as “Words in Action: Speech Act Theory and Biblical Interpretation” (T&T Clark, 2001). He helped lead an Anglican church plant while in Nottingham, and has a background in cross-cultural mission work.

He has written several books on the subject of biblical interpretation, including “Reading the Bible Wisely: An Introduction to Taking Scripture Seriously” (revised edition, Wipf & Stock, 2011) and “The Virtuous Reader: Old Testament Narrative and Interpretive Virtue” (Baker Academic, 2010). He now focuses his writing more on the Old Testament, including “Theological Hermeneutics and the Book of Numbers as Christian Scripture” (University of Notre Dame Press, 2018), and “The Lord is My Shepherd: Psalm 23 for the Life of the Church” (Baker Academic, 2021), which was the lead volume in Baker’s “Touchstone Texts” series. For a full list of his publications see https://richardbriggs.webspace.durham.ac.uk/books/