Nina E. Livesey

Nina E. Livesey (born 1953) is an American biblical scholar whose work focuses on Paul and on the literary and rhetorical formation of early Christian texts. She is professor emerita of religious studies in the College of Professional and Continuing Studies at the University of Oklahoma.^[1][2] Her books include Circumcision as a Malleable Symbol (2010), Galatians and the Rhetoric of Crisis (2016), and The Letters of Paul in their Roman Literary Context (2024).^[3][4][5]

Her research traces how crisis rhetoric and shifting ritual symbols shaped early Christian persuasion, drawing on comparative readings of Jewish and Greco-Roman sources.^[3][4] She also reinterprets the Pauline corpus as pseudonymous Roman-era compositions and advances that reassessment through leadership in Westar's Christianity Seminar Phase II and other collaborative projects.^[5][6]

Livesey earned her Ph.D. at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She joined the University of Oklahoma in 2006, teaching The Bible as Literature, and later was named professor emerita of religious studies.^[1] She is a longtime scholar member of the Westar Institute, a former co-editor of the journal Forum, and, with American religious historian Jason BeDuhn and American religion scholar Lillian Larsen, serves as co-chair of Westar's Christianity Seminar Phase II.^[1][6]

Livesey is a co-chair of Westar's Christianity Seminar Phase II. She served earlier on the steering committee for Phase I.^[6]

Livesey's first monograph, Circumcision as a Malleable Symbol (2010), surveys Hellenistic Jewish and early Christian sources and argues that circumcision functioned as a "malleable symbol" whose meaning changed by context.^[3] A review in The Journal of Religion commended the study for prompting readers to "broaden their horizons" about ancient ritual discourse.^[7]

Her second book, Galatians and the Rhetoric of Crisis (2016), reads Galatians alongside Demosthenes and Cicero and frames the letter as crisis rhetoric that elevates persuasion and self-presentation. A reviewer summarized Livesey's analysis in the language of a "rhetoric of crisis" and asked whether the letter constructs an "imminent crisis where none exists".^[4]

In The Letters of Paul in their Roman Literary Context (2024) she reopens the question of Pauline authorship, challenging mainstream consensus. Livesey argues that the seven letters commonly labeled authentic should be treated as pseudonymous compositions and studied within Roman epistolary and moral discourses.^[5] She dates their appearance to the "mid-second century" and locates their formation in the "Roman school of Marcion", presenting the project as "challenging a prevailing paradigm".^[2] The book has entered field discussion and reference lists in New Testament studies.^[8]

• Circumcision as a Malleable Symbol. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.^[3]
• Galatians and the Rhetoric of Crisis: Demosthenes, Cicero, Paul. Salem, OR: Polebridge Press, 2016.^[4]
• The Letters of Paul in their Roman Literary Context: Reassessing Apostolic Authorship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024.^[5][2]

• Official page at University of Oklahoma
• Westar Institute profile