Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes
Writer / Speaker / Professor of English
Welcome…
There’s an old story that begins, “One day, when Jesus was teaching, a lawyer stood up to test him.
“Teacher,” the lawyer asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What does the Law say?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”
As an English Professor, that might be my favorite question in the entire Bible.
When Jesus asks the lawyer about his reading of the Law, he is talking about the Torah, the first 5 books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But most of those books aren’t “laws”… they’re stories. They’re the stories of complicated, broken people and a mysterious God’s unceasing love.
When Jesus asks, “What does the law say” and “How do you read it,” he’s asking questions fit for a literary classroom. He’s suggesting that creative reading is the foundation for living well in the world that God has made. He might even be suggesting that reading well is part of the secret to eternal life.
In this vein, my work centers on how stories shape our imaginations to form lives of justice, grace, and peace. I’m particularly interested in how fiction makes old stories new, be that in the novel’s characterization habits that work to re-enliven Jesus for Victorian readers…or in Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan that helps the lawyer re-imagine the law he knows so well.
Interested? Explore the site to learn more about my writing, speaking, and teaching.
grace & peace,
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Writer / Speaker / Professor of English Literature
Writer
& the American environmental tradition
Speaker
Jessica makes sense of complexity in ways that are engaging and accessible for all audiences, challenging them to find renewed faith, joy, and wonder in their own experiences.
Professor
With teaching experience in high schools & colleges around the globe, Jessica fosters intellectual engagement & practical understanding through her teaching & course design.
Topics, Issues, Questions & News
The Incarnation & Restoring All of Creation
For many, Christmas is now over: the presents are opened, the meal is eaten, the carols are sung, and it is time to start thinking about packing Christmas away until next year. For Christians, however, Christmas day is only the beginning of a twelve-day season set...
God Sucking a Nipple
August was world breastfeeding month, which meant that breastfeeding―and controversies surrounding feeding (especially in public) helped fill the slow, late-summer news cycles. But the stories have continued into the fall. Melbourne photographer Christopher Rimmer’s...
“Why can’t people wait for Christmas?”
While shopping today, my three-year-old pointed to a Christmas tree and asked, “why can’t people wait for Christmas”? She didn’t ask it critically but out of curiosity, interrogating the expression “oh, they just can’t wait for Christmas” more than the theology. It...