March 18, 2026

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Laura Brelsford | hcnews@hawks.huntingdon.edu | (334) 833-4563

Chapman-Benson Lectureship Welcomes Dr. Ryan Bonfiglio

Montgomery, AL – Huntingdon College will welcome Dr. Ryan Bonfiglio as the lecturer for the Chapman-Benson Lecture series on Wednesday, April 1, 7:00 p.m. in the Delchamps Recital Hall in the Smith Music Building. 

The Chapman-Benson Lectureship was established by the estate of Huntingdon alumna, Marie Chapman Benson ’30, to bring distinguished scholars and practitioners of the ministry of the Church to the Huntingdon campus. Dr. Bonfiglio will lecture on the topic of celebrating the Sabbath.

Dr. Bonfiglio serves as Associate Professor in the Practice of Old Testament at Emory’s Candler School of Theology. He also is the Executive Director of The Candler Foundry, an initiative designed to make the best of theological education accessible and engaging for broader audiences and outside of seminary degree programs. He previously taught at Columbia Theological Seminary and served as the John H. Stembler Scholar in Residence at the First Presbyterian Church (USA) of Atlanta. His work through The Candler Foundry offers opportunities for theological exploration outside of Candler’s formal degree programs, including the TheoEd Talks speaker series, in-depth courses led by Candler faculty for churches or communities, and a new initiative supported by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. that will develop networks of clergy and lay leaders to explore ministry innovations and challenges.

Bonfiglio’s research and teaching interests include ancient Near Eastern iconography, biblical metaphors, the Sabbath, and various topics in Old Testament theology. He is the author of Reading Images, Seeing Texts: Towards a Visual Hermeneutics for Biblical Studies (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016) and co-editor of Iconographic Exegesis and the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015). He is currently working on a book that explores the biblical theology of the Sabbath (Westminster John Knox).

Bonfiglio is also the chair of the Metaphor Theory and Hebrew Bible Program Unit at the Society of Biblical Literature.

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