Exploring the Bible, ritual, and religious life - from antiquity to today.
Minister of Word and Sacrament, Presbyterian Church (USA)
Melissa Ramos is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible whose work brings the ancient world of the Bible into view through the people, communities, and traditions that shaped it. She is particularly interested in the relationship between biblical texts and the lives of those who produced, transmitted, and inhabited them, with a focus on gender, interpretation, and religious life. She holds a PhD from UCLA, an MPhil from Cambridge University, and an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Her first book, Ritual in Deuteronomy: The Performance of Doom (Routledge, 2021), examines the dramatic enactment of covenant in Deuteronomy 27-30. Her second, co-edited volume, New Perspectives on Ritual in the Biblical World (T&T Clark, 2022), brings together essays on materiality, embodiment, gender, and ancient religious practice.
She is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA), co-founder of Religion for Her, and a contributor to Working Preacher and TheTorah.com.
Explores the ritual world of Deuteronomy and its symbolic forms, focusing on the dramatic enactment of the covenant in Deuteronomy 27-30 and the role ritual plays in the literary shape of the book.
The Ancient Word series, edited by Seth Sanders.
A co-edited volume emphasizing materiality and embodiment in the study of religious practice: ritual and the body, official and non-official practice, and the textualization of ritual.
Co-edited with Laura Quick. Includes her chapter “Monumentalizing Slaughter: ‘Cutting Covenant’ in the Hebrew Bible and Levantine Inscriptions.”
A conversation about the covenant ceremony, its curses and blessings, and what ritual does in the book of Deuteronomy.
Reading Scripture with Greater Care
What happens when we take trauma seriously in the way we read, interpret, and engage the Bible?
Join leading voices in biblical scholarship, pastoral leadership, and trauma-informed care for a conference exploring difficult texts, religious harm, and new possibilities for engaging Scripture with greater understanding and compassion.
Early Bird $75 through November 30
Holiday $85 through December 31
Regular $100 through January 23
Last Chance $125 through January 30
Papers and invited talks at the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion, and university lectures. The full list is on the CV.
Interested in having Melissa speak?
Get in touchAn online community for women’s interpretation of Scripture, co-founded by Melissa with two partners. Courses, essays, and conversation for anyone reading the Bible with fresh eyes.