Celene Lillie, PhD

Celene Lillie is a scholar of New Testament and the early Jesus movement who holds a Ph.D. and M.Div from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and a B.A. in Contemplative Psychology from Naropa University. She considers herself multivocational, adjuncting and advising at several undergraduate and graduate institutions; lecturing and preaching nationally; and serving as the Direct of Adult Education and Spiritual Formation at First United Methodist Church in Boulder.

Dr. Lillie works at the intersections of ancient language and context and contemporary questions of gender, trauma, justice, and community to ask meaningful questions of early Christian texts: What can the life and death of Jesus tell us about how to live our lives? What does it mean to be vulnerable in a violent world? How do we act? What does it mean to be in community? How can we live lives in the service of all that brings life rather than that which deals death? Among several articles and co-authored books, she has authored The Rape of Eve: The Transformation of Roman Ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis which engages responses of the early Jesus movement to Roman conquest and sexual violence.

Celene lives in Colorado where, when she’s not pouring over ancient texts, she tries to spend as much time hiking and engaging in contemplative practice as possible.